Two weeks ago, Canada adopted another round of sanctions against Iran. Canadian leftists backing a public letter criticizing Iran invariably ignored Ottawa’s latest contravention of international law in service of the supreme international crime.
On August 14 Canada provided another bout of assistance to the US/Israeli aggression by sanctioning five more Iranian officials. In response the Iranian Canadian Congress sent a letter to the prime minister criticizing the latest round of (probably illegal) sanctions. Canadian sanctions are part of a near unique, decades old, bid to isolate that country. Ottawa’s principle justification for attacking Iran is to cite the government’s human rights violations, often regarding prisoners.
It’s rank hypocrisy. Canada backed the Shah, who had brutal torture dungeons, until the people forced him out in 1979. Soon after the revolution Ottawa severed relations with Tehran and backed Iraq’s aggression against its neighbour. Previously, Ottawa contributed to destroying Iran’s nascent democracy and returning the Shah to power.
Canada’s mainstream left has a long tradition of alignment with Ottawa in foreign policy. Despite calling for the nationalization of numerous sectors of the Canadian economy, the leader of the CCF, M.J. Coldwell, criticized Iran’s nationalization of its oil in 1951. Mohammad Mossadegh’s move to nationalize Iran’s oil would lead the US and UK to orchestrate his overthrow in 1953.The CCF failed (or at least it’s not recorded in Hansard) to criticize Ottawa for backing the overthrow of Iran’s first popularly elected prime minister.
More recently, the NDP sponsored Irwin Cotler’s so-called Iran Accountability Week in the 2010s. Current NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson has repeatedly called for more sanctions on Iran and expressed support for the Israeli/US armed and funded destabilization campaign in January that was part of their aggression against that country.
John Clarke, Matthew Behrens, Desmond Cole and other Canadian leftists promoting the recent public letter “To Iran’s political prisoners, trapped ‘between two blades of a scissors’” downplay the imperial context and the resulting political responsibility. Published in English in a liberal imperialist outlet, the letter two sided Iranian “political prisoners” and US/Israeli aggression with the Guardian sub headline explicitly stating, “On one side, you face the domination of the Islamic Republic; on the other, the imperialist forces that republic claims to stand against.”
Clarke, Behrens and Cole have barely made a peep about Canada breaking off relations, listing Iran a state sponsor of terror, stealing Iranian assets or a few dozen rounds of sanctions on the country. While it seems to be normalized in our western chauvinist political culture, it’s utterly deranged for self-identified internationalists, anti-imperialists or even simple supporters of international law to say more about Iranian prisoners than Canada’s sanctions on that country.
It’s also bizarre for anyone supporting Palestinians to talk more about prisoners in Iran than about Iran’s role in challenging Zionist domination of the region. In recent years Iran and Yemen are the only countries that have provided genuine material opposition to the lawless genocidal Jewish supremacist state. Why applaud South Africa for taking Israel to the International Court of Justice, but not Iran for assisting Hezbollah and Ansar Allah (Houthis) to launch rockets at Israel during the worst of the horrors in Gaza? Does anyone truly believe the genocidal apartheid is more likely to listen to international law than force of arms?
It’s revealing when someone who says they stand with Palestinians talks more about prisoners in Iran, then that country’s role in challenging Zionist domination of the region.
Ditto for those who oppose the US empire. In recent months Tehran has destroyed US bases across the region and has forced the Pentagon to permanently withdraw from some of them.
Why would a Canadian leftist give greater credence to a letter two siding Iranian prisoners and US/Israeli aggression than a concurrent Iranian Canadian Congress letter to the prime minister criticizing sanctions and Ottawa’s support for the supreme international crime?
This seems a lot like someone claiming to be ‘on the left’ attacking a union’s leadership while that union is in the middle of a strike against a vicious employer trying to crush the union.
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