Acting on its concerns over Senator Don Meredith’s recent attendance at an event in Ottawa co-sponsored by the Iranian Embassy, B’nai Brith Canada contacted the Senator to alert him to issues raised by concerned Iranian expatriates, the Canadian government and security experts regarding activities of the Iranian regime’s diplomatic representation in this country. The Jewish human rights organization requested that the Senator review his regrettable decision to attend the event, and called on him to sever any and all ties with the Iranian Embassy and its affiliates.
Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, stated:
“We hope Senator Meredith will give public assurances that in future he will have no interaction with the Iranian Embassy, nor attend events associated with it as long as the current regime is in place. This regime is well-known for its genocidal threats against the Jewish State and for its arming of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, which has enabled it to rain down rockets on Israeli civilian areas. The regime’s fingerprints are on countless terrorist attacks against Jews worldwide, such as the 1984 AMIA Jewish community centre bombing in Argentina and the suicide attack against an Israeli tour bus in Bulgaria earlier this year. It has aggressive nuclear ambitions that threaten the safety and security not just of the Jewish State but of the entire Western world.
“This regime is responsible for the cruel oppression of religious minorities in Iran itself, such as the Baha’is and Christians, and has an abysmal human rights record where the lives of its own citizens are concerned. And let us not forget the rape, torture and murder of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi in 2003, nor the plight of two Canadian citizens and a permanent Canadian resident currently being held in Iranian prisons.”
