Friday, April 01, 2005

Canadian Foreign Policy: Equal Opportunity Whores

I wrote about Zahra Kazemi’s death last summer and nothing revealed in Dr. Azam’s statement shocks me. Where I am shocked and continuously under whelmed is by the performance of the Prime Minister and the various Ministers of Foreign Affairs. The official position seems rather cavalier on the brutal state sanctioned rape, torture and eventually death by bludgeoning of a Canadian citizen by agents of the Iranian state.

According to this Toronto Star article (registration required) the government of Canadian knew all the grisly details of Kazemi’s death; witnessed briefly the travesty of the trial and acquittal of an Iranian government official but still plunged full speed ahead with the re-opening of the Canadian diplomatic mission in Iran which had only been closed temporarily when Canadian observers were barred from attending the full trial.
Prime Minister Paul Martin said Kamezi’s brutal death is "simply unacceptable" and will result in as yet undetermined actions by Canada. "It's virtually impossible not to just have your heart torn by what happened to her and by what her family, her son, must feel," Martin told reporters in Whistler, B.C., yesterday.

Foreign Minister Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said yesterday the latest revelations confirm Ottawa's belief that Kazemi — who died of her injuries about two weeks later, on July 10, 2003 — was slain by Iranian government officials. "We know this was a murder, not an accident," Pettigrew said, speaking in Toronto. He said it's important now to have a Canadian ambassador in the country.

Zahra Kazemi died on July 10, 2003, and yet, the Prime Minister and his various Ministers of Foreign Affairs have yet to determine what action against the Iranian government would be appropriate for the Canadian government to take. Someone needs to draw Mr. Dithers and his Ministers a map with a Day-Glo connect the dots feature.

Perhaps the reluctance and failure of the Canadian government to take decisive action can be explained by the fact that certain liberals benefit from ongoing economic ties with the Iranian government.

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