Find below a statement from the ICC regarding today's vote at the House of Commons on Iran:

Today is a sad day for supporters of diplomacy and peace in Canada. In an unexpected and disappointing move, the vast majority of Liberal MPs in the House, including the Liberal leadership and Prime Minister Trudeau himself, stood with the Conservative Party and voted for a motion that asks the Federal Government to abandon its policy of reestablishing relations with Iran. The NDP and the Green Party’s Elizabeth May voted against this motion in the House.

We believe that this action is harmful not only to the interests of Iranian-Canadians generally who continue to suffer the lack of diplomatic and consular services, but especially to the ongoing consular cases of Canadians in Iran. Prime Minister Trudeau promised the Iranian-Canadian community that he would re-establish diplomatic relations with Iran and open the embassies between the two countries.

Many Iranian-Canadians supported Liberal candidates in the previous Federal election because the lack of diplomacy deprived them of consular services in Canada and prevented them from having diplomatic representation when visiting Iran. In fact, it has been noted not only by Liberal government members, including fomer Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion among others, but also by former Canadians imprisoned in Iran such as Prof. Homa Hoodfar, that Canadian consular cases would be helped, not hindered, by the existence of diplomatic relations with Iran. It is unfortunate that the government is now buying into the false notion that existing consular cases constitute an argument against diplomacy with Iran.

We now see that the Liberal government’s promise to the Iranian-Canadian community is officially broken. We would like to thank the NDP and the Green Party’s Elizabeth May for voting against the motion.

In the next hours we will publish the full list of MPs who have voted for the motion.

Notes:

Please click here to review the statement from MP Majid Jowhari about his position on this motion. 

Iranian-Canadian MPs Majid Jowhari and Ali Ehsassi and several other MPs were not present or abstained in the House of Commons during the vote. We will provide a full report and a list of votes soon.