It has been nearly two years since the federal government of PM Trudeau promised to reopen the Iranian embassy in Canada. It is time we hold the government to account on its promise by calling and emailing our Members of Parliament.

The New Democratic Party leadership race is underway, the outcome of which will have serious implications for the future of the NDP, its policies and the general direction that the Party will come to adopt for years to come.

Please find attached the letter that the ICC's Public Relations and Communications Chair Tayaz Fakhry wrote on behalf of the Iranian Canadian Congress responding to an opinion piece published by Michael Petrou on CBC's website . 

Please find attached the letter that the ICC's Public Relations and Communications Chair Tayaz Fakhry wrote on behalf of the Iranian Canadian Congress to the CIJNews protesting a defamatory piece regarding Iranian Canadians published by the Institute's contributor Dr. Shabnam Assadollahi. The article was published by CIJNews on March 28th, 2017. 

Please find attached the letter that the ICC's Public Relations and Communications Chair Tayaz Fakhry wrote on behalf of the Iranian Canadian Congress to the Gatestone Institute protesting a defamatory and discriminatory article regarding Iranian Canadians published by the Institute's contributor Dr. Rafizadeh. The article by Rafizadeh was published by Gatestone Institute on April 27th, 2017. 

Global Affairs Canada states its position that Bill S-219 (Non-Nuclear Sanctions Against Iran Act) would hinder the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Iran.

338 Members of Parliament and 101 Senators receive Nowruz greeting cards from the Iranian Canadian Congress.

Please find attached the letter that the ICC's Policy Chair Pouyan Tabasinejad wrote on behalf of the Iranian Canadian Congress to the Toronto Sun protesting a discriminatory and irresponsible piece by Sun contributor Candice Malcolm. Toronto Sun published this letter on March 16, 2017. 

Over the past 9 months our team at the Iranian Canadian Congress (ICC) has proved its ability to professionally and effectively advance the interests of the Iranian Canadian community and advocate on your behalf in Canada’s highest institutions. Through our public consultation process, we determined that the lack of diplomatic relations between Canada and Iran and the negative effects of sanctions on Iran are major problems for our community. We have launched multiple advocacy campaigns to raise awareness about these problems, mobilize grassroots support, and to demand policy solutions from our elected officials.

• In the past 6 months the ICC has conducted multiple interviews and have published several opinion pieces about Canada-Iran relations to highlight the importance of diplomacy with Iran.
• The parliamentary petition launched by the ICC urging the Government of Canada to re-establish diplomatic relations with Iran collected nearly 16,000 signatures from across Canada.
• We have met with government officials, and connected with several Members of Parliament from different political parties to inform them about our demand for renewed relations between Canada and Iran.
• We presented our position regarding Iran-Canada relations at the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and argued against the “Non-Nuclear Sanctions Against Iran Act”, which in our belief is proposed in the Senate of Canada to derail the re-engagement process between Canada and Iran.

Why do we need your financial support?

The Iranian Canadian Congress relies on the energy and passion of its volunteers. With the help of these volunteers we have been able to keep our operation expenses at minimum. However, for us to run professional and effective advocacy campaigns we need access to greater financial resources. Lobbying organizations that are working to block Canada-Iran relations have significant financial capacity. Your financial support will enable us to do our best and to effectively advocate for your interests in a professional fashion. Specifically we need to spend money on the following items:

• Improving Our Public Relations and Communication Channels: we have made significant progress in the last 6 months in building up our PR capabilities, but to communicate our message widely to the Iranian Canadian community across Canada we need to spend money on advertising and marketing services, including professional online applications that can significantly help us in our communication efforts. Our advertising dollars will be focused on digital media and our local community media in major Iranian Canadian populated cities.  
• Acquiring Professional and Expert Advice: to keep our operation lean and cost effective we have leveraged the knowledge of our policy advisors and have conducted our research and analysis in-house through our hard working policy associates. However, to take our work to the next level and run more effective campaigns we need to acquire expert opinion regarding our advocacy work. For example, we are looking into hiring a reputable legal firm with specialization in Canadian sanction laws and regulations to provide us with expert analysis and advice on Bill S-219, the Non Nuclear Sanctions Against Iran Act, and other bills like it. 
• Organizing A Day of Action in Ottawa: we are in middle of discussions with Senators and MPs to organize A Day of Action Against Bill S-219 and to promote diplomacy with Iran on Parliament Hill. We will spend some of the funds we raise from our members and supporters to plan, prepare and facilitate this Day of Action in Ottawa. 

Any amount of donation is much appreciated. Please donate generously.  

Use the online form on this page to process your donation using your credit card. If you encounter any technical difficulties, please email us at [email protected] Note that by making a donation you are also registering as a member of the organization. ICC members are the owners/shareholders of the organization and have voting rights during the Annual General Meetings. If you do not wish to join as a member, simply send us an email and we will make sure that you only remain as a donor and not a member. 

Vancouver Sun published a defamatory op-ed by Douglas Todd on December 31, 2016. Here is the complaint letter from the ICC Board to the Editor in Chief of the Vancouver Sun regarding this op-ed: