Iranian-Canadians fear Canada is becoming refuge for Iranian regime-linked officials

By Michael Petrou - Friday, October 14, 2011 at 11:51 AM - 5 Comments

An impressive list of Iranian-Canadians, including top scholars, has penned a letter to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney expressing their concerns about the number of Islamic Republic regime-linked individuals who are setting up camp in Canada. Most notable of late has been Mahmoud Reza Khavari, who until recently helped run an Iranian state-owned bank that has been blacklisted by the United Nations Security Council for allegedly funding Iran’s nuclear weapons program. He’s now believed to be living in his three-million-dollar Bridle Path home.

“For years members of the Iranian-Canadian community have been concerned that high ranking members of the Islamic Republic of Iran and their relatives are securing residency status in Canada and funnelling their investments to this country. Our expressions of concern to various Members of Parliament are seldom given proper due, and are generally dismissed with mere suggestions that we proceed to inform Canadian authorities of any individuals with ties to the Government of Islamic Republic.”

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“Turning a blind eye or failure to act by the Canadian Government with respect to Mr. Khavari would send a signal to other high ranking members and Government functionaries of the Islamic Republic of IRan that Canada represents a safe haven to which they may escape with impunity. Moreover, a display of moral clarity and vigilance by the Canadian Government will deter international figures with sullied associations from arriving on our shores.” Continue…

Bringing Afghanistan’s democrats out of the shadows

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 12:28 PM - 5 Comments

It is fitting that Terry Glavin begins his book Come from the Shadows: the Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan with a quote from George Orwell — who once said it is not enough to oppose fascism; one must stand against totalitarianism in all its forms.

Orwell, a far-left anti-fascist who took a bullet in the throat while fighting Franco’s brutes during the Spanish Civil War, was angered by the inability of too many of his fellow leftists to counter dictatorial thuggery in those with whom they shared a common enemy. Stalinists got a free pass because, ostensibly, they opposed fascism; they didn’t deserve it.

Glavin, also of the left, is frustrated by the limits of his supposed comrades’ solidarity and internationalism. Afghanistan’s democrats — its students, human rights activists, women, socialists and secularists — should, by rights, be championed and supported by the western left. They are, after all, fighting for the same things liberals in Canada struggled for and earned over the last century. What’s more, they’re fighting for these rights against an explicitly fascistic strain of religious and ethnic extremism embodied in the Taliban. Continue…

David Cameron comes to Ottawa

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 10:56 PM - 8 Comments

The invitation had been “dangling” for months but, British sources say, plans for British Prime Minister David Cameron’s first bilateral visit to Canada — and the first by a British prime minister since Tony Blair in 2001 — only got under way two weeks ago.

It was then something of a scramble to prepare statements and speeches. Quoting Churchill is always a reliable crowd pleaser on these occasions, and both sides were soon eyeing the great wartime leader’s “Some chicken! Some neck!” speech delivered in the House of Commons in December 1941. Continue…

How’s “reconciliation” with the Taliban working out?

By Michael Petrou - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 2:03 PM - 10 Comments

Burhanuddin Rabbani, former Afghan president and chair of the body tasked with making peace with the Taliban, has been assassinated.  Continue…

Omar Samad on Mullah Omar’s public relations

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 11:00 AM - 1 Comment

Omar Samad, Afghanistan’s former ambassador to Canada, tackles Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar’s recent letter:

For most Afghans though, the biggest concern remains Taliban ties to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), long accused of interference in Afghan affairs through different proxies. It is difficult to imagine a change in the widespread Afghan mistrust towards Pakistan’s ruling apparatus as long as the ISI continues to provide sanctuary and logistical support to militants, and exercise command-and-control authority through rogue elements over key militant networks. Continue…

The price of peace with the Taliban

By Michael Petrou - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 3:49 PM - 13 Comments

I wrote earlier this summer about moves, in Afghanistan and in Western capitals, to negotiate with the Taliban an end to the war in Afghanistan. These efforts are continuing. Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has admitted to contacts between his organization and the Americans — although he says discussions have been about exchanging prisoners rather than a political settlement. Credible reports suggest these have been much more substantial.

The prospect of a negotiated end to this war is tantalizing and becomes more so the longer it goes on. But proponents of a settlement need to ask, and answer, several questions about what such a process would entail. Continue…

DFAIT’s spinning on Syria and sanctions

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 12:57 PM - 4 Comments

When I wrote this article about the ongoing uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in Syria, the Department of Foreign Affairs’ webpage on Canada-Syria relations noted that Canada is the third-largest direct foreign investor in Syria, mostly due to a $1.2 billion Suncor/Petro-Canada gas project. The website was then amended to remove this reference.

It’s fair to assume that the Canadian government was embarrassed by the extent of Canada’s business investment in a country whose government has already slaughtered some 2,000 people. I contacted Foreign Affairs to find out their explanation. Continue…

Iranian police crush grave threat to national security

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 2:59 PM - 1 Comment

It’s beyond parody.

Access-to-Information: credit where it is due

By Michael Petrou - Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 10:00 AM - 6 Comments

Last month I wrote about the results of an access-to-information request to the Immigration and Refugee Board, which yielded some 4,000 pages on Cindor Reeves. Nothing in those documents changes my conclusion that the board, as well as the federal government, which intervened in the case through the minister of public safety, has shown gross incompetence and perhaps worse in handling this case.

I should point out, however, the the IRB responded to my access-to-information request quickly and thoroughly. This shouldn’t be worth noting, but given the terrible record of virtually every other government department I have dealt with on access-to-information, it is. Indeed access requests on Reeves made to other departments remain in limbo as I write this. Continue…

Update on Mansoureh Behkish, jailed in Iran

By Michael Petrou - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 10:43 PM - 0 Comments

Mansoureh Behkish, sister of Toronto man Jafar Behkish, was released from Tehran’s Evin Prison on Saturday.

The government’s case against Cindor Reeves stinks

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 4:50 PM - 0 Comments

Since beginning four years ago to dig into the story of Cindor Reeves — the man who helped bring former Liberian president and warlord Charles Taylor to trial in The Hague, and whom Canada is now deporting — I have occasionally worried that there might be some missing piece of the puzzle that I didn’t have. Perhaps the government has information about Reeves that would explain its determination to send him back to Liberia, where he faces murder, other than incompetence, malice, and a perverted sense of justice. Continue…

Canadian man fears for his sister jailed in Tehran

By Michael Petrou - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments

A Canadian man who has already lost five siblings and a brother-in-law to the Islamic regime in Iran now fears for the life of his sister, Mansoureh Bekhish, arrested earlier this month and currently held in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

Jafar Behkish immigrated to Canada almost a decade ago. During the 1980s, six members of his family, all communists, died violently. One was killed in a shootout with government security forces; one was assassinated; four were jailed, tortured, and executed.

Jafar’s sister, Zahra Behkish, took a cyanide tablet when she was arrested. But Jafar, who was detained at the time, learned that she had been seen alive in prison. She was reportedly revived, and then tortured and killed. Continue…

Amrullah Saleh and the Afghan detainee controversy

By Michael Petrou - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 11:43 AM - 7 Comments

Amrullah Saleh was head of Afghanistan’s secret police, the NDS, during the time that Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin alleges detainees transferred to the NDS by Canadian Forces were tortured.

As near as I can tell, Saleh has not spoken to media about these allegations (though he has addressed them in letters and reports — including to the former Afghan ambassador to Canada — that have been made public).

I met with Saleh in Kabul. The bulk of our interview concerned his involvement in the political movement opposed to a peace deal with the Taliban. We did, however, briefly touch on the detainee issue. Here, for the record, is what he said:  Continue…

The cost of a peace deal in Afghanistan

By Michael Petrou - Friday, June 17, 2011 at 10:24 PM - 6 Comments

My second article from Afghanistan is about Afghans opposed to President Hamid Karzai’s Western-backed efforts to reconcile with the Taliban.

This movement is, I believe, consequential, and may present Afghanistan’s international allies with a biting dilemma.

“After a lot of effort and many, many hundreds of millions of dollars, you may reach that peace deal,” Mahmoud Saikal, a former Afghan deputy foreign minister who is now organizing against Karzai, told me. “But you will have lost the Afghan people.” Continue…

Covering Afghanistan: logistics and ethics

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 10:13 AM - 2 Comments

I have recently returned from Afghanistan. The first of several articles appeared in last week’s magazine and was posted online earlier this week. A second appears in print today.

Given that I have previously criticized journalists accepting junkets, I think I’m obligated to reveal and discuss the nuts and bolts of my reporting over there.

To get to Kandahar, I accompanied Lt.-Gen. Peter Devlin, Canada’s chief of the land staff, on a military flight from Ottawa to Kandahar, with a stop at the Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany. The Canadian Forces covered the cost of this leg.

Myself and reporter Alec Castonguay then toured throughout Panjwaii district, including several forward operating bases and patrol bases, with foot and light-armoured vehicle (LAV) patrols between them. During this time I was dependent on the Canadian Forces for food, water, and shelter. The also provided me with protective kit, including a ballistic vest, glasses, and helmet. Maclean’s covered other incidental costs, the most pricey of which was life insurance. Continue…

Update on Cindor Reeves

By Michael Petrou - Monday, June 13, 2011 at 2:29 PM - 6 Comments

Cindor Reeves, the Canadian refugee claimant who risked his life to help build the legal case against his brother-in-law, the former Liberian warlord and president Charles Taylor, has received a removal order from the Canada Border Services Agency and may shortly be deported.  Continue…

On and on it goes

By Michael Petrou - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 1:36 PM - 3 Comments

Haleh Sahabi, daughter of Iranian dissident Ezzatollah Sahabi, was attacked by government goons at her father’s funeral and died as a result. Sahabi, a democracy activist who was arrested following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rigged re-election, had been temporarily released from jail to attend the funeral.

Here’s Potkin.

More reports here and here.

Canada's National Arts Centre hosts "cultural day" by Iranian embassy front

By Michael Petrou - Friday, May 27, 2011 at 12:26 PM - 16 Comments

The National Arts Centre in Ottawa is hosting a “cultural day” put on by a front for the Iranian embassy in Canada.

“Iran Culture” is run out of the Iranian embassy on Metcalfe Street in Ottawa and is described on its website as the “cultural consulate” of the Islamic Republic. Its phone number, however, is different than that of the embassy, and there is no street address listed on the cultural centre’s website.

The centre’s website says a “cultural day” under the banner, “Iran, Land of Glory,” will be held in the National Arts Centre’s Panorama Room on June 4, from 12 to 8 p.m. The room has been rented out privately, meaning it is not a formal NAC event and the NAC is not selling tickets. The NAC receives half of its funding from the federal government.  Continue…

Maziar Bahari and Iran's Press TV

By Michael Petrou - Monday, May 23, 2011 at 8:48 PM - 6 Comments

Press TV, an English-language TV station based in London that functions as a propaganda arm of Iran’s foreign ministry, may soon lose its British licence after broadcasting a forced “confession” by Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari while he was jailed in Tehran’s notrious Evin Prison.

Bahari was detained during protests that broke out following rigged presidential elections in June 2009 and falsely accused of spying for the CIA, MI6, and Mossad. He has since been released.

Press TV, meanwhile, regularly reports form Canada. A recent dispatch covered Ottawa’s Tulip Festival.

So long, Michael Ignatieff. I miss who you used to be.

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 12:33 PM - 93 Comments

Andrew Potter’s essay on Michael Ignatieff reminded me of the influence Ignatieff had on my own life, well before he entered politics.

In 2002 I faced something of a dilemma. The previous year I had begun my first real job in print journalism at the Ottawa Citizen. It hadn’t started well. No one ever tells aspiring writers that they’ll start their careers covering car accidents and asking distraught parents how they feel about children drowning in their backyard pools. But this is how it begins. I started thinking about a new line of work.

Then al-Qaeda flew jet planes into New York skyscrapers and murdered thousands. I begged my editor to send me to Afghanistan. He did. My career took off. By 2002 I had the sort of job I always wanted: covering foreign news for the National Post.

In the meantime, however, I had applied to study for a doctoral degree at the University of Oxford and was accepted. I saw a looming fork in the road. But in truth I wanted to do both: journalism and academia; the thrill of breaking news and the deeper satisfaction of digging into a topic for weeks or years, rather than hours.

Michael Igatieff, at the time, straddled both worlds. He was a rare academic who wrote lucid and important journalism. On a whim, I sent him an email at Harvard, where he was running the Kennedy School. Continue…

Foreign aid accountability: Poland vs. Canada

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 12:59 PM - 18 Comments

Researching this story on Polish support for the democratic opposition in Belarus, I called up a contact at the Polish embassy in Ottawa. Within a couple of hours, he sent me personal cell phone numbers for the relevant deputy ministers working on the file. The Polish ambassador invited me to come by for a chat. Did I want to interview Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski? No problem.

You might find this unremarkable. Surely most ministries want to publicize the work they do. You would be wrong — at least if we’re talking about Canada and its current government. In the past five years, I’ve spoken on the record with precisely one person at Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs who wasn’t a spokesperson reciting usually banal and evasive talking points that someone else had written.

As it happens, Canada also says it is supporting democracy in Belarus. It pledged $400,000 to the cause in February. Of this, $100,000 was pegged to support Belsat, a Belarusian language television station based in Warsaw and broadcasting into Belarus. I contacted Belsat in March and was told they hadn’t received the money. Continue…

Libyan foreign minister Musa Kusa: a rat jumps ship

By Michael Petrou - Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 7:51 PM - 3 Comments

Libya’s foreign minister, Musa Kusa, has defected. I suggested this might be in the works in a story last week:

“Persuading Gadhafi’s most trusted loyalists to move against him requires high-placed contacts inside Gadhafi’s regime. The United States may have one in Libya’s foreign minister, Musa Kusa.

“Kusa is known among Libyan exiles as the ‘envoy of death’ because of his role in the assassination of Libyan dissidents abroad during the more than 20 years he served as intelligence chief. He has been linked by the CIA to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and to the bombing of UTA flight 772 over Niger the following year. Continue…

British imam threatened with death for saying Islam is compatible with theory of evolution

By Michael Petrou - Monday, March 7, 2011 at 1:43 PM - 55 Comments

Usama Hasan is an exceptionally brave and good man. That he has been subjected to this kind of bullying is upsetting. I’ve written about Hasan several times, in the most detail here.

Deporting Cindor Reeves "morally questionable": IRB tribunal officer

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 1:10 PM - 17 Comments

The tribunal officer assigned by the Immigration and Refugee Board to the case of Cindor Reeves, former brother-in-law of Liberian warlord Charles Taylor, judged him to be a credible witness whose exclusion from refugee protection in Canada would be “morally questionable.”

A tribunal officer is an IRB employee whose role “is not to oppose, or to support, the refugee claim, but to help ensure that all relevant information is before the member to decide the claim.” In his written observations of the case, Richard Henderson argued against excluding Reeves from refugee protection because of his alleged involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity:

“A restrictive or narrow interpretation of the exclusion clauses is particularly warranted in this case, not just because, as I will suggest in the next section, Mr. Reeves would be in extreme danger should he return to Liberia, but also because it is precisely Mr. Reeves’ involuntary and minor involvement in the weapons for diamonds trade that allowed him to gather the kind of ‘high value’ intelligence that played a key role in ultimately bringing down Charles Taylor. To exclude him because of this involvement would seem to be both morally questionable, a sentiment expressed in the Maclean’s articles, and inconsistent with the intent of the exclusion clauses, i.e. they were surely not meant to exclude individuals who were, in effect, acting as double agent.”

Reeves’ refugee case is different than most because the Canadian government — through the minister for public safety — intervened to argue against his appeal for refugee protection. Continue…