Canada Vs. Iran

Effective next week, Canada's embassy will be closed in Iran and all Iranian diplomats has been kicked out from the land of opportunities and the relationship between the two countries goes to a hibernate mode. It all started with a redundant comment from Nazanin Afshin-Jam (Wife of Minister of National Defense) regarding Iran being involved with espionage activities against Canada through Iranian-Canadians in key governmental/non-governmental positions in Canada which by itself was a significant accusation ! But you wouldn't really need for an evidence as long as a delusional country such as Iran who believes the whole world is united against them doesn't give a damn about the aftermath of comments as such !

There are couple of issues I can't stop thinking about:

·         Canada has had such a neutral, honest approach in most of the conflicts in the middle east. Specially in Afghanistan and Iraq. So what happens that all of a sudden, they turn more aggressive in compare to their peers such as France, Germany, Japan, and even England itself. I mean if the whole argument about "England's embassy was the first that got occupied and we're next" thing,  being considered as an honest statement (Which I highly doubt), only shows me how poor Canada's knowledge has been about the history of conflicts between Iran and England and the grudge Iran had held against England since the 1953 coup in Iran when the first democratic election in Iran was oppressed.

·         If Canada considers Iran as a potential threat for global peace, how come they close their eyes to the massacre Israel has raised for past decades against Palestine. I know I may sound like Ahmadinejad now but honestly let's face it. This country was the epicenter of turmoil and constantly in a very one-sided conflict against pretty much all the Arab countries namely Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine of course and sometimes hand-in-hand with Iran during the previous regime. Everyone knew that during the 8 years war of Iran against Iraq during 1979 to 1986 that lead to near  a million casualties from both sides despite their hostile gesture against Iran, they were constantly providing military aid to both countries! I mean I can go on and on about numerous occasions at which Israel evidently has been violating the human rights  if that's what Canada really cares about !

·         Canada accuses Iran for supporting Assad's regime in Syria which I tend to believe this one is very true. I wanted to ask what Canada has to do with this but then I thought if cutting relations with Iran would help condensing the turmoil in the region, then why not? But what makes me wonder is how something like that would prevent Iran from supporting Assad's regime ? I mean one should think that which of the two  countries is actually benefiting from each other? Thanks to my previous work experience, I learned that most of the small-midsized companies in Canada stopped exporting their services to Iran after 2008 because of the trade embargos. So in economical point of view, if we disregard the near 50 million dollars that Iranians pay to Canada as part of their immigration requirements every year (which has been a gain for Canada and loss for Iran both in financial and resource point of view) the rest is almost negligible. In political point of view, Canada has always been accusing Iran for developing nuclear warfare and never seemed interested in finding a resolution like what France, Germany, Turkey, Brazil and even US tried. In social point of view, BBC Persian Service reported that some 150,000-180,000 highly educated Iranians emigrate from Iran annually, or about 450 daily. Although the stats kind of seem exaggerated but considering the fact that almost all of the immigrants are either highly educated students, skilled workers or successful businessmen in Iran, this shows which country is actually benefiting for that matter.

·         So to put it in a nutshell, when I gather all my conclusions together, I see no point in Canada's latest aggression toward Iran.  But that's not all of the story. Because if you think about the decision's impact on Iranian-Canadian citizens here in Canada, you would notice how absurd this decision is from Canadian government. Fluctuations as such lead to the most recent decision of TD Bank regarding blocking Iranian accounts in Canada! It gets even funnier when TD Bank avoids to apologize on a very, very obvious statement that repeats its claim and gives Iranian clients some time to provide explanations about major transactions in their accounts which I do find humiliating ! I don't even want to bring up the few incidents that I had for the past year with lower-class Canadians insulting me for my race or calling me terrorist or stuff like that.

Unfortunately what people do not see is that Canadian government has a reputation in making decisions to put itself against its own citizens. I can think of examples of how they treated Japanese citizens during the world war, Chinese citizens after the head tax in 1885 and Chinese exclusion act in 1923, and last but not least many examples about aboriginal citizens. So is this where Canada wants to go again? Or does the Canadian government thinks that 300'000 citizens with Iranian background and near 50'000 Iranian International students in Canada are not yet minor enough to be seen? I do hope that the government realizes the social impact of controversial decisions like this.