Joint statement on our political endorsement of individuals under threat from the Iranian Regime

We, as individual Members of Parliament from British Columbia, Canada, hereby undertake the political sponsorship of a list of individual detainees who are currently under threat by the government of Iran. Community members have called for our commitment to help prevent the executions of those condemned to death, or their ongoing torture and imprisonment by the Iranian regime.

We know that endorsements by elected officials in Europe have already brought the plight of detainees to the forefront and have declared to the regime that they are being watched – that there are advocates keeping track of the lives and well-being of many of the victims of the violent crackdowns imposed by the ruling regime.

As many of you are acutely aware, the Iranian regime’s brutality against its own people – in particular, women and girls – is unrelenting, and the situation is worsening. Tens of thousands of Iran’s own citizens are imprisoned for protesting the regime’s violence and egregious human rights violations. Many hundreds have been killed, including numerous children.
Our support for the Iranian people to live their lives free from persecution is unwavering. We hear their powerful voices, and we will continue to amplify them wherever we can. That is why we are releasing this statement today.

We voice together that we are appalled by Iran’s wrongful imprisonment and execution of protestors.
We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances for all people, everywhere. On December 16, Canada introduced a resolution to reaffirm our commitment to human rights for the people of Iran and condemn the application of the death penalty, a resolution that the UN General Assembly adopted.

We call on Iran to immediately establish a moratorium to halt all executions and to end this brutal and inhumane punishment.

As individual Canadian Members of Parliament, we commit to speaking the names of these detainees, to remind the Iranian government that we are watching, that the world is watching, and that we condemn Iran’s ongoing human rights violations and threats to individual freedoms as well as regional peace and security.

Through research via organizations tasked with monitoring human rights violations and the Iranian regime, we have chosen a number of physicians and medical students targeted for treating those injured in protests, or for supporting the groundswell of voices rising against the regime. We have also chosen some of the young people who have been so deliberately targeted with very severe penalties for raising their voices.

These individuals, named below, are valued and are in our thoughts as they suffer at the hands of this brutal regime. These individuals will be followed on our social media, and we will remind those in power that they must not flagrantly ignore universal human rights, international laws and individual freedoms that must be affirmed and assured for every person.

We remind the Iranian regime that we will not lend credence to sham trials, to invented charges and to a lack of legal representation for these individuals and many others presently imprisoned by their own government.

We ask that Canadians stand strong and united in our support of international conventions on human rights, particularly the rights of women and girls, and rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association.

In this resolve, we endorse the following Iranian detainees:
o John Aldag: endorsing Dr. Farhad Meysami, and Mohammad Ghobadlou
o Terry Beech: endorsing Iman Navabi – Surgery Resident, and Fahimeh Karimi, mother of three
o Hedy Fry: endorsing Dr. Zahra Hasani Abiz, and Sahand Noormohammadzadeh
o Ken Hardie: endorsing Dr. Behnam Ohadi, and Ali Rakhshani, 17
o Ron McKinnon: endorsing Reza Arya, father of two, and Tohid Darvishiln
o Taleeb Noormohamed: endorsing Dr. Homayoun Eftekharian Nia, and Amir Nasr-Azadani
o Randeep Sarai: endorsing Dr. Alreza Eradati, and Hossein Mohammadi
o Patrick Weiler: endorsing Mehdi Memar Rast – Medical Student, and Mohsen Rezazadeh Gharagholou
o Jonathan Wilkinson – endorsing Dr. Hamid Ghare-Hassanlou, his spouse Farzaneh Qareh Hasanlu, and Mohammad Rakhshani, 16

Signed,
Terry Beech
Jonathan Wilkinson
Ron McKinnon
John Aldag
Taleeb Noormohamed
Randeep Sarai
Hedy Fry
Patrick Weiler
Ken Hardie