Open Letter to Honorable Lawrence Cannon, The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada

Reply from The Minister of Foreign Affairs to PDMI Open Letter on CIC Event

Re: Open Letter to Canadian Authorities Regarding the Upcoming "Iran in Context" Event

 __________________________

The Honorable Lawrence Cannon,

The Pro-Democracy Movement of Iran along with the Open Letter Signatories appreciate your response and attention to our concerns and this important matter.

While we are aware of the Canadian International Council’s standing as a private organization, the Council clearly acknowledges the support of various governmental bodies for making the event possible.

We appreciate CIC’s efforts for organizing this important event.  The chairman of CIC states in his message that CIC is a non-partisan nationwide foreign policy council aimed at strengthening Canada’s foreign policy by promoting research and dialogue on international affairs and issues through a national network crossing academic disciplines, policy areas and economic sectors.

Furthermore, CIC states on its website that “having a better understanding of why the Iranian government follows the course it does …. will better equip Canada and the International Community in their policy towards Iran…this conference will take a look inside Iran in an attempt to better understand what drives its government and policies as well as the forces of opposition.”
While the CIC might claim that it has gathered a cadre of policy experts on Iran and it anticipates a variety of views to be aired and debated, a closer examination of speakers’ backgrounds and affiliations demonstrate that the event speakers will advocate a very specific policy and a course of action towards Iran.  They advocate a policy of dialogue and appeasement with a regime which, second to China, is the most violator of human rights, a regime that rapes its own citizens and is considered a threat to world peace.  Besides, no opposition voices are represented at this event, indicating a certain partisanship.
We strongly believe that CIC, in its important and responsible role, should in fact include a variety of perspectives and viewpoints to help the Canadian government develop a more comprehensive and accurate foreign policy toward Iran.  We have expressed such a concern to CIC organizers and have urged them to include additional policy and content experts for a more honest, robust and fair exchange.  CIC owes the Canadian people and the Iranian opposition groups at least that much. Our requests, unfortunately, have been ignored.
We would welcome and appreciate your assistance in encouraging CIC to invite additional speakers, especially in lieu of the fact Mr. Parsi will not be able to attend the conference and an unexpected vacancy has already been created.

Sincerely,

Dr. Arash Irandoost
Founder, Pro-Democracy Movement of Iran