What Does the Conservative Government Intend to Do
The Iranophobia Project
Ali Mokhtari
A little while ago, the Canadian media was full of stories quoted from the RCMP about two people arrested because they intended to sabotage the Canadian Railway System. It may not seem weird at first, because we are used to hearing a lot of stories about terrorism and terrorists who kill and sabotage with religious motives. However, this time, the story went out of its way to make a link between these two people and Al-Qaida in Iran. A few days later, when the names were disclosed, it turned out they were not Iranian. Further news confirmed that one of them was from Tunisia and the other one from Palestine, who — despite having a criminal history in the country he resided in, i.e. UAE, managed to get permanent residency in Canada. The RCMP could not answer who the Al-Qaida agents in Iran purportedly are, how this relationship and link have been established, or any of tens of more questions in this regard, which was exactly why some journalists thought that this allegation was doubtful.
The attempts of the Canadian conservative government to make a link between Iran and terrorist actions were followed by another allegation claiming that some Iranians go to Canada with vicious intentions, expressing concerns in this regard. Who these people are or how we could discover their vicious intentions even before they had the chance to do anything was another question the RCMP cannot answer.
These accusations towards Iranians as well as novel attempts to make a link between Iran and a terrorist conspiracy devised by two Arabs from Tunisia and Palestine, along wish such a big deal having been made of it, and the history of the current Canadian government’s actions arising from a strong desire to make limitations for the Iranian community and place as many obstacles as possible in the way of Iranian immigration to Canada bring this question to mind: what do the conservatives intend to do this time regarding the Iranian community in Canada? Are they going to prolong the waiting time for those who have been waiting so many years to go to their new country? Are they going to make the waiting time for Iranians to get their Canadian citizenship even longer than what it is now? Are they going to prevent Iranian parents from going to Canada and visiting their beloved ones more than before? Are they going to keep Iranians from taking certain jobs? Are they going to prevent Iranian students from studying in certain fields of study? Are more discriminating actions supposed to come from the creative minds of ministers who have nothing in their work history other than making obstacles, closing, and eliminating things in recent years? What is going to happen that makes it necessary to prepare Canadian public opinion and to induce pessimistic opinion of and fear of Iranians?
It doesn’t surprise me to hear that a group of our countrymen who consider themselves totally different are happy hearing this news and even applaud those who make this kind of novel allegation, but as said before, if some problems and limitations are to be made for Iranians, they will be applied to everybody. For those who intend to apply those limitations, there is no difference between Iranian immigrants who came to Canada with economic motives in order to have more social welfare and who are concerned about the future of this process and those who put their heads in the sand and cooperate with those who devise a new plot for Iranians every day.
How we could discover their vicious intentions even before they had the chance to do anything was another question the RCMP cannot answer
