Scars on my shins,
Scars on my knuckles
Today I woke up in the basketball court
--Bloc Party
The Iranian Protesters, beaten and near-death will not find sanctuary at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran:
"The Embassy was closed Saturday and there were no Canadians at the Embassy when the protests began. Reports that we were providing shelter to Iranian demonstrators are false," foreign affairs and international trade spokesperson Simone MacAndrew said in a statement to CTV.ca.
"Canada's Embassy is located in the centre of recent demonstrations. Due to the tense security in Tehran this week, the Embassy has been closing early so that staff can return home safely before the public and democratic demonstrations begin
They are backpedaling - Everyone knew the big protest and possibly hyper-violent confrontation was on Saturday and Canada made a conscious decision to send the losing regime a message: Scoring some minor points with the murderous dictatorship is more important than doing the right thing and keeping a positive image of Canada.
On moral grounds, this is reprehensible. Just on moral grounds, Canada needs to open the Embassy.
If the decision were purely Realpolitik, it will not work either. The fact that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Iranians know what Canada did and now the entire world knows means that our standing in the world has been dealt a serious blow. And for what purpose? So the old regime will smile on us just a little more than say the Swiss? What tangible benefits will we see from this?
Is it enough that the country cannot look at itself in the mirror? Or will the benefits be so much that it will not matter that the future Iranian regime will remember this travesty?
If you feel like I do, you will want to email the responsible parties:
Prime Minister Harper: pm@pm.gc.ca
Canadian Tehran Embassy: tehran@international.gc.ca
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon: Cannon.L@parl.gc.ca
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