generalspeaking

Another Human Rights Battle Lost by the Iranian Republic

"I see no reason to deprive the plaintiffs of their entitlement to costs of successfully defending these motions [to charge the government of Iran for payment of legal costs]."
"[The case involved] complex and important issues that had not been previously decided. [The victims' lawyers had discharged their obligations in a] cost-effective manner."
Justice Glenn Hainey, Ontario Superior Court

The previous Conservative government of Canada had disinvited the Islamic Republic of Iran to maintain its embassy in the capital and its other missions within Canada, as it withdrew its diplomats from Tehran, returning them to Canada, having no wish to further permit Iran to interfere in Canadian affairs, as it had been doing, a malign force for ill will and destabilization. Canada at least took those steps to indicate it had little appreciation for the Republic's campaign to inflate its influence in the West.

The current Liberal government of Canada has announced its intention of restoring diplomatic relations with Iran, to reinstall Canadian diplomats in its Tehran mission, and inviting the Iranian theocratic administration which makes no secret of its detestation of the West and its democratic institutions to return to full diplomacy. The Iranian regime has indicated that it may reciprocate intentions to restore relations should the Liberal government take steps to overturn the Ontario court ruling that it must pay victims of the terrorist groups that Iran sponsors.

The Islamic Republic had been ordered in June of 2016 to transfer millions of non-diplomatic assets in Canada to three groups of people who had suffered violence inflicted upon them by terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, armed and supported financially by Iran. In fact, the potential total of the amount that Iran has been ordered to pay in penalties for such international criminal offences will go well beyond the value of the non-diplomatic assets held in Canada, upwards of $1.7-billion.

The Iranian regime had some difficulty imagining that it would be found liable in international courts for the violence it promulgates and incites through its proxy terrorist groups, but reality hit when American courts imposed similar penalties upon Iran, and Canadian courts followed suit once U.S. and Canadian governments made it lawful. This is yet another form of exacting justice for victims of violence such as that promoted by the Republic of Iran.

Which had the unmitigated audacity to inform the world -- as a push-back to the new American President Donald Trump's assertive promise that the United States will go to new and deserved lengths to ensure that Iran's aspirations to achieve nuclear and intercontinental ballistics supremacy will not come to fruition -- that Israel is the "biggest threat to the peace and security in the region and the world", as voiced by Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

Iran, according to the Ontario Superior Court justice was attempting to set aside "substantial judgements". The Justice for Victims of Terrorist Act, enacted in 2012, ensures that immunity would be stripped from terrorist-sponsoring regimes. This gave victims of terrorism the opportunity to sue such regimes by collecting civil damages in Canadian courts, following the American example.

The latest ruling that Iran would have to pay the $300,000 legal bills of victims who had turned to the Ontario court to seek compensation under the JVTA, simply represents the most recent loss in civil court for Iran. The Republic had invoked grounds that it had the protection of state and diplomatic immunity. That ploy, under the circumstances, no longer works.

Labels: Canada, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Justice, Terrorism, Victims

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, February 18, 2017