Canada should support Iranians' efforts to build a post-regime democracy
Iranians deserve freedom from the regime which has violently and horrifically repressed them for over four decades
By Irwin Cotler, Nazanin Afshin-Jam, and Noah Lew
National Post
Mar 03, 2026
On Saturday, the United States and Israel launched a joint operation against the Islamic Republic’s regime in Iran, with the stated https://fddaction.createsend1.com/t/r-l-tkuyhtlt-l-u/", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">goals of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and helping the Iranian people topple the repressive regime.
Prime Minister Mark Carney https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2026/02/28/statement-prime-minister-carney-and-minister-anand-situation-middle-east", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">announced Canada’s support for the operation, echoed by the leader of the opposition, Pierre Poilievre. In his statement, Carney expressed Canada’s position as follows:
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East, has one of the world’s worst human rights records, and must never be allowed to obtain or develop nuclear weapons.”
We firmly agree.
For 46 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has engaged in a continuous dual campaign of internal repression and external aggression.
Upon seizing power through the bloody 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic immediately began systematically imprisoning, torturing and executing thousands of opposition figures, dissidents, and ethnic and religious minority groups.
In 2024, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Javaid Rehman, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/iran/20240717-SR-Iran-Findings.pdf", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">declared that between 1981-82 and 1988, the Islamic Republic perpetrated “the worst and the most egregious human rights abuses of our living memory whereby high-ranking state officials connived, conspired and actively engaged to plan, order and commit crimes against humanity and genocide against the nationals of their own state.”
The Islamic Republic’s horrific repression of its own citizens has continued unabated until today. The Iranian people have been stripped of their fundamental rights, Iranian women suffer under a gender apartheid and minority groups such as the Baha’i have been systematically targeted and oppressed.
Over the years, the Iranian people have bravely resisted and protested the horrific abuses of the Islamic Republic’s regime. Iranians rose up en masse to advocate for democracy during the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Green_Movement", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">Green Movement in 2009. In 2022, Iranian women valiantly launched the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman,_Life,_Freedom_movement", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">Woman, Life, Freedom protests in response to the killing of Jina Mahsa Amini for her refusal to wear a hijab. And now, since the end of 2025, the Iranian people have been https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%932026_Iranian_protests", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">engaged in the largest uprising in the history of the Islamic Republic.
In response, the regime has murdered an estimated https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">30,000 people and arbitrarily arrested an estimated https://iranhumanrights.org/2026/02/irans-machinery-of-repression-escalates-arbitrary-arrests-torture-enforced-disappearances-and-death-sentences-after-protest-massacre/", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">53,000, including hundreds of children. Those arrested are subject to torture, forced confessions and execution. When wounded civilians are brought to hospitals, Iranian regime agents have https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/03/world/video/iran-doctor-underground-medics-network-protest-crackdown", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">murdered them in their hospital beds and https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/02/27/iran-protests-crackdown-hospitals/36de515e-13b7-11f1-8e8d-fe91db44677b_story.html", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">arrested doctors who attempt to help them. These atrocities have continued up until now.
At the same time, the Islamic Republic has exported its atrocities, violence, and repression throughout the Middle East and the world. As Carney https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2026/02/28/statement-prime-minister-carney-and-minister-anand-situation-middle-east", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">said, Iran is “the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East.”
For decades, the Iranian regime has https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2021/iran", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">funded, trained, supported and directed terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, the Houthis in Yemen and multiple Iraqi militia groups. These proxies have committed countless horrific atrocities, massacring civilians and destabilizing their host countries and the region more broadly.
The Iranian regime’s support for terror and atrocities extends far beyond the Middle East. Iran was responsible for the 1994 https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/sres326/BILLS-119sres326is.htm", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 85 people and injured over 300. In January 2020, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/response_conflict-reponse_conflits/crisis-crises/flight-vol-ps752.aspx?lang=eng", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">shot down Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, killing all 176 passengers, including 57 Canadians. Since Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, Iran has https://apnews.com/article/russia-iran-drones-shahed-ukraine-israel-strikes-3ddeb853845f0ea5f81878165af07bfd", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">supplied weapons including Shahed drones to Russia, which have been used to terrorize and murder Ukrainian civilians. Finally, on Saturday, in his response to the American-Israeli strikes, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-on-iran-28-february-2026", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">stated that the Iranian regime has been responsible for 20 foiled terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom.
The Islamic Republic is also a leading global source of https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression/iran", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">transnational repression — the targeting of dissidents, activists, journalists and opposition figures abroad. In October 2018, assassination plots against Iranian opposition figures were foiled in both https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/world/europe/denmark-assassination-iran.html", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">Denmark and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/02/france-blames-iran-for-foiled-bomb-attack-near-paris", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">France. In 2021, the FBI foiled an effort to murder https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-russian-mob-leaders-sentenced-25-years-prison-murder-hire-targeting-journalist-behalf", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">Masih Alinejad, an Iranian human rights activist, in New York. And, here in Canada, one of the authors of this op-ed (Irwin Cotler), who has long warned of the Islamic Republic’s massive domestic repression and external aggression, has been under 24/7 police https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-former-justice-minister-irwin-cotler-warns-iran-may-have-activated", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="click" auto-tracked="true">protection due to the Islamic Republic’s ongoing efforts to murder him since 2023.
The Iranian people deserve better. They deserve freedom from the regime which has violently and horrifically repressed them for over four decades. They deserve justice, democracy and a peaceful, human rights-respecting government.
Carney has made clear that Canada will not enter this conflict militarily. Instead, Canada should work with the United States, Israel, the community of democracies, and most importantly, the Iranian opposition, to start preparing for the day after the Islamic Republic.
Canada can and should play a role in supporting the Iranian people in their efforts to build a free and democratic Iran. We should be in contact with, provide resources and international legitimacy to the Iranian opposition. We should help them build the country that they deserve.