WHY WAS CANADA’S RCMP PROMOTING AN EXTREMIST PRO-IRANIAN CONFERENCE ?

Anti-Semitic Cartoon of the website of the Islamic World Peace Forum. The Director general of this Iran Based group was scheduled to speak at the conference promoted by the RCMP. Sayeh Hassan, pro-democracy Iranian Canadian lawyer who speaks out against the repression of the Iranian regime photo by Rhonda Spivak David Matas, senior counsel for B’nai Brith, “Repressive regimes use disguises and fronts to infiltrate themselves and their messages.” Vic Toews, Canada’s Minister of Public Security photo by Rhonda Spivak

The Director General of an Iranian NGO, Islamic World Peace Forum, whose website is filled with anti-Semitic cartoons was scheduled to speak at a conference along with Imam Zihad Delic of the Canadian Islamic conference. The event in Ottawa billed as a “peace conference” was organized by Green Party activists and candidates in Ottawa with panelists from Iran who are all tied to the Iranian regime.

The conference held on October 28 came under media scrutiny when reporter Michael Petrou on Maclean’s website broke the story that an RCMP liaison officer was involved in promoting the event.

One of the scheduled speakers of the event was Davood Ameri, director general of the Iran-based “Islamic World Peace Forum,” an organization whose website includes cartoons of Israeli soldiers murdering babies, and one of a hook-nosed Jew wearing a top hat full of tiny skulls. (see photo in this article).

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies described Ameri as “violently anti-Semitic” and said his organization maintains Zionists are responsible for 9/11.

The RCMP pulled its aboriginal and ethnic liaison officer from the event after Delic’s presence prompted Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to ask the police force to boycott the conference.

“Canada’s national police force must have no involvement in any event organized by those who promote extremism and hatred,” Toews said in the House of Commons on October 28.

Earlier in October, Defence Minister Peter MacKay, denounced the Canadian Islamic Conference as an “extremist” group with an anti-Semitic past, and cancelled a speech Delic was scheduled to make at an Islamic History Month event at National Defence headquarters. Anita Neville, MP for Winnipeg South criticized the decision and said that Delic was trying to build bridges through dialogue. (To see our article about this click on,http://www.winnipegjewishreview.com/admin/article_edit.cfm?sec=2&id=458&action=edit&dt=11/01/2010)

Sayeh Hassan, a Toronto criminal lawyer and activist for the Iranian democratic movement told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that “The Iranian professors that were scheduled to speak at the conference are closely linked to the Iranian regime and are not dissidents.”

She said that the Iranian NGO the Islamic World Peace, which Amari leads, is “an extremely anti-West and anti-Semitic organization, and “as can be seen from their website this organization is a mouthpiece for the Islamic Regime.”

Another scheduled speaker at the conference was Elham Aminzadeh, who Hassan described as “ a former Iranian Parlaimentarian who is currently a professor at the Tehran University department of law.” Aminzadeh “has praised the human rights and especially rights of women under the Islamic Regime.”

Hassan told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that she was pleased that Toews asked the RCMP not to attend the conference, “ which was the result I was hoping for.”

The conference was organized by four Green party activists: Paul Maillet, a retired Canadian Air Force colonel who is the Green candidate in Ottawa-Orleans; Qais Ghanem, a doctor who is running in Ottawa South; and two 2008 federal Green candidates, Akbar Manoussi and Sylvie Lemieux.

Ghanem believes that 9/11 was an “inside job” and “could not possibly be the work of a dozen amateur Saudis.” This can be seen from his posting on the “Medical Professionals for 9/11 Truth” website, which reads: “I have, from the outset, believed that the 9/11 horrendous massacre of thousands of innocent civilians could not possibly be the work of a dozen amateur Saudis. Close watching of video clips and reading of lots of expert opinions convinced me further that this is an inside job, or that it was at the very least done with inside help.”

Green Party candidate in 2008 Akbar Manoussi, has identified himself as “director general” of the “Iranian Cultural Centre” in Ottawa, which apparently shares the same address as the Iranian embassy. Manoussi is also member of the RCMP’s “cultural diversity committee” in the National Capital Region. Sgt. Marc Ménard, a spokesperson for the RCMP told Maclean’s magazine that the committee tries to reach out to ethnic communities and build ties between them and the national police force. Manoussi is the one who invited Cpl. Wayne Russett, an RCMP “Aboriginal and Ethnic Liaison Officer,” who is in charge of the committee, and Russett’s committee to the conference

The leader of Green Party Ms. May has distanced herself from the conference, but she has not dismissed Dr. Ghanem as a Green Party candidate. (Unlike what Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff did when he dismissed Leslie Hughes as a candidate based on her 9/11 conspiracy theories).

As Hassan told the Winnipeg Jewish Review, Ms. May has “missed a very key point. As much as there is concern over the speakers that were coming from Iran, I think the biggest concern should be Akbar Mounessi, one of the organizers who is an Islamic Regime Lobbyist in Canada. Mounessi runs the Iranian Cultural Centre, whose address appears to be the same as the Islamic Regime Embassy. He has been identified by Iranian dissidents as an Islamic Regime Lobbyist and it’s serious cause for concern when an individual so closely linked to the Islamic Regime poses as a representative of the Iranian Community in Canada, and finds a place as a candidate for the Canadian government through the Green Party and the RCMP through membership in the cultural diversity committee.” (Hassan wrote a letter published in the National Post about this. Click here. )

An editorial in the National Post criticized Ms. May for not taking strong enough action. “If Ms. May wants the Green Party to be taken seriously by voters, she must make it clear that there is no room in her organization for conspiracy theorists, or for those who would help Iran’s anti-Semitic theocrats spread their hateful propaganda in Canada.”Click here to read more.

In the end, as reported in the Ottawa Citizen, Imam Delic and Davood Ameri did not attend the conference. According to Manoussi they were unable to attend for “personal reasons” but their absence was unrelated to controversy over their participation.

When asked to comment upon this incident, David Matas, human rights lawyer and senior counsel to B’nai Brith Canada told the Winnipeg Jewish Review:

“The RCMP has had a long history of poor intelligence. CSIS was created as the result of RCMP intelligence failures. However, the creation of CSIS did not mean that the RCMP could function without intelligence. Rather it required the RCMP to communicate with CSIS. This, as was apparent from the Air India disaster, was not happening. This current incident shows that it is still not happening.

“This incident is troubling in itself. But it has larger ramifications. It suggests the continuing inability of the RCMP to develop a functioning intelligence capacity and open clear lines of communication with CSIS. The world is too dangerous for the RCMP to act like the Keystone cops when dealing with foreign operatives in Canada. This event should set off yet again alarm bells about the RCMP.”

On October 27, a day before the scheduled conference B’nai Brith Canada issued the following statement:

Bnai Brith Canada is alarmed by media reports that the RCMP, one of Canada’s lead security organizations, is publicly engaging with the Canadian Islamic Congress at an upcoming Ottawa conference.

“Imam Delic of the Canadian Islamic Congress was only a couple weeks ago deemed too controversial to address the Department of Defence by Minister Peter Mackay,” says Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President of Bnai Brith Canada.

It is utterly shocking that the RCMP continues to engage with such an organization when they know full well its history of divisive views. Why can’t the Department of National Defence and the RCMP work together?

In light of all these publicly available facts, Canadians must ask themselves, what is going on at the RCMP?