Mohammad Rad, the CEO of the “Canada Iran Business Association” in response to the new financial instructions for financial exchanges with Iran: This violates the individual rights and freedoms of a group of Canadian citizens
Montreal – Mohammad Rad, the CEO of the “Canada Iran Business Association” in response to the new financial instructions for financial exchanges with Iran saide that is violates the individual rights and freedoms of a group of Canadian citizens.
FINTRAC guidance related to the Ministerial Directive on Financial Transactions Associated with the Islamic Republic of Iran issued on July 25, 2020.
The FATF called on its members to apply effective counter-measures to protect their financial sectors from such risks. As such, Canada’s Finance Minister, under subsection 11.42 of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA) issued this MD to ensure the safety and integrity of Canada’s financial system.
He was educated in Canada and is now a Canadian-Iranian citizen. He wrote a letter to the Canadian media explaining the effects of the new Canadian financial guidelines on the situation of some Iranian society (Iranian-Canadian citizens) and the Iranian people.
Regarding the closure of the Canadian embassy in Tehran, he added: “Once in 2012, the Conservative government led by Stephen Harper destroyed the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for Iranian-descent Canadians by closing the embassy, and Canadians of Iranian nationality have been harmed by their consular services while Canada could reduce the level of relations and the embassy to the charge d’affaires and the department for consular services.”
Rad emphasized on citizenship rights and said:”Now we are talking about citizens of Canada, they are like all Canadians but we say from today the government will impose a significant difference and their privacy will be regularly violated or their bank accounts will be controlled or they won’t be able to help the families in their origin country or trade with their mother country just because they were born in Iran.”
About the sanctions on Iran , It is impossible to impose sanctions on the Iranian regime but not boycotting ordinary people.But at the same time, you feel concerned about human rights.:he said.
He added: Now, with these explanations, we must say that Iranians who are active in the economic field are each anti-sanctions doctorates because because they have learned to boycott and have worked in sanctions and They grew up in sanctions.
He stressed about Iranian students: Unfortunately, the new restrictions have targeted the young students coming to Canada to study and have a better future, and new immigrants or Canadian citizens who, for example, sell their home in Tehran and want to buy a home in Canada, or Canadian citizens sending money to their old parents living in Iran every month.
The full text of Mohammad Rad’s letter is:
I am Mohammad Rad, the CEO of the “Canada Iran Business Association” . And be aware that as an Iranian-Canadian and an expert who has studied for many years and has years of experience and gives a lot of consultations to companies, I am writing this text.
If I want to be brief the new action of Fintrac will have both a neutral and a very bad effect, however, Canada must make its position clear.
Once in 2012, the Conservative government led by Stephen Harper destroyed the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for Iranian-descent Canadians by closing the embassy, and Canadians of Iranian nationality have been harmed by their consular services while Canada could reduce the level of relations and the embassy to the charge d’affaires and the department for consular services.
Now we are talking about citizens of Canada, they are like all Canadians but we say from today the government will impose a significant difference and their privacy will be regularly violated or their bank accounts will be controlled or they won’t be able to help the families in their origin country or trade with their mother country just because they were born in Iran.
We want with beautiful names like control or Fight against money laundering or use media names like fighting terrorism and individual rights and freedoms ignore this group of Canadian citizens and write at the end of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a copy of which is granted to every citizen at the time of citizenship, with the exception of people of Iranian origin. Do you mean exactly that?
Let’s be honest with ourselves once for always. We all know that some people have a problem with the Iranian government and you sure that if there was no such problem, Canada would not have so many Iranian immigrants.
I should state that Iran is much more advanced than Canada in terms of beauty, facilities, and technology.
However, owing to a fundamental problem we all endured the hardships of immigration and are now Canadian citizens voting in the Canadian government elections as a citizen. I believe that if we accept this, half of all the problems have been solved .
Now, we all know that Iran has been exposed to severe sanctions for years with a worsening situation every day. for example can you name a Canadian pharmaceutical company that is ready to receive money from Iran and send cancer drugs to Iran without having to worry about Canadian or US government fines?
Nevertheless, in practice, the G7 leaders in a very humanitarian gesture state that Iran is never facing the sanctions on medicine, food, and other essential items! Even in these critical months of COVID 19, Iran is the only country fighting Covid 19 alone and empty-handed. Now I do not want to say directly that global silent terrorism is happening to the Iranian people, for which direct responsibility is related to the G7 members states.
It is impossible to impose sanctions on the Iranian regime but not boycotting ordinary people.But at the same time, you feel concerned about human rights.
You have boycotted a high-ranking Iranian engineer working as an ordinary human being, whose monthly salary reaches 300 Canadian dollars with the fall of the Iranian currency, but in case of illness, he has to pay the price of medicines in dollars!
Do you think the Iranian authorities or their families are subjected to the same conditions?
in fact sanctions have expanded the economic rent network and made some people rich over the years, hence, in this complex situation, as an expert, I do not believe that Canada or the United States are unaware of these issues. This is about sacrificing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iranians living in Iran.
The Iranian government is strengthening its economic situation by helping China with the indirect guidance of the G7 leaders, and in the coming months, we will have to see whether NATO wants to see the Chinese army base in the Middle East or not. If the answer is no, then you make no choice except war for the Iranian government by closing all diplomatic channels to Iran while the Iranian people are in a worse situation every day. The performance of the past few years has put Iran on a path within the 2020s to 2030s in the confrontation of powers between the West and the East (Iran, Russia, and China) causing the transfer of global power from the West to the East and you can see its preparations in tension with China and the United States, and a little bit of Canada
I would like to know the side taken by my country Canada. Will it be on the same side with the current winner and the tomorrow loser, or will it change its mind?
Now, with these explanations, we must say that Iranians who are active in the economic field are each anti-sanctions doctorates because because they have learned to boycott and have worked in sanctions and They grew up in sanctions.
You see the new Fintrac rules and restrictions, however, these people see the whiteness around the writing and the space between the lines indicating that these rules can not change as much!
Unfortunately, the new restrictions have targeted the young students coming to Canada to study and have a better future, and new immigrants or Canadian citizens who, for example, sell their home in Tehran and want to buy a home in Canada, or Canadian citizens sending money to their old parents living in Iran every month.
Do not think that the banks remain silent against the rules made by Fintrac. They also would like prevention instead of supervision, as a result, they will not enter into business with Iranian Canadians. This causes everyone to try to fill the gaps in the banks, thus strengthening the black market. As a Canadian expert of Iranian nationality as an economic advisor as well, I tell you that the Fintrac restriction targets exactly Canadian citizens of Iranian nationality and nothing will happen in the fight against money laundering since the source of the money has been unknown for years and Iranian banks are under sanctions. You have imposed sanctions on the oil-rich country with the largest financial transactions for years, and even the Swift system has been down for several years. In all these years, the source of all the money is not clear, which was a decision you made in previous years while all Iranian banks have lost contact with outside Iran, and now you are upset about why you can not monitor this money. Maybe you should answer this question own!
As the simplest laws of physics, every action has a reaction and today’s problems are due to your own wrong decisions in the past, whereas now you are making other efforts to insist on these mistakes and continue on the same path. You also use titles such as the fight against terrorism not because Iran itself is a victim of terrorism in the Middle East while no one asks about the origin of weapons taken by the real terrorists.
At the same time, no one is saying whether it is a coincidence that financial restrictions are being imposed on Iranians, and Canada simultaneously is entering into CIFTA, free trade with Israel!
As a Canadian citizen, I ask, were the new financial restrictions part of Israel’s unwritten terms for implementing this agreement with Canada?
Anyone willing to invest even a hundred million dollars in the Canadian real estate sector, or to launder the money anonymously, will still act in the same way despite the Fintrac restrictions with no change in the way to assess the actions except for being under more control because of being Iranian. It is normal and has happened before, but ordinary citizens like citizens inside Iran will be the main victims of these new laws.
However, the new action of fintrac also announced the inefficiency of the system in the past, which should not be ignored.
Ultimately, in the coming days, you will face a new wave of reactions from banks blocking the accounts of students or Canadian citizens with Iranian nationality, then you will encounter a new wave of chases and strange events increasing the controlling costs for the Canadian government hundreds of times by implementing the Fintrac system.
We had given up hope on the Conservative Party for years while we hoped that the Liberal Party would take the path of diplomacy and discourse and separate itself from the path of the Trump administration and be aware of all the explanations provided above. I wish instead of sanctions ending in a humanitarian catastrophe, the Canadian government was thinking of strengthening friendships and expanding diplomacy not harming its citizens with Fintrac laws, which we say in Persian: It was scoring in own self.
Hoping for the good future and days, peace and tranquility for all the people of the Earth
Sincerely
Mohammad Rad
Director of Canada Iran Business Association
