Centre for Iranian Studies in Toronto - Centre for the Islamic Republic in Iran

The Brothers Larijani
Toronto Centre for Iranian Studies
290 Sheppard Ave W
Toronto, ON M2N-1N5
Canada

Tel: 647-350-6555
Fax: 647-350-7555
http://www.iranology.ca
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Brother of Iran’s judiciary chief founded the “non-partisan” Toronto-based centre

by Michael Petrou on Tuesday, April 13, 2010

An organization in Toronto that describes itself as a non-partisan centre for Iranian culture and scholarship was founded by a well-connected Iranian diplomat and is funded by the Iranian embassy in Ottawa.

The Center for Iranian Studies, located at 290 Sheppard Ave. W., was incorporated in January 2008. One of its three directors at the time was Fazel Larijani, who was then Iran’s cultural attaché in Ottawa. He is the brother of Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament, and Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, head of the judiciary. Mahdi Shahrokhi, who works at the centre, says it still receives money from the Iranian embassy but is not controlled by it.

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In 2005 I (samira) attended a conference that marked the 25th anniversary of the Iran/US Hostage crisis, during which a group of Iranian students took the American embassy hostage and held 52 Americans for 444 days. The conference had a pantheon of sponsors.

The first section of the conference was available to the general public, with registration. The second section included about thirty of us and took place in a different section of the munk centre; more of a board room type setting. The second section included Gary Sick and Larijani. I could not believe that Larijani was there and was wondering if anyone else is going to acknowledge the bearded elephant in the room. Finally, during a break, I looked around and said - "Does anyone see who is sitting at this table with us, what is going on, what is this guy doing here?" - one of the other participants, Hossein Derakhshan, said and i quote - "do you have to make this political" - to which i replied - "you are an idiot." At the end of the conference i watched in horror and disbelief as other Iranian bursary students, Bahman Kalbasi, now a journalist for BBC Persian (washington), and Nasli Kamvari, a blogger (sibiltala.blogspot.com) went over and shook Larijani's hand and grasped their chests and bowed their heads. It was so disconcerting and infuriating.

These students, a lot of them bursary students, were in many of my classes and were adamant supporters of the Islamic Republic. It was often noted by other students that these students from Iran wold spy on those of us who wold vocalise our opposition to the Iranian regime. I myself have been threatened on numerous occasions, particularly while writing for the university of Toronto newspaper, The Varsity.

In fact a couple of weeks ago, it was reported in the Australian Press, that fake students coming from Iran were spying on other Iranian students and reporting back to the iranian regime on their activities. This occured exactly at the same time as iran delaring that it is setting up special courts to deal with Iranian dissidents in exile.

Micheal Petrou has exposed something that many of us in the Iranian community have been speaking of for decades; Canada has become a haven for those high ranking officials who are now looking for a safe haven as the cookie begins to crumble in Tehran. The Mullahs have set-up camp in Toronto's Bridle Path neighbourhood------

It is now time to begin to name names
and dates and places
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