close button
Switch to Iranwire Light?
It looks like you’re having trouble loading the content on this page. Switch to Iranwire Light instead.
Features

Why Do Iranians Love Justin Trudeau?

January 25, 2020
Arash Azizi
5 min read
Justin Trudeau expressed sympathy for the victims of Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 and called for compensation for the families.
Justin Trudeau expressed sympathy for the victims of Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 and called for compensation for the families.
Trudeau, whose father Pierre was prime minister in the 1970s, met Iranian prime minister Amis Abbas Hoveyda around 1973
Trudeau, whose father Pierre was prime minister in the 1970s, met Iranian prime minister Amis Abbas Hoveyda around 1973

The most vexing question for observers of Iran has long been a simple one: Who will ultimately replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supreme leader of the Islamic Republic?

Iran’s constitution limits the options to clerics holding a long list of qualifications. Speculation has swirled for years as to which mullah will ultimately inherit the throne. But recently, an unexpected new name was thrown into the mix: Justin Trudeau, Canada’s liberal prime minister. 

On January 17, Kambiz Hosseini, a popular Iranian comedy broadcaster based in New York, tweeted: “I vote Justin Trudeau for the Iranian president! He could also be the supreme leader if he liked. Can he please just come.”

London-based Iranian-Canadian journalist, Maziar Bahari (who is also IranWire’s founding editor) took it up a notch by organizing a Twitter straw poll in which more than 1,300 people voted. “If you could vote for the Supreme Leader, who would you pick, Justin Trudeau or Ali Khamenei?” The 80-year-old ayatollah trailed the 48-year-old Canadian – who took 92.4 percent of the vote.

The satirical posts by these Iranian journalists spoke of a broader reality. In the aftermath of the shooting down of a Ukrainian civilian airliner over Iran on January 8, many Iranians of all political hues have fallen in love with the Canadian prime minister.

The crash, caused by missiles shot by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), killed all 176 people passengers and crew. Most of the passengers on the Tehran to Kiev flight were ultimately headed to Canada where many were students, professors or professionals returning from their new year holidays. According to Iran’s data, only five passengers had used Canadian passports to board; but investigations soon showed that 57 of the passengers were Canadian citizens, mostly dual citizens of both Iran and Canada, 29 were permanent residents and at least 90 had links to Canada.

The tragedy soon became a spectacle of two radically different approaches to governance: one demonstrated by the authoritarian Islamic Republic, headed by Ayatollah Khamenei; the other by the democratic government of Canada, headed by Trudeau.

The contrast could not have been sharper. Trudeau immediately spoke to the public and called for accountability and truth. Canadian experts were sent to Iran. Iranian authorities, meanwhile, brazenly lied to the public for three days before being forced to admit that IRGC missiles that had shot down the plane. In a rare move, Iranian officials apologized and even showed some emotion. But Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s commander-in-chief, neither apologized nor offered to meet with the families of those killed. Days earlier he had publicly weeped when his favorite general, Ghasem Soleimani, was killed in a US airstrike in Iraq. The lives of dozens of his compatriots apparently did not deserve the same tears.

In Canada, however, there were tears and much more. Justin Trudeau seemed to have moved the families of the victims to the top of his agenda. He solemnly appeared at a vigil in Ottawa, standing with families around a fire in Canada’s freezing January. Footage of him talking with relatives of the victims was something that Iranians could never expect to see from their own unelected leader in Iran. Trudeau also spoke at a memorial in Edmonton, which had been home to 13 of the victims, mostly linked to the University of Alberta.

“You may feel unbearably lonely, but you are not alone,” Canada’s prime minister told the crowd of 1,700 who had gathered in a basketball gymnasium. “Your entire country stands with you, tonight, tomorrow and in all the years to come.” 

It wasn’t just empty words as he promised to “pursue justice and accountability for you,” adding that “we will not rest until there are answers.”

Indeed, many Iranians saw pressure from Canada and other governments such as Ukraine as having forced the IRGC’s mea culpa. Canada also offered substantial financial assistance for victims’ families while stressing that Iran was responsible for ultimately paying compensation to the bereaved.

The Iranian actress, Mahnaz Afshar, spoke for many when she tweeted in praise of Trudeau: “You go to see mourning families, you show sympathy, you follow up on how everyone is doing, you are concerned for Iranians, too. You care for people’s lives. But here they lie to us and if someone shows sympathy they call her a traitor to the homeland. ... You are a proper human being, Mr Justin Trudeau.”

Observers also compared the treatment of the victims of this tragedy with other incidents that affected people who held only Iranian citizenship. What happened to the hundreds of protesters killed in recent nationwide demonstrations? And to dozens killed in a stampede in Kerman during Soleimani’s funeral procession? Who is to pursue justice for the victims of floods currently hitting the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan? Who is to account for the 19 people killed, the day after the plane crash, in the northern province of Mazandaran? Those Iranians have no Trudeau, many bitterly observed, since their own government had long since shown a wanton disregard for the lives of its own citizens. 

In March 2019, in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, the country’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, won hearts around the world with the respect and sympathy she showed to victims of the attack. And it did not matter whether one agreed with her left-learning politics; her act of humane statesmanship was appreciated by people across the political spectrum.

I am an Iranian-Canadian to the left of Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party – I will never vote for him in an election. But I and millions of my fellow Iranians applaud him for the care and sympathy he showed for the lives of his fellow Canadians. And I applaud him for reminding Iranians that they too can hope to one day have a government elected by the people and accountable to them. In such tragic times, this truth warms our hearts; another Iran, one without unaccountable supreme leaders and recklessly arrogant generals, is possible.

comments

Simple
January 26, 2020

Guess what... The agents of the IRI who live in Canada, love Justin even more... they appreciate Liberal's mullahs-friendly policies... they know Justin drools over the mere thought of reopening of the embassy of the IRI in Ottawa... I dare say, it is time to give a helping hand to Peter MacKay...

Images

An Iranian House of Cards

January 24, 2020
Mana Neyestani
An Iranian House of Cards