Iran’s decision to rain missiles upon Tel Aviv last week will unleash a response that means trouble for the whole world. 

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on October 7, 2024.

OTTAWA—We are commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Hamas slaughter of innocent Israelis this week.

On Oct. 7 of last year, Hamas attacked young people attending a music festival and old people quietly living in their homes with a fury that seems impossible to understand.

But those of us who don’t understand why have only to take a page from the book of Iran’s supreme leader.

He can tell women what to do and what to wear, and what the penalties are for not following his advice.

If you don’t have your head covered in the right way, you can be subjected to physical attacks and imprisonment. In some cases, those attacks have led to death.

In 2022, Mahsa Amini was killed while in custody after being arrested for not properly wearing her head covering.

Penalties can also be levied for sexual relations outside of marriage, including stoning someone to death.

Likewise, if someone is not heterosexual, sexual relations with a same-sex partner is also punishable by death.

Death as punishment for homosexual relations is unique to Iran in the world, although Afghanistan is currently reviewing the application of a similar policy.

There is a reason that hundreds of ex-patriot Iranians around the world were celebrating the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Iran is the chief patron of Hezbollah, and has supported Nasrallah’s leadership for 32 years.

Ex-pats blame Nasrallah and the Iranian government for the oppression that has dampened the spirit of Iranian people for years.

A United Nations fact-finding mission concluded that the Iranian government was responsible for Amini’s death, and accused Iran of committing “crimes against humanity” as the result of a months-long security crackdown that killed more than 500 people, and detained more than 20,000.

The UN report said that Iranian security forces regularly used submachine guns and assault rifles against peaceful demonstrators, and noted a pattern of protesters being “branded” by shooting them in the eye, leading to permanent damage.

Iran’s Supreme Commander Ayatollah Ali Khamenei doesn’t see any problem with his country’s internal situation, although thousands of Iranians may think otherwise.

He has been in power since 1979, the year which marked the end of “westernizing” Iran with the departure of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

His government’s view of the Middle East is that all problems would be solved if only Israel would disappear. He blames all challenges there on the Israeli attacks in Gaza and Lebanon.

Thousands of Canadian supporters of Palestine have been lobbying non-stop for an end to the war in Gaza in an effort to save thousands of lives, and end the displacement of thousands more.

There are now more than one million Lebanese who are on the move to get away from the fighting, and to find safety for their families.

Most protesters would not want to strengthen Iran’s hand, but they have been silent on surrogates in the region like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Hamas carried out an unprecedented civilian slaughter on Oct. 7, 2023.

Silence doubles as support for Hamas, and one result of the Iranian attack on Israel is that Iran is no longer silently fuelling Israel’s enemies.

Instead, it is leading the charge with its stated intent to eliminate Israel’s existence.

Israel is receiving international support for the right to defend itself against the Iranian incursion.

Its ground invasion of Lebanon has already led to military casualties.

But the incursion into Gaza and the wanton deaths of thousands of civilians have raised the global ire of millions.

To date, most of the pressure has been focused on Israelis to withdraw from Gaza as the only way to secure the release of the hostages who have now been held for a full year.

But now the pressure point will be on Iran. And those in the Arab world who do not support Iran will be called to engage in the fight.

Iran’s decision to rain missiles upon Tel Aviv last week will unleash a response that means trouble for the whole world.

Already one of the outcomes is a rapid hike in the price of oil, which puts the fragile economic recovery under threat.

The hike may help producers, but will put further stress on Canadian consumers.

Meanwhile, the world is waiting with bated breath as we teeter on the edge of a world war.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Air crashes are so rare that few families have undergone the heartbreak of experiencing the loss of their dear ones to an aeronautical incident.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on January 13, 2020.

OTTAWA—It will likely be months before we know the true story behind the crash of Ukraine flight 752. Theories abound but given the suspension of diplomatic relations between Iran and Canada, grieving families will be dependent on third-party information as to the nature of the catastrophe. Last Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was evidence indicating the plane was shot down by an Iranian missile, adding that it might have been an unintentional act.

Families wiped out, newlyweds gone, communities devastated. The long-term effects of this disaster will be felt by many on a very personal level.

Air crashes are so rare that few families have undergone the heartbreak of experiencing the loss of their dear ones to an aeronautical incident.

I happen to have been in one of those families.

My grandmother and her sister were killed back in 1957 in a crash in Issoudun, Que., where 74 Canadians lost their lives. Sixty-two years later, it is still ranking as the seventh-worst plane crash on Canadian soil.

Three other modern-day disasters had similar tragic trajectories. Two hundred twenty-nine people died in a Swissair crash off Nova Scotia. Air India lost 329 people including an unprecedented 268 Canadians in a crash in Ireland and in 1985, an American military charter crash in Gander, Newfoundland killed 256 people.

In the case of Swissair, the accident was ultimately attributed to a mechanical misfire, faulty wires causing the plane’s insulation to ignite.

The Air India crash was the single most egregious aviation terrorist act until the World Trade Centre attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Separatist Sikhs planted a bomb on the plane. Only one man, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was ever convicted in the bombing and he was released from prison four years ago.

The judicial enquiries that resulted from the attack ultimately cost more than $130-million and pointed the finger at various police forces for botching the potential for other convictions.

In the Gander case, the crash was attributed to icy wings, but a minority report on the aeronautical investigation attributed the catastrophe to a bomb, leaving grieving families in limbo as to the burning question, “Why?”

In my grandmother’s case, there was never any real investigation by anyone. Times were different then so when her Maritime Central Airways flight went down, there were no major investigations.

The crash was attributed to bad weather, as the plane flew into a cloud during a storm while en route from London, England to Toronto.

It was rumoured that the plane ran out of gas, and that the pilot was undergoing psychiatric treatment for depression which had not been reported to his company.

The family never got closure, and even the insurance policy my grandmother purchased for the trip was not honoured, because it covered a flight time that had been exceeded when the plane left London several hours behind schedule.

More than 20 members of our family had gathered to greet my grandmother and her sister on their return from a trip to their hometown in Surrey.

We had a picnic planned to celebrate the moment. Saturday was gramma time and we had missed her so much during her two months away. Alice Guthro had come to Canada as a war bride in 1918 and this two-month trip had been her first visit home in 49 years. She was travelling with her sister and best friend.

To this day, I remember the howl of collective grief when we were all called into a room at the Toronto airport and it was announced coldly, that her flight had gone down and there were no survivors. I was only five and did not really understand why everyone was crying, so my older sister put her arm around me and said, “Gramma’s dead.”

There are dozens of families putting their arms around loved ones today and trying to make sense out of this senseless tragedy.

Answers won’t come immediately. In our case, they never came. Recognition may come. The crash never even warranted a monument of recognition until as minister, I ordered a plaque erected in the Issoudun church graveyard decades later.

At the time, my department warned me that I could be accused of conflict of interest for erecting a plaque commemorating a tragedy involving my own family. I agreed to take the risk. For years, we had gone to visit my grandmother’s gravesite in an overgrown forest where a local farmer had erected a simple wooden cross.

At the ceremony unveiling the plaque, dozens of relatives from across the country finally got the closure they deserved.

Without answers, the terrible loss suffered by so many families last week will never heal.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.