Canada Tightens Alliance with Israel - IPS

photoBy Paul Weinberg TORONTO, Sep 17 2012 (IPS) - Scepticism continues in Canada about why the national government abruptly cut off diplomatic relations with Iran earlier this month, although ties between the two states have been rocky since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
One explanation provided by John Baird, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, is that Iran and its ally Syria are now being officially designated by his government as “state sponsors of terrorism” under the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, which allows Canadian victims of terrorism to sue either nation’s government.
Meanwhile, his cabinet colleague and immigration minister, Jason Kenney, told a CBC Newsworld television show, Power & Politics, that the Iranian embassy in Ottawa was spying and intimidating people of Iranian origin in Canada.
“There is illicit listening, there is diplomatic listening and then there is national security violations. And there is harassment, and intimidation and monitoring of our own community by forces of a dictatorship,” Kenney said...Continue reading...