Juno News - Resisting the Regime

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's most irreverent talk show.

00:00:05.880 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:11.920 Coming up, exposing the brutality of the Iranian regime

00:00:15.460 with a man who's lost three of his brothers to it.

00:00:20.260 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:23.820 welcome everyone to the andrew lawton show here on true north it is labor day monday september

00:00:32.480 7th and very good to have you aboard this program we are going to do things a little

00:00:37.120 bit differently today typically on holidays we break with tradition and do a bit of a different

00:00:41.580 show than we normally do today i want to spotlight a story that is not one you're hearing in the

00:00:47.220 mainstream media but is nonetheless an important one that i think has a message that freedom

00:00:51.700 loving people in Canada, in the United States and around the world need to hear. Last week,

00:00:57.420 in fact on Friday, there was a display put on at the Washington DC Capitol building

00:01:02.100 by the Organization of Iranian American Communities. A photo exhibition honoring

00:01:07.060 victims of the Iranian regime, a photo exhibition that was documenting systemic human rights

00:01:13.040 violations, abuse, torture and executions at the hands of the Iranian regime going back decades.

00:01:19.020 And one person who knows this struggle all too well is Glenn Torshizi.

00:01:23.640 He now lives in the United States, but his three brothers, his only three brothers,

00:01:28.200 were killed at the hands of the Iranian regime going back to the 1980s.

00:01:32.800 Glenn Torshizi was one of the speakers at this exhibition on Friday and joins me on the line now.

00:01:38.660 Glenn, thank you so much for your time today. Really good to speak with you.

00:01:41.620 Sure. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to my story.

00:01:44.960 I mentioned in the introduction just the horrors at the hands of the Iranian regime going back decades, and you more than anyone else know these, not on an abstract level, but on a very personal level with the experiences that you've had with your family.

00:01:59.220 And I mentioned just very briefly that you had lost your brothers, but you spoke at this event on Friday. Why is it that you're speaking out?

00:02:06.500 What is the story that you can really bring to the table that illuminates the horrors of this regime?

00:02:11.480 what i can tell that the story of iranian regime treating its citizen the way it treated my brother

00:02:23.060 is still going on i lost three brothers during the 1980s my younger brother behruz he was executed

00:02:32.960 for taking pictures according to the officials my other brother bahman was killed during a

00:02:40.020 confrontation, they say. We don't know. And my other brother, Reza, he was sentenced to seven

00:02:46.540 years in prison. And after seven years is over, my father goes and asks for his release. And they

00:02:54.220 say, no, we cannot release him because he has not repented yet. And my father asked my brother,

00:03:01.420 why don't you repent and go to your brother, me, in United States? And he said this horrific

00:03:09.200 a story that that is not easy they have divided the prisoner in two camps one camp repent and one

00:03:19.520 camp do not repent and they are asking people who do not repent who do repent to kill those who do

00:03:30.800 not repent and i cannot do that but they say my brother he has a false idea with him and for that

00:03:38.400 reason they sentenced him to seven years in prison and now they want to make a criminal out of him

00:03:45.360 and that was something that my brother could not do and one day they called my dad to come and

00:03:53.600 get him and my poor dad he thought that they are going to release him we could not believe

00:03:59.920 that they do such a thing to kill an innocent person just for not repending and killing others

00:04:07.280 you know your first brother to be killed at the hands of the regime Beirouz that was in 1981 and

00:04:14.960 then of course you lost another brother Bahman in 1982 and in 1988 your final brother I believe Reza

00:04:23.840 why was your family still criticizing or pushing back against the regime with this loss because

00:04:31.520 that's not a level of courage that a lot of people could imagine in these circumstances

00:04:37.280 Because the same thing is still is going on.

00:04:40.360 I hear that a wrestling champion right now, they have sentenced him to death.

00:04:47.300 And two brothers are, they have sentenced to long-term prison.

00:04:52.800 And my brother Reza, he was a swimming champion in Iran.

00:04:57.240 And I can identify with that mother.

00:05:00.660 They told that mother two years ago, don't talk about it and everything is going to be okay.

00:05:05.880 no nothing is going to be okay we need to talk we need to speak out we need to work communities to

00:05:12.520 know that you are you cannot deal with these criminals you cannot negotiate with these

00:05:17.800 criminals these are people whose hands is soaked with blood and how can you treat them as normal

00:05:25.720 state persons you know these are criminals and the place for criminals are in jail not to be

00:05:33.640 power in power in iran do you have family still in iran yes i do and my mother he is back and forth

00:05:47.800 with me and goes back to iran you know what this is something that not many people can understand

00:05:56.440 And my mother, he needs to be close to his sons in Iran, even if they are dead.

00:06:08.380 My question, I guess, was coming from a place of,

00:06:11.800 is there a risk that you and your family experience by you speaking out

00:06:15.800 against the regime in the way that you do?

00:06:18.720 It is always a risk.

00:06:20.740 The regime's hands is not only in Iran.

00:06:23.400 They have killed so many people around the world.

00:06:26.440 And two years ago, I was in an event in Paris, and the regime, this time, they sent one of

00:06:34.660 their diplomats to that event, and I was with my son.

00:06:39.100 And you can imagine what would happen.

00:06:41.940 I lose my dear son in that event.

00:06:45.040 And they are killing.

00:06:46.660 The killing machine has not stopped.

00:06:49.080 The regime has two things in hand to stay in power.

00:06:54.560 Iranian people inside and pushing terrorism outside. And I cannot understand why the Western

00:07:04.420 government, like the previous one, Obama regime, they sit down and negotiate with these people

00:07:12.140 and give them plain load of cash. This is not acceptable at all, you know?

00:07:20.460 You know, a moment ago, when you mentioned the possibility that you could have lost your son

00:07:24.440 in Paris. And that was, I presume, the Free Iran Conference, where this is, again, a notable threat

00:07:30.200 that has traced back to the Iranian regime. And you tear up talking about that possibility.

00:07:35.220 So I guess I'm still trying to understand, for people that don't have this connection to Iran,

00:07:40.220 how do you justify in your mind still fighting and still advocating when there is a risk to you?

00:07:47.080 Because you live in the United States right now, you have a family, you have a career.

00:07:50.440 A lot of people would wash their hands of this and say, this is no longer my fight.

00:07:55.060 Why is it still your fight?

00:07:59.160 Because there is no day I cannot think about my brothers.

00:08:04.320 This is Reza, this is Bahman, and this is Behruz.

00:08:11.120 Why can't I forget?

00:08:12.820 Some people, they say, forget it.

00:08:15.680 They have destroyed me.

00:08:17.640 They have destroyed my family.

00:08:19.760 and still there are so many families are being destroyed this is the thing that it stopped is

00:08:28.700 the same question like when fascism was in power in germany people should fight this regime has

00:08:37.260 two characteristic and this is the support that we get is bipartisan last time i was in an event

00:08:45.640 And Rudy Giuliani, the ex-mayor of New York, he talked about the mafia nature of this regime

00:08:54.720 because he has dealt with the mafia.

00:08:57.040 He knows what the nature of mafia is.

00:09:01.200 And he said, we cannot deal with mafia.

00:09:04.040 You cannot negotiate with mafia.

00:09:07.220 You need to fight mafia.

00:09:08.800 And another person, Patrick Kennedy, he talked about the fascism part of the regime.

00:09:15.640 because his uncle was killed fighting fascism he said i cannot sit here in washington

00:09:22.760 or in u.s and watch this fascist what they are doing to iranian people that's the reason that

00:09:29.800 we need this regime go and we need the world community understand that you cannot negotiate

00:09:36.680 with these people these are do not belong to 20th century iran is a good country iranian

00:09:44.280 people are nice people we can have normal relationship with everybody our passport is

00:09:49.800 worth nothing you cannot travel with your iranian passport anywhere because of the government why

00:09:57.800 that's the reason i want a better iran for my people we have suffered i don't want other to

00:10:05.320 suffer the way we have suffered that's the reason i'm keep fighting and the thing about it is many

00:10:12.120 the regime says if we go there is no alternative nobody can do better than us no there is a viable

00:10:20.760 alternative we have national council of resistance of iran and we have a president elect mariam

00:10:27.320 rajabi and these people are much much better alternative than the present regime and the

00:10:35.000 fight with the iranian regime is not just the political it is a fight of religion at all

00:10:41.880 there are two interpretation of islam one interpretation of islam is the reactionary

00:10:47.560 islam that those people advocate and another interpretation of islam is the modern islam that

00:10:53.960 mujahideen are promoting and in this interpretation everybody is equal regardless of their religion

00:11:04.920 they are very tolerant they have a consistency with the modern world but those people they

00:11:11.720 They want to overtake the whole world.

00:11:13.780 Their plan is the Islamic world government, and they are not shy about it.

00:11:19.460 They have written this in their constitution.

00:11:22.300 If you study the Islamic Republic constitution, they say that the duty of our forces is not

00:11:30.340 only to protect the Iranian border, but to spread the Islam all over the world by force.

00:11:37.720 And that's the reason you see them in Iraq.

00:11:41.160 You see them in Lebanon, you see them in Yemen, you see them in Afghanistan, and they are

00:11:46.980 spending billions of dollars of Iranian money to give to their so-called soldiers to fight

00:11:54.900 their fight.

00:11:55.900 And this is not acceptable at all for us.

00:11:59.220 You raised an important point there, actually, I think, because when the Giuliani comment

00:12:04.760 that we need to treat them like the mafia or the Patrick Kennedy comment that we need

00:12:08.220 to treat them like the fascists is accepted, we can look at those things and say that with the

00:12:13.100 mafia, law-abiding citizens combine and unite and defeat the mafia. With fascism, freedom-loving

00:12:19.220 countries around the world unite and defeat it. You just pointed out something that everyone needs

00:12:23.900 to know, that Iran is not just content to focus on Iran. They want to expand and conquer in many

00:12:29.360 cases. Yet the global community is not always aligned in combating Iran. In fact, even in

00:12:36.220 you're in my countries, the United States and Canada. You have a lot of politicians

00:12:39.820 that want to appease Iran rather than calling a spade a spade. So what's the message to them?

00:12:46.820 Because those people, when they say that, oh, well, we can just give Iran some money and just

00:12:51.680 shake hands with them and say that they're going to disarm nuclear weapons capabilities and all

00:12:56.640 of that, they aren't thinking of your brothers. The message is that it's simple. They are coming

00:13:05.360 eventually to bite you. Those Iranian people, the politicians, they are very shrewd. They have a big

00:13:14.920 smile and they portray that, oh, everything is going to be okay. This is the opposition. They

00:13:21.740 are just talking. We are not that bad. And they have hired, they have access to billions of dollars

00:13:28.720 of Iranian money, and they spend millions of dollars of those money to buy to people

00:13:36.420 who lobby for them.

00:13:37.760 We have a strong lobby group in Washington that these people are highly educated in Western

00:13:44.460 countries, and they go and talk to the politicians, and they say, no, everything the opposition

00:13:49.360 is saying is rise, and the regime is not that bad, and everything.

00:13:53.280 Unfortunately, many people, money talks, I guess, get persuaded that maybe they have an argument.

00:14:06.680 But the thing about it is I'm a physicist, okay?

00:14:11.080 And I know Iran is on top of the sea of natural gas and oil.

00:14:18.180 We don't need nuclear power.

00:14:20.540 And all the major countries like Japan, Germany, they have realized that nuclear power is not

00:14:28.980 good.

00:14:29.980 They are going back to renewable energy like solar.

00:14:33.240 I was visiting Canada.

00:14:34.440 I was surprised that in Canada, there are a lot of solar panels on top of the roof.

00:14:40.780 And Canada, compared to the sun, is not getting the 100% of the sun's energy because of the

00:14:48.300 way it's situated.

00:14:50.300 Iran is directly in front of the sun, and we have a lot of land that they can use solar

00:14:57.360 panel to generate and even export electricity.

00:15:01.060 The money that they spend to build the bomb, and they lie about it, and they say, no, no,

00:15:07.540 no, we don't want to build the bomb, we want to have the peaceful nuclear energy.

00:15:12.540 No, I don't buy that, they are lying.

00:15:16.060 And then the Western government, they said, OK, let's go and negotiate with them in JPO,

00:15:23.040 I don't know the rest of it, and have a treaty with them to inspect what they are doing.

00:15:32.380 No, the minister came and said that we had two kinds of two, one we showed to the Westerners

00:15:39.680 and the other one we kept to build our bomb, basically.

00:15:44.560 So that's the reason I say that this is danger and is the Western government, the politician,

00:15:52.500 unfortunately, they think some of them for the next two years, some of them the next

00:15:56.260 four years, and they don't see the long term what is going to happen.

00:16:00.640 But the Iranian people are suffering every day.

00:16:05.960 And they are spreading this terrorism to the Western countries.

00:16:10.900 That's the reason this, and we are not, the Iranian people are not asking the Western

00:16:17.560 countries to come and fight for us.

00:16:19.900 The only thing that we are asking, not to negotiate with the regime, not to support

00:16:24.580 the regime, not to trade with the regime, and the rest of it, the Iranian people will

00:16:29.180 take care of it.

00:16:30.180 And we have the alternative in place that the minute that they go, the alternative will

00:16:35.060 come and take over, and we are going to have good relation with our neighbors.

00:16:40.540 relation in Middle East, good relation with the Western world. Why they don't see this?

00:16:46.700 And of course, I'm glad that you are talking to me and the world is getting around. And many

00:16:53.900 Western politicians are coming to the table. Last year, for example, the majority of the House in

00:17:04.700 in the United States passed a resolution condemning the Iranian regime.

00:17:10.760 So these are hopeful signs, and I'm hoping even what President Trump did, maximum pressure

00:17:21.720 is biting the regime.

00:17:23.540 And these are the steps that we ask the Western world, Western politicians to take.

00:17:30.040 let the iranian people take care of this regime but not helping them they help the regime by

00:17:38.220 sending plain load of cash i cannot understand why do you send plain load of cash to this regime

00:17:45.340 and what that cash was not used for iranian people the cash went to outside

00:17:52.560 they want to have a path to the mediterranean i don't know yeah and that's i think the very

00:17:59.160 important point here is that there's a huge divide always between what the Iranian regime

00:18:03.680 tells the world it wants to do and how it actually ends up acting with its people. And this is, I

00:18:09.620 think, a great example of that. I do have to ask you, because your brothers were not soldiers in

00:18:14.740 any conventional sense. They weren't going to war with the regime on a battlefield. One was a

00:18:19.340 photographer, one was a documentary filmmaker, for example. But even so, you have called them

00:18:25.420 martyrs and freedom fighters. And I was wondering if you could explain that.

00:18:29.160 The reason is my younger brother, he was taking pictures for opposition group, MEK.

00:18:38.560 They had a daily newspaper, 500,000 people, they would buy these newspaper and they would

00:18:47.880 give it to other people, millions of people could read those articles, could see those

00:18:53.080 pictures.

00:18:54.080 My younger brother, actually, he was a photographer for the paper.

00:18:59.820 And the reason that they killed him, to silence the opposition, to silence the truth, to not

00:19:05.540 let the truth come out.

00:19:07.760 And my other brother, he was making documentary, it's the same thing, because the regime was

00:19:12.800 saying everything is good, and he takes his camera and make a documentary.

00:19:16.680 No, not everything is good.

00:19:19.380 And look at this, look at this situation in Tehran, look at this place.

00:19:24.080 people are suffering and they don't want the truth to come out and their number one enemies

00:19:30.000 are people with cameras people with uh knowledge to make documentary and there are a lot of

00:19:36.960 reporters are in iranian jail they close a lot of newspaper every day they close a newspaper

00:19:44.000 people they go and open up another newspaper they close it again they close it again and there are

00:19:49.200 two or three official newspapers are left.

00:19:52.440 And it's important to note that this was the early 1980s.

00:19:55.200 It was a lot more difficult to be a photographer,

00:19:58.740 to have an audience than it is today

00:20:00.600 in the age of the internet.

00:20:01.680 So this was something that at the time

00:20:03.560 was not something that everyone could do.

00:20:06.700 Exactly.

00:20:07.520 And those days, if you remember the cameras are bulky

00:20:14.020 and they could see it.

00:20:15.320 Nowadays, of course, it's smaller.

00:20:18.060 And that was the reason they told my father,

00:20:20.500 and my father could not believe it.

00:20:21.960 He says taking pictures is a crime by execution.

00:20:30.000 He could not understand it, you know.

00:20:32.300 I understand why they do that,

00:20:33.940 because these people are cold-hearted, ruthless,

00:20:38.720 and they don't want the truth to come out.

00:20:41.860 And they live in a fantasy world, you know.

00:20:44.920 They want the 20th century to conquer the world.

00:20:49.580 For what?

00:20:50.580 For what reasons?

00:20:52.360 Everybody be Muslim like we tell them to be.

00:20:56.500 Why?

00:20:58.240 People can study if they like it, they believe it.

00:21:02.560 If they don't like it, they do something else.

00:21:04.920 We are human.

00:21:05.920 We need to have a human-to-human relationship.

00:21:09.600 Why do you want to put everybody under your guidance to take them to God?

00:21:18.760 No, God can take care of itself.

00:21:21.880 These people, they are charlatans.

00:21:24.360 These people just, I cannot understand, to be honest with you, what is in their mind,

00:21:34.600 but I can see what they are doing.

00:21:36.840 this is something that we want the world to see what they are doing you know so despite the

00:21:42.600 tragedy to your family you believe there was a meaning to these deaths of course of course

00:21:54.280 when i saw my brother's picture in the lawn in front of the

00:21:59.480 congress of the united states in front of the washington monument and many people come to me

00:22:08.120 and they say that they inspired us so there is something to it you know they

00:22:15.300 and to think about it is my brother they wrote their will and in their will they explain what

00:22:25.440 kind of uh uh society they want they said that they want that he said in our belief of islam

00:22:35.600 there is no distinction between jew christian zoroastrian um people who do not believe in

00:22:44.560 nothing we are all iranian we should live in peace and harmony in iran this is a quite different

00:22:52.720 interpretation of islam because they say that in islam there is a verse in quran it says law

00:23:00.320 there is no force put pushing your belief on other people you can advocate your belief but

00:23:08.400 you cannot push it but those people are doing the opposite they do not advocate their belief

00:23:16.480 they push it for example uh people's majority in our organization of iran mrs mariam rajavi

00:23:24.560 she herself has a job but she's not forcing this on other people they say that this is a freedom

00:23:32.640 of how you want to wear you know and this is completely opposite to

00:23:39.360 what the other people are advocating i remember one time i was walking on the street of

00:23:46.480 tehran with my wife and some of these revolutionary guard they came and separated us

00:23:55.120 and they were questioning me why do you let your wife to wear clothes like this and my wife my

00:24:04.640 poor wife she was a young girl young woman and what she had she had a colorful shirt on i said

00:24:15.920 i cannot tell her what to wear is it's not my to say she is a human being you need to respect

00:24:22.320 her as a human being ask herself why she chose that dress is and she said no no you should tell

00:24:29.680 your wife not to do that these are people like this you know many people they cannot understand

00:24:36.000 you just laughed you know what kind of craziness this is that they question me for what my wife is

00:24:46.240 wearing you know and unfortunately these things is going on and but mrs rajabi says whatever they

00:24:56.400 want to wear if you go to mek meetings you see that a miniature of the iranian society in those

00:25:04.720 meeting we have people of all kinds of religious belief zoroastrian jew christian non-believers

00:25:16.560 we have people from court lord gilak all kinds of different ethnicities that they live in iran

00:25:26.480 we have people from all walks of life highly educated doctors engineers and ordinary people

00:25:35.120 this is what we want a an organization that represents everybody and the reason that they

00:25:43.440 can represent of everybody because they believe in freedom freedom for mek is not something just

00:25:52.320 in word is indeed they have proven after so many years that they are not

00:25:59.280 lying about it you know in practice they have showed it so that's the reason i appreciate this

00:26:05.760 group that they are still fighting and i'm happy to help them you know so i'm hoping that the end

00:26:18.800 is near this regime cannot go on like this and if the western government they do not trade with

00:26:26.400 them they do not give them money the money that they have is not their money is the iranian

00:26:33.280 people's money and if you sign a contract for 25 years with them this is betraying the iranian

00:26:41.120 people, you know, and that's all we are asking, you know. And I think that that goal for freedom

00:26:49.740 is something that all in Iran and all around the world should embrace. So I thank you very much

00:26:53.960 for speaking out about your story. And obviously, I thank your brothers for taking a stand, even

00:26:59.620 though it had a tragic end. As you said, there's a meaning and a purpose to that. Glenn Torshizi,

00:27:04.200 thank you very much for your time, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew, for taking the time and

00:27:09.660 listening to me thank you wow i mean a moving story and as i said at some point in the interview

00:27:15.900 glenn's story is not just about politics it's about his life and that of his family so i thank

00:27:22.740 him very much for sharing that that does it for me i want to thank all of you for listening and

00:27:26.920 also glenn torshisi for coming on the program we'll talk to you in a couple of days with another

00:27:31.740 episode of the andrew lawton show thank you god bless and good day thanks for listening to the

00:27:36.500 Andrew Lawton Show. Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

00:28:06.500 You

Juno News - September 07, 2020

Resisting the Regime

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