Juno News - Trudeau calls for civility after calling truckers racists

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's most irreverent talk show. This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:12.700 Coming up, weeks after Justin Trudeau's authoritarian crackdown on civil liberties, he says we need to listen to those we disagree with.

00:00:20.420 Plus, why conservatives need to stop defending Russia, and what does the Russia-Ukraine war mean for Iran?

00:00:26.680 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:56.680 Leadership candidates who have declared. We've got a full show coming up tomorrow with Pierre Paliève, the first person to announce a leadership bid.

00:01:04.840 We're also working on interviews with Jean Charest, with Leslie Lewis.

00:01:09.320 So again, you don't want to miss all of these things, and we have bids out to all of the candidates.

00:01:13.880 We'll have them on, and we'll also hopefully do a series later on where we sit down face-to-face and have an in-depth, comprehensive discussion with them,

00:01:21.880 as we did in 2020, a series that tended to be very well-received.

00:01:26.020 So thanks to all of you that have been asking me to do that again.

00:01:29.780 But I am going to talk a little bit about Justin Trudeau going overseas and completely making a fool of himself.

00:01:37.580 This is not news. This is like the old line about when a dog bites a man, that's not news. 0.72

00:01:42.480 But when a man bites a dog, that's news. 1.00

00:01:44.380 Justin Trudeau saying something stupid overseas is the epitome of dog bites man. 0.99

00:01:49.240 However, even if it's not newsworthy in the sense of groundbreaking or revolutionary, it is revealing. 1.00

00:01:55.860 So I'm going to play this clip for you, and I don't even think I need to contextualize it.

00:02:00.560 I think I can just play it, and the point makes itself.

00:02:04.040 The respect for the infinite dignity of each individual means no one should get left out.

00:02:13.340 And this is also true for people who hold different political views.

00:02:20.680 We all need to commit to more listening and less shouting.

00:02:27.700 Diversity of ideas helps us learn from one another.

00:02:32.840 Talking with people who think differently from us is how we challenge ourselves.

00:02:37.320 And challenging ourselves is how we grow.

00:02:42.100 So by strengthening our open, inclusive societies, everyone benefits.

00:02:48.960 Democracy benefits.

00:02:51.260 Okay then.

00:02:53.020 So let's just break this down a little bit.

00:02:56.940 So Justin Trudeau says that democracy benefits from an inclusive society,

00:03:01.260 which benefits from being inclusive of people who have different beliefs.

00:03:07.320 And different views.

00:03:10.000 Justin Trudeau, who said that truckers protesting vaccine mandates were a fringe minority with unacceptable views,

00:03:19.620 is the same Justin Trudeau saying that we all have to listen to each other,

00:03:23.640 and maybe we'll learn something, and maybe we'll grow.

00:03:25.920 The same Justin Trudeau who said that people who are unvaccinated are racist, misogynist, anti-science.

00:03:33.800 He's saying, well, people with different views, they're all important, we've got to listen.

00:03:37.780 Our democracy depends on it.

00:03:40.160 Under normal circumstances, he could get away with this.

00:03:43.060 Under normal circumstances, he could go into another country.

00:03:45.700 This was a speech he gave in Germany, and he could say that,

00:03:48.560 and all of the other leaders would be sitting there applauding,

00:03:50.860 saying, oh wow, this progressive Canadian leader coming and speaking truth to power and all of that.

00:03:56.260 But this is not the case now,

00:03:58.100 because Justin Trudeau's handling of the trucker convoy was something that made him famous,

00:04:03.620 as they say, for all the wrong reasons.

00:04:05.840 I was doing interviews in the U.S.

00:04:08.420 I was doing interviews on U.K. TV pretty much every week.

00:04:11.440 I was on a big station there, GB News.

00:04:13.920 My colleague Candace Malcolm was being interviewed in the U.K.

00:04:17.140 She was also doing interviews in India, if memory serves.

00:04:20.460 And so around the world, people were paying attention to this authoritarian crackdown

00:04:26.440 that Justin Trudeau was doing.

00:04:28.940 And it was that crackdown that led to other leaders looking around and saying,

00:04:33.920 well, I guess we have justification to do the same thing here,

00:04:36.660 like the way Emmanuel Macron responded to the attempt at a trucker convoy in France,

00:04:42.040 which they didn't even allow to get off the ground,

00:04:44.660 because they figured, okay, yeah, if we're just allowed to go in and start breaking windows,

00:04:47.640 that's what we're going to do.

00:04:48.520 So all of this is to say, when Justin Trudeau,

00:04:52.060 having had the world watching his bungling of the convoy,

00:04:57.100 gets up and says, okay, well, we all need to be tolerant and listen,

00:05:00.140 I don't think anyone's buying it.

00:05:02.340 I do, and no one should be buying it, but more importantly,

00:05:04.560 I don't think anyone is buying it.

00:05:08.080 And this is a guy, remember, and I know I've said this a number of times in the show,

00:05:11.680 but he came onto the stage and said, Canada's back.

00:05:13.980 He thought he was going to single-handedly restore Canada's reputation in the world,

00:05:18.160 which he thought had been harmed under Stephen Harper.

00:05:21.700 Now, we know with the benefit of hindsight that this wasn't, in fact, the case.

00:05:25.160 All of Justin Trudeau's grandstanding, the hobnobbing,

00:05:28.160 standing elbow to elbow with every tinpot dictator he could find to whip votes

00:05:32.280 for a Security Council seat didn't even work.

00:05:35.360 Canada didn't even come close.

00:05:38.040 So this idea that Canada is asserting itself as the middle power,

00:05:41.760 this idea that Justin Trudeau is taken seriously,

00:05:46.060 just isn't true.

00:05:48.160 And in this case, people around the world are probably rolling their eyes,

00:05:51.040 but people in Canada certainly should be mortified by this.

00:05:54.040 How dare you stand up and give people lectures on the importance of respecting diversity

00:06:00.440 of thought, diversity of opinion,

00:06:03.040 when you're the government and you're the party and you're the leader

00:06:08.300 who maligns people you disagree with.

00:06:11.100 I mean, let's go back years.

00:06:12.340 Let's talk about the greatest hits here.

00:06:14.220 This is the guy who banned people who are pro-life from serving as liberal MPs.

00:06:19.120 This is the guy who insults and maligns anyone who disagrees with him,

00:06:23.960 not just on vaccination, but on mandatory vaccination, on vaccine mandates.

00:06:30.820 This is a guy whose health minister accused anyone that criticized China's role in this

00:06:35.840 of being a conspiracy theorist.

00:06:39.500 This is a guy who routinely resorts to name-calling against his political opponents.

00:06:44.700 I've got a thick skin.

00:06:45.660 I don't take it personally.

00:06:46.740 But I do think that anyone looking at this should be mortified

00:06:51.480 at just the sheer brazenness of him claiming that he is above debate,

00:06:56.500 above discussion, above discord, because he just views everyone as one.

00:07:01.300 He just views inclusivity as being so pivotal to democracy.

00:07:04.840 He's not particularly interested in diversity of thought or in democracy,

00:07:08.660 as we've seen in the last month.

00:07:10.880 So this was, again, a speech where I said earlier that it spoke for itself and I didn't

00:07:16.620 need to add commentary, but every time I listen to it, I get a bit ranty.

00:07:19.640 So that's why you've gotten the commentary on this nonetheless.

00:07:22.840 But the one thing I would say is that I don't think at this point anyone is being fooled by it.

00:07:27.860 I don't think that anyone is buying it.

00:07:30.500 And certainly I don't think anyone should be buying it.

00:07:32.620 One thing I want to spend a couple of moments talking about here is the Western perception of

00:07:39.180 Russia and Ukraine.

00:07:40.960 And I mentioned the day this broke that I'm not in Ukraine right now.

00:07:45.280 I'm not in Russia.

00:07:46.240 I'm not going to pretend to give you on the ground.

00:07:48.240 And in fact, I've been avoiding covering some parts of this because it's very difficult to

00:07:53.000 filter through a lot of what is coming out there because everything in a war is through

00:07:58.440 the lens of propaganda.

00:08:00.060 And it can be true, something can be true, but still used for propagandist purposes.

00:08:05.820 So there's a big challenge there.

00:08:07.500 A lot of stuff has come out that you look at that and be like, wow, that's incredible.

00:08:10.040 And then you realize, oh, that's a video from, you know, 14 years ago or something like that.

00:08:14.220 And even well-meaning people that are trying to get the facts in the ground and trying to

00:08:18.540 report on the raw footage and so on.

00:08:20.820 So I've always taken the view that I'm not going to report on things that I'm not interested

00:08:25.180 in.

00:08:25.680 And I'm not going to report on things where I don't feel I can provide the best

00:08:29.900 information.

00:08:30.980 This is a case where I'm very interested in it.

00:08:33.440 But a lot of it is in that second column where I just can't give you the best, most

00:08:37.820 up-to-date information.

00:08:39.140 So I've been focusing on some other things.

00:08:41.100 But there are some areas where I am going to get involved.

00:08:44.040 And one thing that I can talk about is the Western perception to this, the Western response

00:08:48.960 to this.

00:08:49.360 It was very quick that we saw all of the Ukraine flags pop up in everyone's profile pictures.

00:08:55.420 And people were standing with Ukraine.

00:08:57.360 Ukrainian aid was starting up.

00:08:59.200 I interviewed the day the war broke out.

00:09:01.240 Someone from the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress who had started very quickly mobilizing support

00:09:06.200 to Ukraine.

00:09:07.400 Lest there be any doubt, in this situation, Russia is in the wrong. 0.62

00:09:12.300 Ukraine is in the right, in my view. 0.93

00:09:14.700 And that is something where you don't need to be on the ground to reach that determination.

00:09:19.020 I'm also, at the same time, not going to whitewash Ukraine.

00:09:21.680 It's not a perfect country.

00:09:23.020 It's not a country that is the model of democracy, the beacon of democracy.

00:09:27.220 It's a country that has its baggage.

00:09:29.880 At the same time, I don't think that baggage supports what there has been a trend of, which

00:09:35.680 is defending Russia against the point at which it makes sense to do so.

00:09:41.240 And I want to play a clip here, which I found quite interesting.

00:09:44.840 Now, I should say, I know this person.

00:09:46.580 This is a member of the European Parliament, Charlie Wymer, who I think I first met probably,

00:09:50.500 what, 14, 15 years ago.

00:09:51.880 And we've kept in touch over the years.

00:09:53.720 And he gave a very brief, a very succinct, but I think a very important address in the

00:09:58.500 European Parliament.

00:10:00.000 And again, he's Swedish.

00:10:00.960 So he's closer to Russia geographically and, as such, is more threatened by Russia than 0.80

00:10:06.540 anyone else in the Western world is, in Western Europe and North America, for the most part,

00:10:11.540 in the literal sense.

00:10:12.560 He gave this talk that I wanted to share because he speaks to a concern that I've had as well,

00:10:18.260 which is looking at this tendency that I've seen, especially in the United States, but

00:10:23.200 to some extent in Canada as well, to recast Russia and Putin in a light that simply is

00:10:30.000 not accurate.

00:10:31.920 Thank you, Mr. President. 1.00

00:10:34.740 The Kremlin's useful idiots are historically found on the left. 1.00

00:10:41.000 It saddens me that some on the right have become infatuated with Putin's pretend conservatism. 1.00

00:10:47.700 All conservatives should know that Putin is not a traditionalist bulwark standing up against

00:10:54.500 the weak, woke West.

00:10:57.260 Putin has built a morally bankrupt system, systematic bribes, corruption, killings, stealing, lies, 0.99

00:11:05.500 and now sending Russia's youth to die while killing their Slavic brethren. 0.93

00:11:10.440 Is Putin defending Christendom by using fanatical Chechen Islamists and Syrian mercenaries in 0.98

00:11:17.720 Ukraine?

00:11:18.720 Forcing one and a half million people away from their motherland and tearing families apart?

00:11:24.860 Is that in line with family values and respect for the love of one's home?

00:11:29.980 What about love thy neighbor?

00:11:32.540 Is cluster bombing residential areas compatible with the commandment, thou shalt not kill?

00:11:38.920 Well, wake up.

00:11:41.760 Imperialism is the antithesis to free nations.

00:11:45.980 Thank you.

00:11:46.780 He said it well.

00:11:47.620 This isn't some bulwark standing up for traditionalism.

00:11:50.400 This is a guy who is invading.

00:11:53.140 He is violating the sovereignty of another country.

00:11:55.540 Even if you hold the idea of international law in murky territory, which I do, you can still

00:12:00.980 say that a country's sovereignty is something that it has a right to defend and uphold.

00:12:05.660 And in Russia's case, it's completely obliterating this idea of any Ukrainian sovereignty.

00:12:13.040 And this idea of denazification, this idea of democratizing Ukraine or whatever the case

00:12:19.460 is, is absolutely nonsense.

00:12:22.280 Even if you want to point to a sect of the Ukrainian population that has a radicalism of some kind

00:12:29.700 and has neo-Nazi sympathies or whatever, that's wrong and that's a Ukrainian domestic issue

00:12:34.380 to deal with.

00:12:35.080 That's not the issue of another country.

00:12:37.260 Canada couldn't just invade the United States because, oh, you know what?

00:12:40.220 We don't like what a couple of these groups are doing.

00:12:41.980 So we're going to go and neutralize them in some way.

00:12:44.960 That would be absolutely absurd.

00:12:46.580 So the excuses that have been coming out from Russia, which has shown a complete reckless 0.99

00:12:51.520 disregard for civil society, for civilian life, for the rule of law, for democracy, for free

00:13:00.040 markets, for freedom.

00:13:01.340 This is absolutely not a country that anyone should be supporting.

00:13:06.080 You can say that it's not black and white.

00:13:08.840 You can say that it's not black and white and that, you know, Ukraine isn't the hero and 0.98

00:13:13.420 Putin isn't the villain 100 percent, but you're absolutely not going to get me to say that

00:13:19.340 Putin is in the right here.

00:13:21.480 And I've seen a great deal of frustration emerge from some people that are looking and saying,

00:13:27.400 how did it come that, you know, 30 years after the Cold War ended, Russia is somehow sympathetic

00:13:33.780 to a lot of people on the right?

00:13:35.780 So that's my thought on this.

00:13:37.380 I do want to talk about this in a little bit more depth about a specific angle that's

00:13:41.320 emerged here.

00:13:41.940 And I should say the timing of this was somewhat coincidental.

00:13:45.580 Iran, which is a country I do know a lot better than I know the history of Russia, Ukraine,

00:13:51.680 is a country that has always tried to be pursuing legitimacy and regime survival.

00:13:58.980 These are the two primary roles.

00:14:00.580 And this is why the Iran nuclear deal was so important to Iran, because they were getting 0.74

00:14:05.140 not just legitimacy and engagement with the West, but also boatloads of cash.

00:14:09.820 This was all coming from Barack Obama's government.

00:14:12.980 Well, the Iranian nuclear deal is dead.

00:14:15.700 Donald Trump killed it off.

00:14:17.300 Iran has been trying to revive it in some way, but they've been going back and forth on

00:14:22.060 this.

00:14:22.640 They now see, coincidentally, Russia as being their best ally in this, because Russia has 0.59

00:14:28.720 always been a semi-Western power.

00:14:31.320 The problem is here, Russia is now embroiled in war with Ukraine.

00:14:36.820 So if Iran was trying to look at a conduit to the West through Russia, this is not exactly

00:14:41.600 the best time to do it.

00:14:42.840 But it just so happens that these negotiations have been coming up quite recently.

00:14:47.600 Last week in Vienna, there were talks between the Iranian delegation and the Russian delegation,

00:14:53.940 which it seemed like were going in a particular direction.

00:14:57.480 And then at the end of it, Russia was making some demands of Iran.

00:15:00.860 Iran was making some demands of Russia.

00:15:02.760 And they went home with this still very much in limbo.

00:15:06.140 But I want to talk about this because there is a significant dimension, I think, of the global

00:15:11.080 picture here that we're missing, which is where the battle lines are going to be drawn.

00:15:15.600 We saw in the Cold War this idea of the East versus the West, NATO versus the Warsaw Pact.

00:15:22.520 And Russia has been a fair bit more isolated from the world, considerably more isolated from

00:15:27.840 the world, even from its historic allies, in the course of its invasion of Ukraine.

00:15:34.600 And then you look at the Iran side of things, that puts Iran in a somewhat tricky spot as

00:15:39.100 well.

00:15:39.580 Joining me now is Ali Raza Jafferzadeh, who is the Deputy Director of the Washington Office

00:15:44.600 of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

00:15:47.940 Ali Raza, good to talk to you, sir.

00:15:49.340 Thanks for coming on today.

00:15:51.440 Thank you so much, Andrew.

00:15:52.820 Great pleasure to be on your show.

00:15:54.680 So obviously, the world has been paying attention to what's been happening between Russia and

00:16:00.580 Ukraine.

00:16:01.380 I want to turn a little bit to a story that developed on the margins of this, which is the

00:16:06.500 talking between Russia and Iran, specifically over Iran's pursuit of a nuclear deal with

00:16:13.740 the rest of the world here.

00:16:14.900 Now, I know there have been a number of changes here.

00:16:17.240 The latest story is that Russia has been making demands, which apparently Iran is not a fan

00:16:22.400 of here.

00:16:22.840 But explain to me where things stand right now.

00:16:25.540 Why is Iran pushing this through at this exact moment?

00:16:28.740 Well, the reason the Iran regime has come to the negotiating temple in Vienna is because 0.76

00:16:38.840 they are in big trouble inside Iran.

00:16:41.520 And the issue is not just the nuclear talks.

00:16:44.560 There is a bigger ditch and hole that the Ayatollahs are in. 1.00

00:16:49.880 And they have been in this situation for over four years.

00:16:53.200 And that's the internal situation in the country, the uprising, the protests.

00:16:59.720 Since early 2018, there have been eight major rounds of uprisings and protests all over the

00:17:07.260 country, some of which, like in November 2019, led to the murder of 1,500 protesters who have

00:17:14.700 participated in demonstrations over 200 cities.

00:17:17.360 As we speak, the protests continue in different forms.

00:17:21.480 The different sectors of the Iranian society are involved, from teachers to peasants and

00:17:27.460 farmers to workers, students, women activists.

00:17:31.320 They're all involved.

00:17:33.140 They have rejected this regime in its entirety.

00:17:36.720 It was the regime itself conceded during the latest round of so-called presidential elections

00:17:43.300 that the majority of the Iranian population stayed away from the ballot box.

00:17:48.740 And remember, in Iran, it's not voluntary for you to participate in the election.

00:17:53.180 It's mandatory.

00:17:54.620 They stamp your ID when you participate in the elections.

00:17:58.360 And that ID is needed if you want to get a job, if you want to get to college, anything

00:18:03.100 you want to do, you need that stamp.

00:18:05.100 Yet the majority of the population stayed away.

00:18:08.180 Clearly, the population of Iran have rejected this regime.

00:18:11.200 And under such circumstances, the regime has come to the negotiating table.

00:18:17.680 And all they're looking for is lifting the sanctions.

00:18:21.360 They don't want to change their behavior.

00:18:23.160 They don't want to abandon their nuclear weapons program.

00:18:25.960 They don't want to put aside their terrorism and the intervention in the internal affairs

00:18:30.460 of other countries in the region.

00:18:32.320 All they are interested in is lifting the sanctions that is hurting the resources of the IRGC.

00:18:40.140 And they say publicly, they say that this new round of talks is not about anything else.

00:18:46.660 It's about lifting the sanctions.

00:18:48.280 And that's where things have gotten stuck.

00:18:51.100 Yeah, and that was, I think, the interesting attachment to the Russia situation here,

00:18:56.500 because Russia is wanting to make sure that it...

00:18:59.920 Obviously, Russia is facing its own sanctions right now.

00:19:02.660 But Russia was saying it doesn't want to be affected by the sanctions against Iran.

00:19:07.880 So I have to just, again, go back to the why now.

00:19:10.980 Why is this coming up now?

00:19:12.260 And why does Iran see this moment as being its best opportunity to restore this deal?

00:19:17.820 Well, you know, these talks have been going on for almost a year now.

00:19:26.300 And it was since August that the new president of the Iran regime, Ebrahim Raisi, has come to office.

00:19:33.860 And they thought they have a better team for negotiations,

00:19:36.820 that they're going to be a little bit more hardcore pressing on their demands.

00:19:40.880 And they were actually counting on the inaction or the conciliatory approach of the P4 plus 1.

00:19:51.100 That's what they were counting on.

00:19:52.980 But what has happened over the past roughly two weeks is that since the unjust war on Ukraine

00:20:01.040 that happened about two weeks ago, things have affected this whole situation in Vienna,

00:20:08.060 because the Russians, who are the main target of all the sanctions right now by the whole world,

00:20:16.400 and even the United States and UK and other countries are imposing sanctions on their oil and gas industry.

00:20:25.340 And there's a lot of condemnations coming from all over the world against this invasion of Ukraine

00:20:34.200 and in support of the Ukrainian people, guess what?

00:20:37.760 The Ayatollahs have found themselves on the side of the Russians. 0.79

00:20:43.060 They sided with the invasion early on, the very first day.

00:20:48.320 And they said it was the United States to blame.

00:20:52.360 It was the fault of the NATO that led to the situation as we see in Ukraine.

00:20:57.260 So they heavily counted and invested on the Russians, hoping that, aside from the alliances they've had with Russia,

00:21:06.920 hoping that they would be able to help them during the negotiations.

00:21:11.360 And practically, the lead negotiator had become Russia, representing the United States

00:21:17.720 and pretty much all the other European nations who were involved in this.

00:21:22.560 And then the Russians, who were under pressure themselves, wanted to carve out their own interests here,

00:21:31.020 saying that any sanctions on Russia should not affect their relationship with the Iranian regime.

00:21:38.780 In other words, they wanted a way to circumvent the sanctions and be able to have exchange with the Iranian regime.

00:21:47.860 And of course, that's not going to be accepted by the rest of the world.

00:21:52.160 So that was like a wrench into this whole thing.

00:21:55.360 And that's why the regime in Tehran has found itself in a troubling situation,

00:22:02.060 because they thought that they can take advantage of what happened in Ukraine

00:22:07.720 while everyone is focusing on the situation in Ukraine.

00:22:12.400 They can get away with things.

00:22:13.980 They can get the concessions that they want.

00:22:16.300 And suddenly, things have gotten stuck.

00:22:18.940 I don't know what's going to happen in the next step, but so far, it hasn't really gone the way the Ayatollahs wanted it.

00:22:26.140 No, and I think that's an important point here.

00:22:28.800 I want to go back, Ali Reza, to Ibrahim Raisi, who you mentioned a few moments ago.

00:22:33.920 The Iranian regime, we know, and we've talked about it on this show,

00:22:37.160 who oftentimes likes to put a face forward that is not the Ayatollah to make itself look like it's ready to engage with the West and be conciliatory.

00:22:46.740 Oftentimes, they don't do particularly well at this, but they try to.

00:22:50.960 Raisi is not that guy.

00:22:52.780 Here's a man who is not only a hardliner, a puppet of the Ayatollah, 0.97

00:22:56.820 but also someone who quite literally has blood on his hands.

00:23:00.180 Thousands and thousands of people executed at his hand going back decades in Iran.

00:23:06.280 So why on earth would the Ayatollah think that this was going to be the guy who could represent Iran to the world

00:23:13.360 and re-engage and get the countries of Europe and the United States back on board?

00:23:19.420 Well, Andrew, that's a great question.

00:23:21.060 And the conventional wisdom would say that he is the worst person to have, you know,

00:23:27.660 to go out, to be your face of the regime, to negotiate, to do anything.

00:23:32.620 But the selection, and I emphasize on that word because Raisi was handpicked by the supreme leader

00:23:40.200 to become the next president of the Iranian regime.

00:23:44.180 And it wasn't out of a choice.

00:23:47.140 It was out of absolute desperation.

00:23:49.480 Supreme Leader Khamenei had no choice but to pick Raisi.

00:23:53.480 Why?

00:23:54.360 Because the main problem that he wanted to solve was internal.

00:23:59.140 He was facing continued protests and uprising on the part of the Iranian people.

00:24:05.640 Particularly the organized opposition was heavily involved in both organizing and directing

00:24:12.680 and ensuring the continuity of these protest acts.

00:24:16.360 The main opposition, namely the Mujahideen, also known as the MEK, has been in the forefront

00:24:23.840 of these protests.

00:24:25.700 And they have their own what they call resistance units formed in Iran since the uprisings started.

00:24:33.860 And people now are familiar with the term resistance units because that's when you look at Ukraine,

00:24:41.040 you see the Ukrainian people forming their own resistance units to fight the occupation of their country.

00:24:48.600 And you see how powerful those units can be even against a very heavily equipped and well-funded military.

00:24:54.940 Exactly.

00:24:55.940 And, you know, everyone gave like no chance whatsoever to the Ukrainian army, to the Ukrainian people.

00:25:03.420 And they thought, you know, the Russians who have the second best, perhaps most, you know,

00:25:08.360 best equipped and well-trained army in the world could easily in 48 hours or whatever can take over everything.

00:25:16.660 That didn't happen primarily because of the role of the way the people stood up, the way these resistance units and the army fought back against the Russian invasion.

00:25:31.400 And, you know, the Supreme Leader has been thinking about this, this problem that he has been facing in Iran.

00:25:39.100 He knows the capabilities of this movement.

00:25:42.180 He knows the sentiment of the population.

00:25:44.980 He has seen how people have been chanting death to Khamenei, death to the dictatorship, all throughout these demonstrations.

00:25:52.260 He has seen that even killing 1,500 people in point-blank range in the streets and killing them didn't end the protest.

00:26:01.840 So what's the solution?

00:26:03.280 The solution is bringing someone who would act as a hammer, who would leave no mercy whatsoever, who would have a track record, a background to be able to suppress the main force leading the protest, which is the MEK. 0.70

00:26:21.100 And that was Raisi, and as you said, Raisi is only known because he was heavily involved in the 1988 massacre of as many as 30,000 political prisoners in a matter of few weeks.

00:26:37.300 None of these political prisoners were already sentenced to death.

00:26:41.340 They were just simply serving their term.

00:26:43.160 And they're based on a fatwa, a religious decree issued by then Supreme Leader Khomeini against the MEK, saying anyone who is in any way associated with this movement and remains committed and loyal to this movement in the prisons need to be killed.

00:27:01.560 And he appointed a four-member, what they call death commission, and Abraham Raisi was one of the members of that death commission in 1988, who interviewed every single prisoner, asking them only one question, what is your political affiliation?

00:27:17.520 And if they said it's the MEK, that was the MEK, that was the end of it, that would lead them to a different direction at the end of the hallway, they would hang them right away.

00:27:28.240 So this is the track record of Raisi, all his life, since he was only 19 years old, he was involved in the judiciary system.

00:27:38.200 He was the prosecutor of Karaj at the age of 20, and Karaj is not a small town, it's the fourth most populated city in Iran.

00:27:48.800 His job was to put people in jail and kill them at the early age.

00:27:53.060 He has no education, he has no other experience whatsoever. 0.57

00:27:57.000 Eventually, he rose to the ranks of the regime as the judiciary chief.

00:28:01.440 And during the 2019 uprisings in Iran, when 1,500 people, at least 1,500 people were killed, Abraham Raisi was the judiciary chief.

00:28:11.040 So he's the guy that Khamenei needed to bring in at the helm so that he can confront the protests.

00:28:18.780 The other purpose of bringing him was that he needed the sanctions lifted.

00:28:23.240 And he thought by having Raisi, who would draw clear red lines and would be defiant and would keep asking the Western nations to give more concessions to the Ayatollahs, maybe this is the guy who can accomplish that. 0.97

00:28:42.240 But also at the same time, when it comes to the nuclear issue, the plan of the Iran regime was to rush to the bomb.

00:28:49.480 And it's not just, you know, even though temporarily in the short run, they wanted sanctions lifted, but their real goal is to develop the nuclear weapons program.

00:29:00.300 And the way all the things are shaping up, that's the direction that they're taking.

00:29:05.660 Yeah, and I guess just to bring it back to the Russia issue that we started talking about here, Iran needs allies.

00:29:12.340 If they're going to be facing sanctions from the West, they need allies.

00:29:14.880 And you're right, in some way, they may find that Russia is the only friend they can find in this climate.

00:29:22.680 And yes, and, you know, the Russians have their own interests as well.

00:29:26.180 So that's why, you know, the Russians want something that is not acceptable to the Ayatollahs. 0.81

00:29:33.120 It's not acceptable to the rest of the world.

00:29:35.700 So they're getting stuck here.

00:29:38.600 And, you know, think about it.

00:29:40.820 If you are a regime like the Ayatollahs, whose only allies in the world are the, you know, Assad in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, 0.90

00:29:51.480 those Shiite militias whom they created and trained and funded in Iraq, and then among the powers of the world, it's, you know, it's Russia. 0.79

00:30:04.020 You are in a very bad shape, especially when you are confronted by your own population. 1.00

00:30:12.000 And especially when, sorry to interrupt there, but especially when Russia itself is further isolated from the world now than it has been since the end of the Soviet Union.

00:30:20.340 Absolutely.

00:30:21.920 The Russians cannot play the role they used to play in helping the Iranian regime.

00:30:27.980 They are in big trouble themselves as a result of the invasion.

00:30:32.140 And the regime is also in big trouble because they supported this whole invasion. 0.85

00:30:39.580 And they are on the wrong side when it comes to the invasion of Ukraine.

00:30:46.420 So that's like an added problem.

00:30:48.440 And, you know, if they didn't have enough problems, this is like one big addition to the problems of the Iran regime.

00:30:55.800 Ali Reza Jeffersadeh, Deputy Director of the Washington Office over at the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

00:31:01.800 Ali Reza, a pleasure.

00:31:02.860 Thanks for coming on.

00:31:04.880 Thank you so much.

00:31:06.160 Always a pleasure to be on your show, Andrew.

00:31:09.240 Thank you, Ali Reza Jeffersadeh, for coming on.

00:31:12.040 That does it for us.

00:31:13.200 As I mentioned earlier, tomorrow we've got a full-length episode with Pierre Polyev, Conservative Leadership Candidate.

00:31:19.680 And next week we'll have conversations with Leslyn Lewis and Jean Charest as well.

00:31:24.460 We'll send invites out to anyone who's in the race as well.

00:31:26.940 We're not picking and choosing here.

00:31:28.060 These are just the ones that we've set up at this time.

00:31:30.800 Let me know what you think.

00:31:31.700 As always, you can leave your comments there and we appreciate it greatly.

00:31:35.140 We'll talk to you tomorrow.

00:31:36.100 This is the Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.

00:31:38.020 Thank you, God bless, and good day to you all.

00:31:40.600 Thanks for listening to the Andrew Lawton Show.

00:31:42.680 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - March 11, 2022

Trudeau calls for civility after calling truckers racists

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript