As regional ceasefires take hold, the Iranian regime has intensified a different kind of war — one aimed squarely at its own people. Under the cover of external conflict, Iran’s leadership is accelerating a ruthless campaign of domestic repression. Without international accountability, this crackdown will deepen.
Prominent figures of Iran’s human rights movement are now imprisoned in the infamous Evin prison. In a nation marked by gender apartheid and the highest rate of child executions in the world, these advocates — champions for women’s equality and opponents of the death penalty — have earned the public’s admiration and the regime’s retaliation.
These political prisoners represent the most courageous voices for democracy and human rights in Iran. Even amidst war, they have appealed for basic legal protections, highlighting violations of both Iranian and international law. Instead of justice, they’ve faced harsher punishment — and silence from the global community.
Unchecked, this wave of repression threatens not only Iran’s civil society but any chance for long-term regional peace and reform. These dissidents are not collateral damage; they are the targets of a deliberate strategy by the Ayatollah’s regime to crush dissent and impose ideological conformity. This includes extinguishing the spirit of resistance sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini and the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement.
At the heart of this campaign is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist entity in Canada. Far beyond its military role, the IRGC controls prisons, suppresses universities, and strangles civic life. To view it solely as a security threat abroad is to overlook its core role as the regime’s instrument of domestic domination.
While Canada leads the UN General Assembly’s human rights resolution on Iran, it has failed to meet this moment. Worse, Canada has become a safe haven for regime enablers. Of the estimated 700 IRGC affiliates in Canada, only 20 senior officials have faced consequences — encouraged to leave rather than prosecuted.
This inaction undermines both Canadian values and public safety. IRGC operatives have attempted assassinations and harassed Canadian families of Flight PS752 victims. Canadian law already permits prosecution of IRGC members under terrorism laws and regime officials under the War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act. Their presence in Canada provides a rare opportunity for justice — one that must not be squandered. Victims living in Canada should be interviewed, and a structural RCMP investigation initiated, as has been done for other war crimes victims, including those from ISIS and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Canada should also expand Magnitsky-style sanctions, starting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and finally hold accountable those orchestrating repression.
At a minimum, Prime Minister Mark Carney and the federal government should give voice to the Iranian people and rally allies to do the same.
The headlines may focus on war in the region, but the defining battle of our time may be this one: the Iranian regime’s war on its own people. Canada has a choice — to either shield abusers or stand with those fighting for freedom. The legacy of this moment will not be written on the battlefield, but in the prisons of Tehran — and in the silence or resolve of the international community.
Irwin Cotler is a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and longtime Parliamentarian. Brandon Silver is an international human rights lawyer and Director of Policy at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and has served as counsel to Iranian political prisoners. Maryam Shafipour is an Iranian human rights defender, and a former prisoner of conscience held in Evin prison.