PS752 Vicitm’s Father Slams Trudeau For Lying To His Face

On Sunday, June 11th hundreds gathered at the nation’s capital on Parliament Hill at a rally to ask the government to finally follow through on a motion passed in 2018 to list the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) under the criminal code. The rally was organized by the International Centre for Human Rights (ICHR), the Council of Iranian Canadians (CIC), and B’nai Brith.

There were many speakers at the rally including Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, who tabled the motion in 2018, and Independent MP Kevin Vuong who lost his friend Amin during the PS752 terrorist attack by the IRGC. However, the most captivating speech came from Merzad Zerai, who lost his son Arad on PS752. 

During MP Kevin Vuong’s speech, he pointed out that no Liberal MPs showed up to support the people, to which the crowd responded with cries of “shame”, but Merzad took it one step further saying “shame on Justin Trudeau.”

When it was his time to speak Merzad elaborated, explaining that when he marched over 400 kilometres to Ottawa in summer of 2022 he met with Prime Minister Trudeau where he says that Trudeau outright promised him to list the entire IRGC as an FTO, but never did.

The story for Trudeau gets much worse as the following day there was an official press conference and meeting in Parliament to discuss the issue. It was at the meeting that Merzad Zarei elaborated on the story of his meeting with Justin Trudeau. Merzad claimed that when he met with Trudeau, not only did he promise to list the entire IRGC, but he went as far as to ask Merzad not to make any posts on social media to help the cause.

So that is what Merzad did. He made a post on social media saying that good news would be coming soon and went home thinking he had accomplished his mission. But he was deceived.

To lie to a grieving father is one thing, but to intentionally manipulate a grieving father is a new low for Justin Trudeau. 

Canada has a history of epic cross-country marches/runs starting from Terry Fox. Infamously the Freedom convoy came from all over the country to Ottawa to end the covid mandates and vaccine passports, that were followed up by James Topp, and in between them was Merzad Zarei.

After his 400km+ journey, Merzad had the attention of both foreign and domestic media and was in a position to put real pressure on the government. It would be one thing if Trudeau just lied, but the request to stop his social media posts was a clever and insidious political move. By taking time off of social media Merzad lost all his momentum and the cameras slowly faded away. A trade-off Merzad Zarei was more than happy to make if it resulted in a listing of the IRGC, but that end of the bargain was not upheld.

Fortunately, not everyone in the Canadian parliament is so indifferent to the murder of innocent Canadians. The June 12th meeting was organized by MP Kevin Vuong, who has made a lot of noise recently standing up to authoritarian regimes in particular the CCP and Islamic Republic of Iran. 

Vuong is no stranger to the danger of authoritarian regimes. Canada lost 55 citizens and 30 permanent residents in the PS752 terrorist attack, one of them his friend Amin. I asked Kevin Vuong about Amin and here is how he described him:

“Amin was a doctor focused on healing and making his community better. He was the type of person who would stay after class and help me to clean up. At conferences, he would always check in with the people who were alone to ensure that they didn’t feel left out. He was a good man who wanted to make Canada his home.”

It should not be lost on us that each of the 176 people murdered that day was individual with hopes, dreams, ambitions, friends, and family. 176 lives that had no value to the theocratic Mullahs in Iran and their IRGC thugs, but should always have value to those of us who care about freedom and human rights.

Justin Trudeau famously once said “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian”, but his actions don’t support that assertion. 85 Canadians were murdered on PS752 and this government seems more than disinterested in bringing them justice.

The importance of listing the IRGC as an FTO can not be understated. Evil totalitarian regimes, as Kevin Vuong points out, only understand strength. Failing to list the IRGC cost us 85 lives in one day, and failure to provide any deterrence will likely result in the same.

It’s been more than 5 years since Trudea’s initial promise to list the IRGC, leaving Canadians wondering how much time and how many more Canadians need to die before this government does the right thing?