SHEKARIAN: Canada must confront the tyranny behind the Iran-Israel crisis

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Two embattled strongmen — Benjamin Netanyahu and Ali Khamenei — have brought the world dangerously close to a nuclear confrontation.

This is not just another flare-up in the Middle East. It’s a convergence of egos, extremism, and political self-preservation that has hijacked the futures of two nations and risks igniting a global catastrophe.

Both men face internal crises.

Khamenei presides over a theocratic regime in terminal decline — haunted by economic collapse, human rights atrocities, and public uprisings like the Women, Life, Freedom movement. Netanyahu, once the symbol of Israeli security, is now best known for gutting Israel’s democracy from within. His recent push to neutralize the judiciary, documented in investigations like The Bibi Files, was seen by many Israelis as a ploy to avoid his own corruption trial. The result? Massive protests, fractured institutions, and a prime minister willing to wage war as a political survival tactic.

While the headlines say “Israel vs. Iran,” the truth is more sinister: This is not a war between nations or cultures. It’s a war between two corrupt regimes, each led by men who have demonstrated they will risk everything to cling to power — even if it means aligning themselves with the most extreme, bloodthirsty elements of their countries.

To feed their egos and preserve their grip on power, they have found no better allies than their own radicals.

And the world is watching it unfold like a spectator sport.

Canada, however, does not have the luxury of silence.

Why Canada? Why Now?

Canada is not just a distant bystander to this crisis. It is home to vibrant Iranian and Israeli diasporas. It is a country that claims to champion international law, peace, and democratic values. And in 2025, it holds the rotating presidency of the G7.

This is a moment of extraordinary responsibility.

Canada must lead — not because it’s easy or popular, but because the alternative is passivity in the face of global collapse. This leadership must happen both at home and on the world stage.

At Home: Inform, Protect, Prepare—and Connect

First, we must educate our own public. Canadians deserve to know that this war is not the product of religious or cultural differences, but of authoritarianism and political cowardice.

Public broadcasters like the CBC should acquire and air investigative content such as The Bibi Files — a documentary premiered at our own TIFF that unpacks Bibi’s corruption and systematic dismantling of Israel’s democratic institutions.

Equally important, we must teach our youth that peace and harmony between Israelis and Iranians is not only possible — but historically rooted and deeply desired by the overwhelming majority of both peoples. From the ancient legacy of Cyrus the Great — revered by Jews as a liberator and protector — to today’s multicultural reality in Canada, we have every reason to believe that coexistence is not a dream, but a shared memory waiting to be revived.

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Second, we must protect Canadians. Immigration policy must be leveraged first and foremost to serve the needs of Canadians — especially those with loved ones in crisis zones.

For Iranian-Canadian families, this means offering expedited visa processing and emergency pathways for relatives trapped in an increasingly volatile environment. But this must be done with vigilance. The Iranian regime has a documented history of targeting dissidents abroad, including here in Canada.

Such measures must be accompanied by the highest level of security screening — ensuring that the generosity of our immigration system does not become a backdoor for foreign operatives intent on surveillance, infiltration, or intimidation. Compassion cannot come at the cost of national safety.

Third, we must prepare.

The illusion that Canada is safe by geography is long gone. If the war between Netanyahu and Khamenei escalates, the fallout — cyber, economic, or otherwise — won’t respect borders. Canada must meet and exceed its NATO commitments, but not by mimicking American militarism. We must invest in smart defense: Cybersecurity, energy grid resilience, and public crisis readiness.

And finally, we must connect.

Canada’s multiculturalism cannot remain a passive virtue — it must become an active strategy. The government should dedicate funding for civil society and diaspora communities to organize joint cultural events—bringing Israelis and Iranians together through food, music, dance, theatre and dialogue. These moments of shared humanity are not luxuries. They are antidotes to extremism — and Canada must lead in making them possible.

Abroad: Stand for Law—Then Make It Better

Canada cannot fix the world — but it can refuse to be complicit in its decay. In a time when international law is ignored with impunity, our role is not to retreat into neutrality but to assert a principled and strategic voice.

First, we must uphold international law —not because it is perfect, but because it is all we have. The fundamental paradox of international law is that it seeks to bind sovereign states, yet has no authority above them to enforce compliance—participation remains voluntary, and enforcement, political. Still, that is no excuse for moral surrender.

Canada must publicly demand that both Israel and Iran submit to international accountability mechanisms— including the rulings of the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, binding UN resolutions, and independent investigations. As a nation built on the rule of law, Canada must extend that principle beyond its borders — by decisively referring international conflicts to legal mechanisms and insisting on their resolution through lawful means. If we believe in a rules-based order, then we must help lead the world back to one.

Second, Canada must lead the shift toward a new legal order — one that closes the gap between law and enforceability. The 20th century gave us the framework of international law. The 21st must give us the tools to make it matter. Law without enforcement is not justice — it’s a soundbite. Canada, leveraging its G7 presidency and global reputation as a rule-of-law nation, must work to refine and expand initiatives like the RN2V, and put forward a modernized framework for international law — one grounded in the lessons of the last century and built for the crises of this one.

That work must begin by proposing a doctrine to define and confront what we might call crisis-triggered impunity — the calculated abuse of war, terrorism, or existential threat to override legal and constitutional accountability.

This will not be easy.

But neither is watching the world burn while issuing statements of “deep concern.” If we are serious about defending democracy and peace, then the rules must evolve — and Canada must help write them.

A Choice Between Silence and Leadership

This moment is not about geopolitics. It’s about responsibility.

It is tempting to retreat to neutrality. To issue vague, AI-generated calls for “de-escalation.” To stay quiet because the loudest players in the conflict leave us little space to act.

But that is the very path that led to BibiAli’s war. And if left unchallenged, it is the path that will lead the world into a war no one survives.

Canada has a choice. But the time is running out. And history will remember what we did with it.

— Siavash Shekarian is an Iranian-Canadian lawyer, engineer, entrepreneur, and public policy advocate. He is the founder of Catalyst Canada, an initiative of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association.