دسته: English

Request to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the leader of Federal Political Parties

As more than 190 Million people along with Iranians from nineteen different nations around the world celebrate the first day of

Dear Mr. Singh, Ms. Laverdière, Mr. Rankin,
We, the undersigned, a group of Iranian-Canadian supporters and members of the NDP, are requesting clarification on the statement issued by Ms.

Dear Honourable Stéphane Dion,
I write as the former President of the Iranian Canadian Congress and a concerned Iranian- Canadian citizen appealing to the government of Canada to facilitate re-establishing consular services with Iran.

The Iranian- Canadians Campaign for the Immediate and Unconditional Release of Professor Homa...

Dr. Homa Hoodfar, a well-known scholar of women and Islam has been detained in Iran. While it is...

Arsalan Baraheni is an Iranian born, Canadian filmmaker, based in Toronto. His film, “Exilic Trilogy” recently had another premier in Gothenburg, in Sweden, at the International Exile Film Festival. The last Toronto screening of the film was in Harbourfrount centre

Addressed to:
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
The Honourable Thomas Mulcair, the Leader of NDP, the Official Opposition
Justin Trudeau, The leader of the Liberal Party
Elizabeth May, The leader of the Green Party of Canada

We the undersigned, Iranian/Canadian academics, journalists, students, lawyers, artists, writers...

The Container, part of SummerWorks gives audiences a taste of what its like to be smuggled across Europe as a refugee.

In SummerWorks, the entire festival is juried. All the work is vetted. We spend months reading from over 200 submissions. We’re looking for work that questions our contemporary system . . .

“I’m independent, with no money, I have one staff member to support my work and I’m only funded for two trips of 14 days each to Iran to prepare my reports. I’m given two reports per year, 10,700 words . . .

Bea is like a kid in a jungle gym, she leaps from her bed swinging from the bedpost with the kind of buoyancy and infectious joy that one only sees in young children at play. Her energy is contagious, her joie de vivre radiating across the theatre . . .

He has the talent, he has the vision, he has the drive… all he lacks is the paper to draw on. The Rooster Trademark Paper is Iranian director Maryam Milani’s touching children’s film about Amir . . .

IAAB is a youth-led organization of Iranians living in the diaspora, committed to bridging links among young Iranians across the globe though education and leadership programming.

With all due respect to Tunisia, it all started with Iran. No, not with the 1979 revolution as claimed by the Islamic regime’s clumsy PR machine, but with the pro-democracy movement that erupted after the June 2009 Iranian ‘selections.’

There’s a tradition in Iran, it’s related to how we mark, Nowruz, our New Year. Just before the official celebrations start with Chaharshanbe Suri, the fire festival that launches the festivities . . .

She’s fierce on stage, cutting words and razor sharp wit, she dominates. Needless to say I was a bit daunted to meet her. Rappers are cool and spoken word artists don’t mince words, and I was feeling particularly geeky . . .

I walk briskly (under the rain[i]), head down, trying to prevent the icy cold needles from hitting my bare skin (umbrellas should be closed); only a few more blocks to home. Maybe it’s what feels like a long winter (How my inside is alone) . . .

Have you ever had a crush on a voice? My first voice-crush was in my early teens on Leonard Cohen, I could care less that Cohen was old and wrinkly by the time I first discovered him. He could have had a hunch-back with a single bloodshot-eye, all I wanted was his “Hallelujah” lulling me to sleep; his baritone voice made me quiver.

It’s a domestic problem, it happens in our neighbourhoods and streets, a city issue, a national story. Some try to pass it off as a problem imported to Canada, but we all know it’s domestic . . .

History was made on January 26th. Kathleen Wynne was elected as the Liberal party’s leader and became the first female Premier of Ontario, and the first openly lesbian leader in Canada

Documenting doesn’t always come naturally to us; we’re more of a handshake-to-seal-the-deal community. Oftentimes our recent history is told as stories whispered between friends in the wee hours of the night . . .

It’s that time of year; for a brief moment we are self-reflective about what we accomplished in the past 365 days. What did we learn? How did we grow? Who did we impact . . .

When it comes to a debate, wording is everything. How you frame the resolution makes all the difference. The tenth semi-annual Munk Debate, which faced off Pulitzer Prize winner and FOX News contributor Charles Krauthammer . . .

I like strong woman. The ones who look at you straight in the eye, the ones that can make you quiver in your boots with the simple raising of an eyebrow.

“My fist exposure to the festival was walking into Innis Town Hall and seeing a poster for the Diaspora Film Festival on the door. I looked at the lineup . . .

It’s no secret, I don’t like Jian Ghomeshi, never have. I mean, I’m a devoted listener of his award-winning CBC radio show Q, I follow his writing in the Globe, Star . . .

The Women’s Centre of York is hidden in an industrial area in Newmarket, occupied predominantly by factory outlets and company headquarters.

I had met Nazanin Afshin-Jam once before, it was in 2004 at an Iranian community event. She was on stage in a fancy green gown, brandishing a trademark pageant queen smile . . .

In one session of the truth commission hearings we heard from the mother of a 15 year old boy who was executed simply because he had a political pamphlet in his pocket.

“I thought I had misread, I blinked once, but it stared back at me from the page: ‘The next person to be killed is Shirin Ebadi.’ Me.”

“It started as a project in school when I was studying theatre at the University of Toronto,” explains Tara Grammy, a 24-year-old Iranian-Canadian actress, about her one-woman play Mahmoud bound for the Toronto and New York Fringe Festivals this summer.

Sometimes watching a documentary is akin to sitting through a lecture by the morality police. You sign up for two hours of being talked down to, only to leave the theatre feeling guilty and despondent . . .

“It was in the summer of 1994 or ‘۹۵, I used to be better with dates but this situation has made me worse. Anyway, I’m not the romantic one, Hamid is,” chuckles Antonella Mega nervously as she recounts how she met her husband Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, an Iranian-Canadian man on death row in Tehran’s Evin prison.

“Don’t forget to get rid of the Greek passport on the plane before landing in Canada, Just go to the bathroom and tear it into pieces and flush it down,” whispered the smuggler urgently to my mom the night before we left Rome for Toronto.

I have this distinct memory from my youth, gathering around the television in our small Scarborough apartment with my sister and parents, watching the game show Family Feud.

It started on Monday with a call from a photographer friend of mine who has recently moved to Canada from Iran. He was interested in capturing images of Nowruz festivities in Toronto and was asking about events and celebrations to cover.

Well this is embarrassing, it seems we’ve been caught with our pants down when it comes to our electoral system in Canada. In a week when the news about fraudulent elections should be focused on Iran’s March 2nd parliamentary selections the spotlight falls on Canada.

In most countries citizens are alerted to the onset of an upcoming election when local politicians and political parties begin to invest greater energy in showcasing themselves.

Doubletalk is nothing new in politics. We’re used to politicians saying one thing and doing the exact opposite. You can even argue that it’s a part of our political institution.

When it comes to Iran, no news seems to be good news. This month has been no exception with reports spreading about the confirmation of the death sentence of 35 year-old Iranian-Canadian web . . .

It’s mainly a sister act. With the addition of a brother and a few other members lending a hand to create what Melody (AbjeeZooloo) Safavi, the singer/songwriter of the Iranian-Swedish band, Abjeez, calls “Persian World Pop.”

Toronto, Ontario – The Ontario Government started the year with a good news story for some postsecondary students by announcing a new 30% off tuition program on January 5th.