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Or sign-in if you have an account.People cross a street past a billboard depicting Iran's slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei kissing the slain Islamic revolutionary guards commander Qasem Soleimani on the facade of a building in Tehran on June 29, 2026. Photo by - /AFP via Getty ImagesThe suggestion last week by Prime Minister Mark Carney that Canada should consider reopening an embassy in the Islamic Republic of Iran for the sake of ”engagement” could lead to dangerous results. Reopening embassies are not one-way streets. If Iran agreed, it would demand that its embassy in Ottawa be reopened. And if that happened, the world’s largest state sponsor of terror and antisemitism would have an operations centre in the heart of Canadian soil.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. 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Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorAnother justification that the prime minister put forward for considering a restoration of diplomatic relations with the Iran is that it will help Canadians abroad. But how many Jewish Canadians will it hurt here at home? Or are Jewish Canadians not entitled to the same protections that should be equally afforded to all citizens?This newsletter from NP Comment tackles the topics you care about. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againOver the past two years Canadians have witnessed the worst explosion of antisemitism in our country’s modern history. Synagogues have been firebombed. Jewish schools have been shot at. Community centres have required armed security. Jewish students have been intimidated on university campuses. Demonstrations have featured calls for the destruction of Israel and, increasingly, rhetoric directed against Canadian Jews themselves.These events did not arise spontaneously. Hatred on this scale rarely does. Behind much of the global campaign against Israel stands the Islamic Republic of Iran. It finances Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations whose stated objective is not peace but Israel’s destruction. It spends billions exporting revolutionary Islamist ideology and anti-Jewish propaganda around the world. Iran funded and organized through fellow travellers in the West the explosion of antisemitic and anti-Israeli demonstrations that began one day after October 7 and nearly two weeks before Israel entered Gaza. It has transformed antisemitism from ancient prejudice into an instrument of state policy.Canadians should not imagine that these influence operations stop at our borders. Iran has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to use diplomatic missions abroad as platforms for intelligence gathering, intimidation, influence operations and support networks. Democratic governments across Europe and North America have exposed Iranian diplomatic personnel involved in surveillance, espionage and plots against dissidents. The regime has pursued critics well beyond its own borders. Iranian Canadians who fled persecution understand this reality better than anyone.But the threat extends beyond the Iranian diaspora. We now know that Iran has invested enormous financial resources into building a worldwide infrastructure of anti-Israel activism through proxies, front organizations and terrorist movements. Hamas and Hezbollah do not simply wage war in the Middle East. Their narratives, propaganda and ideological influence are deliberately projected into Western democracies, where they fuel polarization and increasingly normalize antisemitism.It is therefore impossible to separate the question of reopening an Iranian embassy from the question of rising antisemitism in Canada. An embassy is not merely an office issuing visas. It is a permanent political platform. In the hands of a democratic government, that platform promotes legitimate diplomacy. In the hands of an authoritarian revolutionary regime, it is a vehicle for influence, recruitment, propaganda and intimidation.Canada must not provide such a platform to the world’s foremost exporter of antisemitic ideology. Nor has anything changed to justify normalization.The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is now listed by Canada as a terrorist entity. Yet it has recently come to light that over 700 IRGC members or operatives are in Canada but Ottawa has done nothing to remove them nor offered an explanation of how they got in. Hundreds of Iranian officials and organizations remain under Canadian sanctions. Tehran continues to arm terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East. It continues to threaten Israel openly with annihilation. It continues to imprison dissidents, execute political opponents, suppress women demanding basic freedoms and persecute religious minorities.And Canadians have not forgotten Flight PS762. One hundred and seventy-six innocent people died when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down a civilian airliner. This includes 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents. Their families are still waiting for justice.To reopen an embassy before meaningful accountability would send precisely the wrong message. It would tell authoritarian regimes that terrorism, repression, hostage diplomacy and state-sponsored hatred eventually carry no lasting diplomatic consequences.Some argue that Canada requires an embassy to maintain dialogue. Dialogue has its place. But diplomatic relations do not require granting the regime a permanent operational presence in Canada. Humanitarian and consular matters can be managed through protecting powers, allied embassies and multilateral channels without inviting the Islamic Republic back onto Canadian soil. And frankly, Canada has no heft to progress meaningful dialogue with the outlaw regime that rules Iran.Canada’s responsibility is first and foremost to protect Canadians. That includes protecting Jewish Canadians who already face unprecedented levels of intimidation. It includes protecting Iranian Canadians who fled the regime’s repression. And it includes ensuring that foreign authoritarian governments cannot more easily project influence into our democratic institutions.Canada should stand with the Iranian people, whose extraordinary courage in resisting tyranny has inspired the world. The Iranian people are not the Islamic Republic. Millions have demonstrated, often at terrible personal cost, that they seek democracy, secular government, equality before the law and peaceful relations with the international community. They deserve Canada’s solidarity. The Islamic Republic does not deserve another embassy.The answer should be simple: no embassy, no normalization, and no platform for a regime whose influence would make Canada less safe, less united, and less free. When Prime Minister Harper ordered the closure of the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa on Sept. 7, 2012 then Foreign Minister John Baird called Iran, “the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today.” That is still true today.Beryl P. Wajsman is President of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. 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