Shaun Newman Podcast - #1057 - Negar Mojtahedi

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

Negar Mojtahedi is an Iranian-Canadian journalist, award-winning documentary filmmaker, and television host based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She currently serves as a multi-platform reporter and host for Iran International English, where she hosts the weekly program Eye for Iran. Her reporting focuses on human rights, women’s protests, political executions, and the Iranian diaspora. Negar is also known for her documentary My Dream Goes All the Way to Iran and has contributed to Global News, CTV, and CBC. She brings a sharp, firsthand perspective on Iran and the broader Middle East from the perspective of the Iranian-Canadian community.Watch the Cornerstone Forum 26’https://shaunnewmanpodcast.substack.com/Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Expat MoneyExpatmoney.com/SNPGet your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

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I'm talking about Nagar Mostaheddy. So buckle up. Here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today, I'm joined by Nagar Mosta-Heddy. Thank you, ma'am, for hopping on. Pleasure. Thanks for having you, Sean. Well, it's your first time, Nagar, on the show.

and I wouldn't mind just, I don't know, like tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we'll get into how I stumbled into you and maybe some of the more current things going on today. Yeah, sounds great. So my family fled Iran in 1979 during the Islamic Revolution, when Iran turned into, went from Iran to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

And I was born and raised in Canada. I've been in journalism for almost 20 years now, worked in Canadian media for, you know, the vast majority of it. And I joined the English Division of Iran International in May of 2024. And it's taken me all over the world, focusing on stories that are related to Iran and the surrounding region and how it interacts with the U.S. and Canada and pretty much all over the world. Because the Iranian regime is definitely having an impact on the security and safety of people, not just within Iran and not just around its border, but across the globe. Now, when your parents fled Iran in 1979?

Correct, yes. I assume you weren't born then? No, you better not assume. I never, I hate bringing up age with a lady, and I'm like, you don't look like you're that old, but hey, you never know. I'm 85, I'm 85, so I was definitely born after the revolution. And what she means, folks, is you're born in 1985, correct?

Yes. You're not 85. No, no. Okay, so the reason I bring up your parents then is I assume you've talked to them lots about well, why did you flee if, you know, like, I don't know, why did you, you know, like what was happening on Iran that you're like,

we got to get out of here. I think for Canadians to understand is as much as, you know, everybody loves Canada and Canada's an amazing place, it wasn't that people wanted to move to Canada. They were happy with their lives. But unfortunately, things changed when Khomeini came into power and turned Iran from a very modern and very developed and forward country to moving it back essentially centuries to the point where, you know, women get stone to death for certain penalties. There were times where women would be killed like Masa Amini for not covering their hair properly. So it completely took Iran back to the Stone Age.

Yeah, I find, I don't know, sitting on this side, I'm like, when I talk to people about not only Iran, but other places, I have a hard time maybe fully grasping that. Like, when you say they, they, you know, if you don't cover your hair, you could be stoned to death. Like, is that like, what do you mean? You mean, like a woman walks down the street and it's not covered properly and they just start stoner? or is it we talking like yeah it's not like that at this moment in time and things certainly have changed but their their laws are very selective i mean they have laws that are essentially gender apartheid um where women essentially have are equivalent to so if you're if a woman has been raped for example and you're in court under sharia law that woman is not enough of a witness

she is technically half of a witness. So if somebody else would have to be representative to back her claim because she's considered half that of a man, for example. So just to give me an idea of this is how the laws work. And there have been cases where women have, according to their husbands, I don't know, committed adultery, for example, husband takes that to, you know, the local law enforcement. They're taken away to jail. And then yes, then they are literally stoned to death as a form of capital punishment.

Maybe you can make this make sense in my head because I hear these stories. I'm like, oh, on earth, could anyone like, I don't know, go along with that, see that? It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. But, you know, like last week I had a journalist on, originally from Brazil, but I would think by his own words, he'd call himself a nomad now. But he spent 40 plus years covering places from Afghanistan to Iran and everywhere else. And one of the things he kept saying to me, or maybe he only said a few times, folks, was the West has been brainwashed about Iran. But he was saying it in a way that Iran isn't this backwards place. But when I hear those stories, and it's not to a certain extent.

I mean, it's incredible how forward the country has gone under sanctions and under this repressive regime. The people itself are not like that. This is just this is the government of Iran. So it's the complete opposite of the people of. Iran. They're not a representative of what the people of Iran are. I mean, if you look at across Canada and the U.S., some of your top doctors are going to be people that are originally from Iran, some of your top lawyers, engineers, et cetera, you know, it's a very educated and modern society that's being suffocated under a regime that doesn't represent who the people of our. So I agree

with what this reporter said. Iran is not what you're thinking, you know, these stereotypical images of women dressed in black cloak saying death to America. In fact, Iranians out of respect for America and Israel, when they see American-Israeli flag, they walk around it. But the regime will put it down on the surface to basically have people walk over it as a form of disrespect. So you have this regime that's backwards, but you have a people that are not.

Sorry, I thought we're going to, you know, it's funny. When I first started with you, I was like, okay, we'll get to this at the end, but now you got me sucked right in. So when you see what's going on right now with the Strait of Hormuz and you see the U.S. attacking it and you're trying to make sense of, you know, like, I don't know, it's well, straight on war, I guess. And you see, I don't know, at least I see two different stories being told, right? Iran is the victim. Iran is the one that won't, you know, it's killing its own people and like, are both stories true or is there, yeah, I don't know, how do you separate it? Because one of the things that's interesting. thing with having parents who fled there is I assume you can, and maybe not as easy as this, but I assume you can pick up the phone and talk to people on the ground in Iran and go like, what's actually happening there? Well, it's interesting you brought that up because there's

been an internet blackout, a digital blackout since basically the massacre of January 8th and 9th where they slaughtered tens of thousands of Iranians. According to President Donald Trump, it's at least 46,000 Iranians that were killed in just two nights. My news outlet has the number of 36,000, 500, but we know that it's much higher. I've heard from former UN prosecutor that they may have killed close to 100,000 people. And these are people that were just protesting for their basic rights to live like you and I do. And what do they do? They just killed them so they could stay in power. They'll do anything to stay in power. So the Islamic Republic is not a victim. 100% they're not a victim in any of this. When people say, oh, well, the US and Israel started

this war. No, the Iranian regime started this war in 1979 when they started taking the American embassy and the folks there hostage when they started chanting death to America, death to Israel, when they started committing acts of terror all around the world. But at the end of the day, the people of Iran are the biggest victims in all of this. Yeah, so that's an interesting that's why it's kind of hard to understand,

but at the same time, you do a good job of like, well, the people are just the people. They're wonderful. It's the power of structures that be in Iran that make this confusing. And who they don't want, who they don't want, who they went out on January 8th and 9th, just go. And in response, they just killed them.

Well, walk me through January 8th and 9th, assuming you know, most of the story, because I heard bits and pieces of this. Once again, I find an interesting, you know, like, once again, I'm just like, if your parents fled in 79, like, that's a long time ago, but it's not that long ago.

No, it's not that long ago, no, no. And if you look at the span of Iran in terms of it being a civilization, you know, cosmopolitan civilization for thousands of years. It's this rule of this tyrannical regime. I mean, it's a blip in Iran's history that, I mean, this two shall pass, I believe. They can't stay around for forever. You know, Iran was responsible for the first declaration of human rights, which you will see at the Hague. I mean, this is Iran created the Postal Service.

This is Iran's origins and history. and unfortunately they've been held hostage and hijacked by these Islamic fascists who will do anything, like I said, to stay in power. So essentially what happened was is protests started erupting kind of, I think it was December 28th, December 29th, and it happened in the bazaar in the kind of electronics department because they're very susceptible to the volatility of markets. And, you know, there is inflation. And so the bazaaris who are traditionally known as kind of the bazaaries, who are traditionally known as kind of

the backbone of the Islamic Republic itself started protesting. And it, but then it wasn't contained to them. Then it started to spread. And it wasn't, the spark may have been economic, but it morphed into essentially like 47 years of repression that was being bottled up that came out. And it became a revolution or an attempted revolution because unfortunately they're still in power. And on January 8th, or was it 7th, I believe Donald Trump had.

put out some sort of statement saying, you know, if you shoot them, we'll shoot back. We've got your back. We'll take over your institution. So people are very emboldened. And then the crown prince, Zadapalabhi, who's the son of the former deposed Shah of Iran, who fled in 1979. He made a call out and people listened and they joined in. And this is like families, like little kids, grandparents.

And they were literally met with military grade weapons. This is what the evidence shows. Not only that, the hospitals were taken over by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. So, you know, I spoke to a father whose 17-year-old boy was shot during the protests. He was helped by bystanders, taking to hospital, where instead of it being a place of refuge, it was a place where he was actually finished off. So while he still had his breathing tube still in place, he was shot by the IRGC. And you see evidence of that, not only from the witness testimony, but from when you look at the images of the morgue, of the burial site,

And you see these protesters of all ages, but many of them very young and under 30, still having their catheters and breathing tubes still in place, which means they were finished off in the hospitals. And doctors, some doctors were killed, nurses, other health care workers for treating and aiding the protesters, you know, fulfilling their duty and their responsibility as health care workers. And they were punished for that. and now people are too scared to go to the hospital. So a lot of people, you know, weeks later, have died from untreated, infected wounds, from simple things that, you know, they could have been treated for, but instead led to their death. In a Canadian sense, it would have been what happened to the truckers in the Freedom

Convoy, except instead of bank accounts frozen and arrested and put in jail. you're talking they opened fired on unarmed civilians in the tens of thousands, right? Your number is 365. You're saying as high as 100,000. Donald Trump said 46,000. Regardless, this isn't 10 people. This is tens of thousands of people. Yes, and it was all 31 provinces.

So it wasn't contained to a specific group of individuals. This was all of Iranian society from different socioeconomic backgrounds, from literally every province inside Iran, which is 31 provinces. And again, moving beyond, you know, economic hardship, but asking for this regime to go. And they're not, I mean, I shouldn't laugh. It's not a laughing thing. It's a nervous.

I understand what kind of laugh it is. Well, I'm like, it's 31 provinces. Once again, this isn't like somebody marched on the Capitol. You're saying 31 provinces, people were dying all across the country. because the leadership went, this is a fight against us, trying to undo our power, and they just tried to obliterate it. Yeah, I mean, they helped Bashar al-Assad in Syria the first time during the Arab Spring to stay in power. And one of the things they deduced was that, you know, he didn't kill enough people.

It would have been easier if he just killed more people, even though he killed it. But was it 500,000 people that died during the Civil War in Syria. So these are the conclusions that they made. They also made the conclusion if the Shah of Iran who had fled had just killed people, you know, he would have stayed in power, which is probably true because in the final days of the revolution in 1979, the Shah was up in the helicopter and he said, you know, what do I do? And somebody told them, well, you know, you'd have to kill them. And he goes, well, I'm not going to kill my own people.

So he left. Man, this is, I don't know. I don't even know the word to say right now, Nagar, because I'm like. It's a very, it's, it's hard to understand. The thing from where I sit is, you know, when it's just pieces on a board, if you would, acting like the world is a game. This is probably a poor example, but like it takes the emotion out of it, right? It's like, oh, they're moving here and they did this and they did that.

When you bring in personal stories and the amount of people, the amount of bloodshed that's already happened, it's like, this is pretty awful. Yeah, and for what? I mean, they still have that same regime in place at the end of the day. Like, what really changed, unfortunately? And this is the biggest fear that the people of Iran have right now is that the foreign powers like the U.S. and Israel, that they'll abandon them and leave them with these, the same people, you know,

Mosheba Khomeini Jr. instead of senior in place. I mean, at the end of the day, that apparatus is still there. So, you know, they did a good job. of decentralizing their power to the point where it's like a cancer that is spread across the country. And they control all aspects of Iran. So when you kill a few of them, there's a bunch of other ones that just come in its place because it's a system. It's this Islamic republic that is a problem here. And the people are very worried that after every, you know, it's it's unreal in the sense of like the protests happened in January. Then there was this internet blackout. There's massive inflation,

know, even middle class families can't afford to eat meat, which is, which is unusual. Iran is not, you know, a third world country. This is not something that is typical for Iranian people. And after that, they had the war, you know, all of this has happened in the span of like four or five months. And they still haven't been able to recover from the trauma of January 8th and 9th. And they were very hopeful with foreign intervention that that would lead to change. And unfortunately, that hasn't led to change at this point. in time. And so people are in this kind of like, I don't know, like a progatory, if you will, like where they're caught between a life that they had before January 8th and 9th that they can't

go back to. You can't go back after what you witness. And a life that they hope to have in the future that they're trying to push towards and sacrificing for it that isn't coming. So a lot of them are thinking of an exit plan now, as opposed to revolting against this regime because they know that they're going to be met with more gunfire and more military-grade weapons, unless the U.S. and Israel can ensure, and I've heard from Israeli officials before that the plan was at some point to have Israeli drones in the air and American air power to protect the people of Iran, to protect the protesters to essentially target these IRGC or bassege officials that try and kill them. So that hasn't happened yet. They're hopeful that it will. It was my understanding that it was supposed to happen.

at some point. But I guess, you know, there's been some hiccups with hormones and this and that along the way too, that maybe they need to sort out and deal with these things first before they can go to the next step. Because the Iranian regime, in many ways, they behave like, I don't know, toddlers. You know, some people geopolitically look at it as a deterrence strategy, and it is, but at the same time, it's also very childish. Okay, well, we'll just, we'll just block the straight of hormones or now they're threatening to cut the underwire undersea cables which connect a lot of the countries in the Middle East to the internet which is part of their economy which connects them to financial networks which then you know is also affecting Europe and Asia as well

yeah I'd had Martin Armstrong on and I think people recall that when he was talking that nobody was talking about that so the fact that he'd brought it up probably a month ago and now people are talking about it is interesting, right? The fact that they could go down to the bottom of the Hormuz and cut the tables and, you know, remove that ability is, well, I mean, it's just, it, the situation seems to evolve every single day. It was Donald Trump today putting out on truth social that they were about to bomb them again. And then the neighboring countries said they're trying to work on peace.

and for him not which i don't buy by the way i don't buy that you don't buy that no not at all because at the end of the day those neighboring countries are the ones that are being hit by the regime why would they what what kind of peace uh would they have if there's any kind of detaunt or peace that's not going to last forever you know there's a lot of these gulf persian golf countries and neighboring countries they say one thing and then they do something else behind the scenes because they're trying to either appease their populations like for example i mean the Saudis they deal with israel all the time Do they talk about it in public? No. The UAE, as you know, wants to join a coalition with the Israelis and the Americans. But before, you know, a few years ago, the UAE was working with Israel on security operations and security training, but they publicly wouldn't say that.

So a lot of times they say something publicly when they do something else behind the closed door. And so you look at this and go, well, I don't know, sitting over here in the West, I've talked about this with so many different people. They're like, if Iran is so good, why are none of their neighboring countries backing them? One might argue, because the U.S. and Israel are attacking. On the flip side, nobody's coming to their rescue, it doesn't seem. Those countries. I mean, they're not partners. I mean, look, they attacked Kuwait.

They attacked Bahrain. They attacked the UAE. And also, they don't share a cultural identity either, right? The Iranians are mostly, I mean, it's a very cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, but they're, you know, Persian or Azeri or Kurd. They're very small Arab population. I think it's less than 3%. So they don't share the same kind of cultural ties that a lot of these other neighboring countries do share. They don't even share a common language, right? So, and don't forget, I mean, Iran and Iraq were at war with each other not too long ago, right, in the 90s or 80s rather to 89.

and now Iran is basically controlling Iraq through this Shia access. So if the U.S. isn't step up pressure, this is going to be a huge strategic loss for not only the region, but for the Western world. When you say they don't, all the areas don't share, I forget how you said it, like culture? You were mentioning language? Iran is not an Arab nation, so they don't even share the same language. They don't speak Farsi in Iran. So they don't have the same, you know, cultural affinity towards each other that maybe Lebanon has towards Syria, for example. They're not part of a pan-Arab nation.

Forgive me. I feel really dumb right now, which is great. No, no, no, because I'm like, I'm going to learn something here. But when you say Iran is not an Arab nation, what do you mean by, like, every other country? No, I know, but every other country there is Arab then? Not, I mean, well, most of them are, but not all of them. You know, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria. I mean, with the exception of Iran, Turkey and Israel.

And even Israel has a population, I think it's two or three million Arabs. So in a gulf of, I mean, dozens of Arab countries or Arabic-speaking countries, those are the very few that aren't. Man, I need to, it's like I need to go back to history class, folks, and go study the Middle East again. It's been a few years since I, like, really delved into it. Every time I bring somebody else on who has connections to that area, I'm like, it's a complicated region.

Well, it is. It's been more complicated by the French and the British when they carved up the Ottoman Empire and basically created a lot of nations that didn't exist, other than, you know, Iran, which has been a nation for, you know, millennia and Israel as well, which has been around forever. But the rest of them are really carved out of the Ottoman Empire by the French and the British. And the French wanted to support minorities. The British were part of this, wanted to support Arab nationalism,

which is why, for example, Lebanon had a Christian ruler under the French mandate, whereas Jordan had the Hashemite kingdom under an Arab ruler. So, yeah, it's just, it's very, it's all very confusing. And, um, well, it's funny, you're like, I remember being on the, the show, um, probably two, three years ago and being like, I just don't have the bandwidth to try and understand it. Yeah, but, but, but, but, well, but then you fast forward to where we sit in 2026. And what's happening there is affecting the entire world. So it's like, you have no choice. And, and, and I kind of feel silly for not trying to understand it more back then. Because now, you know, you have the

straight-of-hormuz. And how many people even knew, you know, and how many people even knew, where that was until they went in. And now people are starting to pay attention in mass because of what it's having effect to the global economy. And, and you know, people are staring at a whole bunch of problems and then it's starting to affect not only in the Middle East, but you think of fuel prices here in Canada alone, not everywhere else, but you're seeing the UK, Ireland, Australia, India, all these different nations start to talk about, well, shortages or price, you know, like prices rising and the effects of that on their own population. So I think it's really starting to

point everybody back to the Middle East and trying to understand. And don't forget, like, you know, issues of migration and, you know, we've had in Canada lots of, you know, campus protests and and things like that. So there's definitely broader issues too. And when it comes to gas prices and say, you know, the way that I look at it is this is short-term pain for long-term gain. Because if the Trump administration gives up now, you're going to be having these problems. And Iran, the regime is going to know, okay, well, we have this leverage. And if you allow them to have this leverage, they're going to take advantage of you for, you know, an eternity as much as they can and they're always going to dangle it when they need to and essentially take

everyone else hostage as they have taken their own people hostage since 1979. But so at the end of the day, they really have to put an end to this regime. If they don't, there's no other solution. The only question, end to the regime, how do they do that though? Because in the conversations I've had, it's like they had the or have the mosaic defense strategy, I hope I'm saying that right, where you take out the leadership, then it's broken into the 31 provinces of Iran. And basically now you have 31 leaders acting decentralized from the main government. So how do you go into there and actually remove the regime?

On top of it, everybody talks about how Iran is a giant place that is not exactly you stroll in in the prairies like Saskatchewan and just walk in. It's a little different landscape than what we deal with here. So when you say end the regime, like, how do they even do that? You know, I see Trump talking about, at least in the beginning, you know, we've taken out your leaders, take your country back. Something similar to that. But then it's a confusing messaging because he also then said it's not safe, don't go out, which it wasn't safe. So, you know, that's one thing that the Americans need to really work on is, is their messaging because it's confusing to people. So what do you do?

And this is where we come back to, you know, I spoke to somebody within the Israeli security establishment on my podcast, I for Iran, Amir Avivi, who had told me, oh, you know, we're weeks away from, again, like I mentioned before, for there to be American air power, Israeli drones, we'll let you know when it's safe to go out. We'll make, we want to make the conditions safe first before you go out. Because what's the point if you're just going to be met with more military grade weapons? So that hasn't happened. That's one thing. De-legitimizing the government. I know that some sort of minister in Norway, I just traveled to Iran and met with another Islamic Republic official. Well, why would you do that after they massacred and tried to exterminate a large segment of the population? So I think delegitimizing the regime by not dealing with them, why would you talk to the regime? The Iran regime needs to talk to the U.S. more than the U.S. needs to talk to Iran at the end of the day. So the U.S. needs to realize their power and their leverage in this situation, too, and to be more bold. Because if you're not, this is the Middle East.

They know for them power is through strength. It's not through dialogue and talking. This is not the kind of region that you're dealing with. So they're just going to take advantage of you with more talks and more stalling. Meanwhile, they can try and rebuild their nuclear program that Trump says that he obliterated, which he didn't. He, you know, he severely damaged it, right? He set it back. But even his own intelligence says it hasn't been obliterated completely.

So they have a chance to really rebuild here, and they will. And like you said, when you look at a country like Iran that's been around for thousands of years, 10 years is not a big deal. Maybe it is when you think in terms of American strategic planning because they're thinking in terms of elections, right? And by-elections and four years here and four years there. So for the Iranian regime, they're like, that's fine, you know, we'll be around in 20 years again or something like that. So I think, again, I don't believe that talks are going to get you anywhere. I don't think it's right to talk to a regime that can do this to its own people and the way that they've treated its neighbors who are partners with the U.S.

And also, I mean, just a few weeks ago, they were sending cluster bombs in Israel. So something needs to be done in the sense of taking more action. They're not doing enough. I don't think in the strait of hormones right now. I mean, the blockade on the blockade has been smart. It's a good strategic planning. if you think long term, but if you place sanctions and you don't actually enforce them, well, then what's the point? So they really need to get tough about enforcing those secondary sanctions because then other countries are going to think twice about dealing with this regime.

So I think the economic epic fury campaign is very important and crucial. And the more infighting this regime has, the better off the people of Iran are going to be because they can start to unravel from within. I mean, Iran is not Iraq or any of the other countries in the sense that the people, like we mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, are very different. And the Iranian people are going to be the greatest asset to the Americans and Israelis and to the Western world. Maybe you can walk me through this mentality. You said power is through strength, not dialogue. And I would think here in the West, we think talking is a good thing, right? We need to talk to people. And you're already shaking your head. That is not

the case in the Middle East. Of course, I would look at how they treat their own people. Do they talk to them? No, they just kill them. That's how they deal. And they, it's that whole, you know, the Democrats always offered, what is it, a carrot or something. And then they go, thanks, I'll just eat that carrot and take some more. They'll just take advantage of you.

They'll think you're a fool. They'll think you're an idiot. That's what they think of a lot of, you know, Western nations. And I think that's why, you know, having someone like Donald Trump, no matter how controversial he is as a figure, I think that he's had a greater impact in the Middle East because in many ways, his mentality is very much like a lot of people in the Middle East. He actually thinks like them. And you can see that in the way that he speaks and in the way that he likes, quote, unquote, strong men,

you know, how he behaves towards, you know, a leader like Turkey's leader, Erdogan or even Vladimir Putin, who are both viewed as very negative in the Western world. But in a lot of parts of those regions, they're like, oh, well, they're just strong met. That's interesting because a lot of the criticism I've heard of Donald Trump is that he doesn't understand the mentality of the Middle East. It's opposite. And you think it's opposite.

Yeah, it's the exact opposite. Even his case, it's all the gold inside Mar-Lago, all that kind of supermodel wives. You know, this is why I love talking to a lot of people. Because just when you think, oh, maybe that makes sense, then you come. and flip it right on its head all over again and then I'll sit for a bit. Like that's it. That's fascinating to me because a ton of people think he underestimated Iran or underestimated their leadership or how they think or on and on and on. You're like now. I mean look at his taste and everything else. He thinks more like a

Middle Eastern than we give him credit. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. And I completely I agree. The reason I brought you on, I was telling us before we started, I interviewed if people go back to when I had Sam Cooper on last, he brought your name up. And he was talking about your fearless, fearless journalism you did in, and I'll forgive me because I'll probably screw up the name, but Medi Taj. Yeah, that's right. You said it right. Yeah. And he's the head of Iran's soccer federation, and he had a permanent or a temporary, sorry, visa for coming into Canada. Am I even remotely getting this correct? And then you broke the story on it. Can you walk me through? what this was, because I was saying to sound, I don't even know who this lady is. I don't even know

what story you're talking about. It's so funny. So, was it a few, is it almost two weeks ago now, or a little bit before that, I got a text message at like very early in the morning. I think it was 5 a.m. saying that Mentiath is on his way to Canada. And then I thought to myself, it was a tip. And I was like, okay, that can't be true because he was a former IRGC, Islamic Revolution and Guard Corps intelligence commanders. So by Canada's own laws, by our own standards, by our own admissions, he is categorically speaking an actual terrorist. So why would Canada admit a terrorist into the country? You can't. There's inadmissibility laws. But, you know, whatever. As a journalist, I do my due diligence. And I'm like, okay, if somebody's sending me this tip, maybe there's some

truth to it. I still need to check it out. And I started contacting all of my sources within Canadian government, security establishment. And they're like, yeah, no, he's he's on his way. He's on his way to Canada. So how is this possible? We have inadmissibility laws. We outlawed the IRGC. We labeled them a terrorist entity in 2004 under the Trudeau government. How is that even possible? And I was told, well, it is possible because our government decided to override their own rules and bring him in. And so they gave him what's called a TRP, a temporary resident permit, which essentially allows you to override your own inadmissibility laws. And I broke the size of cable.

Now that I've got all the proof, we need to get this out there before he has. actually land so that we can at least as you know as a journalist you want to affect change you you want to have impact and do positive good things right so we were able to get out the story while he was still en route and so um given the attention that the story got you know it was i think i was source they cited me in the new york times uh the wall street journal a jean's franz like it was this was everywhere because people i mean people love soccer football whatever you want to call it right? It's a it's an international sport. And by the time he landed, he was questioned and, and he was turned away.

And then he gave a press conference in Iran saying that, oh, I decided to just go on my own terms because the immigration officers were very rude to me. But that's not what happened. It was the story that exposed that this happened. And I think that's when the government of Canada went on. Okay, damage control now, right? So it's unfortunate because it speaks to a greater issue. that's something that I was able to find out and know about. What does that tell you that maybe there's many others like him or from whatever,

other countries where we certain individuals have inadmissibility status on them, right? And are getting into our country. What does that tell you that this is probably happening? It also tells me that had I not expose that story, he would have just come to Vancouver and gone to the FIFA delegation. He was able to stay here for at least a month, as per their own TRP that they provided him. So, you know, when the immigration minister of Canada, Minister Diab says, oh, well, she cites privacy laws and says, no IRGC entered the country. Yeah, he didn't enter the country

because the story came out and you were caught. You were caught. That's why he didn't enter the country. If I understand that correctly, essentially they have laws in place. Yeah. But they found a way to bypass their own laws for a short period of time to allow people who shouldn't be in the country the country. Yeah, and why? So he can attend a FIFA delegation? I mean, that's ridiculous. That's really ridiculous. And, you know, it's interesting because Mentiath was specifically banned from entering the U.S. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied his, denied him access. And he said the same thing. He goes, we've got a law in place that says he's a terrorist, according to the Americans in 2019. So before us, as a meeting the IRGC as a terrorist entity, he should

not be allowed into the country. But he allowed the players. And they're, they're training, I think, right now in Turkey. And then they're going to be training in Tucson, Arizona and are on their way because the actual players themselves are not IRGC officials. So, you know, he was very fair, I think, Secretary of St. Markle Rubio in that case. Hmm. That's, um. But not us. Well, I mean, it just seems like the Canadian way right now. Like that, uh, you know, I've followed Sam's work for several years for now. Sometimes I'm like, I don't know how we can bungle this up anymore,

but we seem to do it every week. There seems to be a new story. And, you know, it's interesting. I just had it. Once again, when Sam brought your name up, I was like, who? Like, I got to reach out to this lady because I used to work with Sam at Global. We used to work together, actually. Yeah.

Great guy. And why did you leave Global then? Or why aren't you? I don't know. Yeah, I left after, I think, 11 years. And I actually did a big investigation on the Iranian regime interference in Canada, which some people say help to lead to the IRC, kind of putting it this issue on the map, right? That was a year-long investigation.

And when the Iran International opened up English division, it gave me a chance to focus on news from Iran and the region, which is what I really wanted to focus on. And so it was my passion, and it was an opportunity that I couldn't resist. I assume you're not going back to Iran anytime soon. I can't. No, definitely not. I could go back. I just would be a one-way ticket. I just want to be able to leave. When you stare at Iran today and their news coming out, right? Because I think that's what you do, correct? Yeah, I focus on your own news. Yeah. What do you, for Canadians, when you're looking at Iran today, what are some of the things you're seeing that you think they should be, should be, should be,

conveyed to them. I think it's just important to, I know everyone's obsessed with hormones right now and the gas prices and to know that the people of Iran are really struggling and they want to have a life like everyone else. Like I, you know, I even see it on my Facebook feed and I find it very disheartening. The people just complain about their gas prices and blame Donald Trump or they're very motivated by this, this odd, you know, this hatred for Trump and for Israel and it clouds all their kind of perception of what is happening in Iran.

So I see people posting up things comparing Trump to Hominee, for example, which I found very offensive because Trump did not massacre, you know, hundreds of thousands of people. And I'm talking for the span of, you know, 79 up until now, right? Not just this January 8th and 9th revolution. Right now, people are being hanged every day in Iran. There is a father of two young girls, 40 years old. He owns Starlink. He was hanged. They killed him.

Killed him. Killed them owning a Starlink? Yep. That's what it takes. that's what it takes. So I wish people would pay attention to that and care and say, we want to help the people of Iran. But instead, all I hear is, you know, bashing of Trump and Netanyahu that he underestimated Iran. Iran is so strong. Iran this, Iran that. I'm thinking to myself, yeah, you think Iran is strong. They're enlisting 11-year-old children to join in their

military. So for example, a few weeks ago, there was an 11-year-old boy who was killed in Israeli drone strike. But that 11-year-old, was manning a bassege checkpoint. Why was an 11-year-old at a military checkpoint? This is what the regime is resorting to right now, because then it feeds their propaganda, then they can say, oh, look, Israel kills little kids. That's one thing that it does for them that's an advantage.

Then they can use, because they have a shortage right now, right? And then they can use those men who are more equipped to do bigger things for kind of bigger projects and then use this 11-year-old boy at a military checkpoint to just, you know, just stand there and then. serve for the military. It's ridiculous. That to me is not a sign of strength. That's a sign of weakness. And all of these tactics like, oh, well, I'm going to cut your undersea cables. It's very childish, these kind of deterrence factors that they have in place. They're basically going to stoop to any low. They cut off the internet. So Iranians are cut off from the rest of the world.

And it's very difficult to be able to tell their stories unless, again, they have Starlink, which puts their lives at risk, if they have VPNs and things like that. But not everybody has right so it's been very very difficult for the people of iran tens of thousands have been unemployed in the process a lot of people relied on the internet for their businesses right for shops you know they're providing services online and they don't have that anymore it helped to create like a parallel economy from against the regime so they don't have to rely on the government so much but now that's all been taken away and nobody seems to really be talking about them they executed an 21-year-old karate athlete. They executed an Olympian. An actual Olympian was executed a few weeks

ago as well, another young man. They're executing athletes. Why did they, why did they execute the Olympian? Because he took part in the protests. And they yeah, they accused you of being a spy for Israel. So once again, if I come back to North America, right, it doesn't, I don't care one way what people are for. I can imagine my audience, I can probably put myself in your shoes, but regardless, in Canada, we had the Freedom Convoy, and in the United States you had January 6th.

And if those two, the extremes they did, was arrested people and put them in jail. In Iran, what you're saying is they're hanging them and basically murdering people who took part in a demonstration against their government. That's the extreme. And in the context that you have no recourse, you have no laws, you have nothing that's in favor of the people of Iran. So it's very different than the Canadian and American context.

So in that sense, it's really a fight for your life. Certainly. Just that, you know, like I've interviewed some people who took part specifically in January 6th. And, you know, just everyday people. And they had the FBI come and raid their house, take them away, we're in jail. and it took Donald Trump being in to pardon those people. And they were positioned as a certain type of person and probably in the propaganda war.

They were told stories about they were trying to do XYZ and then they were put in jail. And then in walks Donald Trump and pardons them all, right? I guess the parallel I'm drawing is they stood up to their government. In their eyes, they were standing against the government that they thought was poor, I don't know what word, to tack on to it. And when you're talking about Iran, what you're saying is they don't just end up in prison. They're ending up hung from a, I don't know, a tree or what have you, a bullet in the head.

They go to the hospital or, you know, they, from a crane? Yeah, from a crane. But I mean, but in the context that at least in the U.S., you have, you have measures, you know, you don't have to storm the capital. There are ways that you can, you can rebel against the government that they wouldn't take the measures that were taken on January 6, for example. So, but you don't have those in Iran. And in the Iranian context, and I'm not saying that they were armed in January 6th, but it's important to note also that they were unarmed as well in the Iranian context, too. They were literally just walking. Yeah, well, I guess for January 6th, Freedom Convoy, both from were, I'm going to say 99.9% if not higher than that, unarmed. And in their mind,

yeah, and they didn't take over any institutions. They literally, actually walked outside when they were being shot just to give you an image of what it was like. And you can look it up. Those images are online as well, like just tens of thousands of people. I guess I'm just drawing the comparison of peaceful protest and the way they deal with it. And in the United States and Canada, the worst we've seen so far, and somebody will text me with something different, has been jail and the freezing of bank accounts, which don't get me wrong. I'm not for either of those. And in this case, you're talking about people hanging from a crane. And the one you said right off the hop was, you know, a guy had been injured by a bullet, went to the

hospital thinking he was going to get, you know, medical help. And they put another bullet in him and ended it. Yep, exactly. Which probably brings me to what I'd started earlier was propaganda war, right? The hardest thing for the Western side of the world, not living beside it or under the regime, is understanding the different stories coming out and trying to disseminate the information they're hearing. I mean, and so I ended up doing a joint investigation between myself and Jay Solomon with the free press. And we looked at exactly just that about this information of war

and how brilliant the Iranian regime is and how they were able to kind of flip the switch in the narrative on the massacre because, you know, how is it that there's a massacre and in the end, nobody really pays attention or nobody is holding any campus protests or doing anything when almost 100,000 even more people were massacred. And in fact, in some ways, blame them. Because the Iranian regime started to, our investigation found that they

planted the seeds before the massacre actually happened. Where you could see in state media, they were talking about when the protests first started, like I told you, December 28th, 29th, the Mossad is behind it. It's the CIA, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then there was influencers in the West who started repeating these claims, but on a much larger scale. And the interesting thing is these influencers like Max Blumenthal and what's his name, Chenk Uyghur or something from the young Turks. These types of folks started to put that out there on a much larger scale on social media. So these are individuals who are part of what we

would consider the far left and the far right, a lot of them from kind of Donald Trump's kind of pro-Maga movement, who for whatever reason are very pro-Iranian regime and very anti-Israel, that particular strain of MAGA folks. And they share this commonality here of this hatred for Israel and supporting the Iranian regime. And then it's interesting because everything that was inward, traveled outward, went and traveled inward again. And the foreign minister of Iran started going on Fox News on CNN and started repeating these claims about, oh, well, you know, we were just defending ourselves because the Mossad and the CIA, they infiltrated the people and we were just going after them. We're just defending the nation of Iran. So then it gained,

you know, and I say quote unquote, legitimacy because it was coming from an Iranian official. And then it traveled outward again. And these same influencers from the, we have the data to prove it. You can go on the free press's website or Iran intial.com forward. And to read it under special report, we have the data to show that then, you know, it spread like wildfire after this. And people forgot about the massacre and just started blaming the Mossad for something that they had nothing to do with. Hmm. Well, you think of like the everyday average person who doesn't stare at this on the daily, trying to decipher that would be difficult. Would it not?

Yeah, they fall for it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly, they fall for it, right? It's not even, we can call it fall for it, but like what you're talking about is you use the word brilliant. It's nothing short of brilliant to get another country talking about it so that you can talk about it again so that people see that. It didn't come from you, yeah, exactly.

Right, right? Like that's very clever. Yeah, they're very clever. That's the one thing. People shouldn't underestimate this regime. They're very clever and they definitely know what they're doing. And that's why they've been around for as long as they have. They're not stupid.

I mean, you look at them and you think they're idiots. On a completely not different note, but if I go back to the very start, you mentioned Iran brought in two things. One was human rights and one was the postal service. Did I hear that correct? Yeah, that's correct. So when did Iran bring in human rights? With the declaration of human rights, because the king, the ancient king of Iran,

freed the Jews from Babylon. It's in the Bible. All right. And then the postal service is another one that, you know, I don't know if it's been Western media. Yeah, it came thousands of years ago under the Ahamani dynasty. We also invented ice cream. Iran invented ice cream.

Yes. And modern engineering and all that kind of stuff. The astrology, astronomy, math. And now look at what it is. Well, I mean, this is what power does, right? Yeah. Like, I mean, at the highest levels, certainly not sitting where I sit because I have very little power, you know. But regardless, I appreciate you hopping on and talking to me today, I'm happy to finally meet you.

I would have never, if it wasn't for Sam, I never would have stumbled into you. But I appreciate the thoughts. It's, there's been a lot of different guests come on the show to talk. about Iran and strategic location and the different things from the U.S. to Iran to Israel and how it plays out geopolitically. But I find your viewpoint very interesting. And I think probably to the audience, very informative. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. You ask great questions. Well, thanks again for hopping on. Pleasure.