A video from a Persian language interview circulated on Twitter showing an associate of assassinated Iranian intelligence officer Masoud Molavi, claiming that Liberal MP for Richmond Hill Majid Jowhari was in contact with Iranian intelligence officers.
“Masoud talked about someone by the name of Majid Jowhari. He’s an MP in the Parliament of Canada. He’s from the Liberal Party, representing Richmond Hill,” said the unidentified man.
“He said that Jowhari was in touch with some of the intelligence officers of Iran and that he even visited the representative of Taeb and Mojtaba Khamenei. He even received financial support from these people.”
Molavi died earlier this year in a suspected drive-by assassination in Istanbul for speaking out against the regime in Tehran. The Iranian government is notorious for assassinating dissidents and those who could harm their regime.
In response to these explosive claims, Conservative Senator Linda Frum took to Twitter and called on the claims to be “immediately investigated” and for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to respond.
During a brutal 2018 crackdown on protesters in Iran, Jowhari appeared to have sided with the repressive Iranian regime and called on the protesters to work with the “elected government.” Elections are far from free and fair in Iran, and the same government has been in place for 40 years.
In 2016, Jowhari sponsored a petition to reopen Canada’s embassy in Iran. Around that time, he also arranged a private meeting with officials from the Iranian regime.
Jowhari has denied allegations that he is being influenced by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“In a recent program aired on two Persian language broadcasts, without a shred of evidence, I was accused of having connections to officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” wrote Jowhari in a public statement released on December 18.
“These accusations are absolutely false and unfounded. I strongly deny any accusations.”
Jowhari was also accused of having close ties with an Imam who ran a group believed by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to be promoting the Iranian regime’s interests in Canada.
One photograph posted on Twitter appears to show Jowhari sitting at the same table as Reza Hosseini-Nassab, who is listed as a director of the Islamic Shia Assembly of Canada, which the CRA alleges was “acting as a facilitator organization to support the operational goals” of Iran’s Ahlul Bayt World Assembly (ABWA).
The Assembly is based in Tehran and has close ties to both the Iranian government and Hezbollah.
