IRAN WATCH CANADA : Zahra Kazemi’s family can’t sue Iran over her death, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has ruled Canada’s State Immunity Act bars Zahra Kazemi’s estate from suing Iran over her torture and death in 2003, but noted Parliament could change Canada’s State Immunity Act.

OTTAWA—The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that Zahra Kazemi’s family can’t sue the Iranian government over her torture death in 2003, but Parliament could soon have the chance to simply change the legislation that prohibits the lawsuit.

The Supreme Court judges clearly had profound sympathy for Kazemi’s only son, Stephan Hashemi, describing the allegations of her rape and torture as “horrific.”

But in its 6-1 ruling, the high court said Canada’s State Immunity Act expressly bars any claim on Canadian soil by her son or Kazemi’s estate for torture acts — however “heinous” — that occurred abroad.

Justice Louis LeBel, writing for the majority, said, “Parliament has the ability to change the current state of the law on exceptions to state immunity, just as it did in the case of terrorism, and allow those in situations like Mr. Hashemi and his mother’s estate to seek redress in Canadian courts.

“Parliament has simply chosen not to do it yet.”

Justice Minister Peter MacKay and Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said the government is reviewing the decision.

However, Liberal MP Irwin Cotler has once again put on the order paper a private member’s bill that would amend the State Immunity Act to allow civil lawsuits to proceed on Canadian soil against foreign states responsible for torture abroad. That’s the very law the Supreme Court of Canada is now blocking Kazemi’s family from pursuing justice here.

And now Cotler is inviting the federal government to take over as sponsor of the legislation.

“I think the Supreme Court judgment, in fact, invited the government to do this. Its decision is basically a call to action,” Cotler said in an interview. “I’m saying the time to do it is now, the time is long overdue.”

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar supported Cotler’s similar bill in 2009, which never came to a vote. So did at least one Conservative and a Bloc Québécois member. Dewar says he, too, will push it again especially since Canada moved in 2012 to allow victims of state-sponsored terrorism abroad to sue here.

“It’s not consistent in terms of our values and certainly is something the government can and should change,” Dewar said.

Federal lawyers had argued if it was allowed to proceed, Hashemi’s lawsuit would effectively modify legislation, have an impact on international relations and potential lawsuits against Canada abroad. Any such decision was up to Parliament, not the courts, the government said.

Hashemi fought for more than a decade to seek redress and believes the Canadian government failed his mother in siding with Iran’s move to dismiss the family’s lawsuit.

His Montreal legal team was deflated by the high court’s ruling.

“We’re disappointed the court couldn’t find a constitutional legal solution to this tragic story,” lawyer Kurt Johnson told the Star.

“On the other hand, they acknowledged it’s open to Parliament to do something so we’ll certainly pursue that.

“While the doors of Canadian courts for the moment are shut, we do think Parliament has an opportunity to open them up in cases like this.”

In their decision, a majority of judges found the act, passed in 1982, is “a complete codification of Canadian law” that grants states like Iran or Syria immunity from civil liability in Canada for acts of torture committed abroad.

LeBel wrote: “Canada’s commitment to the universal prohibition of torture is strong. However, Parliament has made a choice to give priority to a foreign state’s immunity over civil redress for citizens who have been tortured abroad. That policy choice is not a comment about the evils of torture, but rather an indication of what principles Parliament has chosen to promote.”
Link:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/10/10/high_court_rules_
on_17m_kazemi_lawsuit_against_iran.html