00:00:00.000hello i'm rachel gilmore your least favorite person's least favorite journalist welcome to
00:00:11.880bubble pop this is the weekly live show where we talk about some of the biggest headlines and
00:00:17.340juiciest news tidbits so you don't have to doom scroll you got to stop doing that folks i need
00:00:22.840to stop doing that it's hard in this world though uh so just a reminder that if you want to support
00:00:28.060the show you can do so on patreon sub stack youtube as well as anywhere that you like to
00:00:33.100listen and while we're live we usually leave about 10 minutes for questions at the end of the show we
00:00:38.780try to prioritize those using the super chat function but we usually have time for some free
00:00:43.900ones too so definitely don't be shy and drop those in the chat all right there's a lot to talk about
00:00:49.580so let's get into it um i didn't write this into my script today but the first thing i want to
00:00:54.940acknowledge right off the bat is that there is some breaking news this morning. Another
00:00:59.040Conservative MP just crossed the floor to the Liberals, to Mark Carney's Liberals. And
00:01:04.360this MP is Conservative MP Marilyn Gladue. And so this, I just saw it right before we
00:01:09.580went live. But the one thing that I really remember from Marilyn Gladue is her vocal
00:01:13.880support of the Freedom Convoy and her suggesting that she would be open to, you know, allowing
00:01:20.040the question of abortion. So it's kind of got me wondering, what does the Liberal Party stand for
00:01:25.920if these kinds of Conservative MPs are welcome in their wings? Anyway, on to the news of this
00:01:34.460specific episode that we're hoping to cover. Last night, Iranians breathed a small sigh of relief
00:01:41.860after Trump backed down from his threat to commit genocide in the country, which came in addition
00:01:48.520to his threat to commit further war crimes. The further war crime of attacking civilian
00:01:54.660infrastructure, because to be clear, the U.S. and Israel were already doing that. They were
00:01:59.800hitting civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, bridges, and more. Trump
00:02:05.420had said he would commit these additional war crimes, though, if there wasn't a deal in place
00:02:10.380by 8 p.m. Eastern last night. About 90 minutes before that self-imposed deadline, Trump announced
00:02:16.240the agreement of a two-week ceasefire. Trump wrote on Truth Social that, quote, and let me see if I
00:02:23.660can just pull this up for our video viewers, that subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran
00:02:30.400agreeing to the complete, immediate, and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz, I agreed to
00:02:35.960suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double-sided0.93
00:02:41.520ceasefire. Trump said that the U.S. had, quote, received a 10-point proposal from Iran and
00:02:47.760believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points
00:02:52.160of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period
00:02:56.760will allow the agreement to be finalized and consummated. I don't love that he used that word,
00:03:03.220but anyway. This war, though, should never have happened in the first place because, to be clear,
00:03:11.520it is an illegal war. UN experts have made that clear. And it's also, I should note, an illegal
00:03:18.780war that Mark Carney supported. When asked yesterday if he regrets that support in light
00:03:24.920of Trump threatening to commit a genocide in Iran, Mark Carney had this to say. Do you regret your
00:03:31.140initial support of this war? Well, the initial point which we made is the grave threat that the0.84
00:03:38.580Iranian regime has posed for not just threat, but the actual acts of the Iranian regime over0.81
00:03:45.720the course of more than four decades. The threat to peace and security in the broader Middle East,0.98
00:03:51.400it is one of the largest state sponsors of terrorism in the region, and more broadly,0.91
00:03:59.880terrorism that has taken the lives of Canadian citizens, including in the downing of the
00:04:06.240Ukrainian airliner a few years ago. So this was the first point that we were making was
00:04:13.240the desirability of the ending of both that state-sponsored terrorism and the nuclear
00:04:21.640ambitions of Iran. That remains the case. It has always been the case, though, that Canada0.69
00:04:27.240makes a distinction, a fundamental distinction, as others do, between those objectives and
00:04:35.920obligations under international law and the respect for human rights, which would be
00:04:44.080inconsistent. Well, I'll just refer back to my previous comment. Thank you.
00:04:49.220So there you have it, folks. Now, I am no expert on Iran, and I try to recognize the limitations
00:04:57.600of what I can readily and ably, expertly pontificate on.
00:05:02.880So in light of that, luckily, a friend of the show is an excellent expert on Iran.
00:05:10.300Samir Moyadin is the fearless, award-winning journalist behind On The Line Media.
00:05:15.560She has been dogged in her coverage of U.S. and Israeli atrocities in Palestine and beyond.
00:05:22.380She also has a deep and personal understanding of Iranian politics,
00:05:26.660one rooted in her reality as what she described in one interview as a quote child of revolution
00:05:32.420as her parents immigrated to canada from iran in 1979 i am so excited that samira agreed to share
00:05:40.600her deep well of knowledge with us on the show today samira welcome to bubble pop hey rachel
00:05:46.540thanks for having me again oh it's so great to see you i'm honestly really um astounded that
00:05:52.960managed to find time for us because you're kind of just go go go with all of the news it's been
00:05:57.760really crazy but you know i i did want to ask you i mean first and foremost i heard you describing
00:06:02.880some of this on an interview last night but what was the reaction on the ground that you heard from
00:06:08.640you know your sources uh when this news broke of a ceasefire last night what were you hearing
00:06:14.480just relief um i think that that's the biggest thing relief and elation and then uh the fear
00:06:21.120of the unknown uh the next day because um you know a lot of people don't know if this two-week
00:06:27.200ceasefire will even hold um and it seems that you know israel didn't get the message um there were
00:06:34.320some lobbying of uh you know firing back and forth last night even after the announcement was made
00:06:42.640by trump so really it's a fragile ceasefire at best and as we've seen um israel you know hasn't
00:06:51.120upheld any ceasefire it has agreed to, whether in Lebanon or in Gaza. So that's really the fear
00:06:58.860right now is how long this will hold. Yeah. And also the fact that, you know, Israel seems to
00:07:04.380think that this ceasefire deal doesn't apply to Lebanon, as you mentioned, just, you know,
00:07:10.720that's news this morning that the prime minister actually put out a statement alongside several
00:07:17.160other world leaders, as he tends to do on these issues, calling for that ceasefire to be extended
00:07:22.940to Lebanon. I don't know if you have any initial reaction to that statement out today.
00:07:28.160Yeah, I mean, as you point out, we always have to have a get along gang with us. Canada just go on
00:07:34.160its own with this stuff. But Carney did come out and say that Lebanon should be part of that
00:07:39.760ceasefire agreement and what's interesting is that that same sentiment um is part of iran's
00:07:47.52010-point plan they have told the us that the ceasefire that part of their plan is for lebanon
00:07:54.560to be included in that ceasefire and it seems that israel you know came out guns blazing
00:08:01.280with more than a hundred strikes uh made on lebanon in minutes um and the number the death
00:08:09.360toll right now uh is up to 500 people so it's it's quite horrific what has happened in lebanon this
00:08:15.840morning yeah that's just devastating um and you know i almost feel silly asking this question
00:08:21.600in light of what you just said because you know it's evident that for many there is no ceasefire
00:08:26.800but um you know do you get the sense and i know you have no crystal ball but do you have a sense
00:08:32.880that maybe this ceasefire will hold uh what do you think are sort of the competing motivations at play
00:08:38.480uh in terms of assessing the likelihood of this lasting yeah i mean it's a great question and i
00:08:44.640think it's something that is top of mind for so many but i really do believe that the u.s
00:08:50.080administration has done a sort of you know analysis um uh cost benefit analysis here and
00:08:57.520have realized that this is enough um as you saw the price of crude oil shot down uh this morning
00:09:04.800and i think that economically this has been a huge cost for the us and strategically
00:09:12.240iran has really put its stamp on the straits of hormuz and has shown that it is in control
00:09:18.800of this waterway and that it will continue to be in control of it so i think that that the us
00:09:25.840really has a desire to put an end to this um and as they've said their military um objectives have
00:09:34.480been met uh pete hex this morning in the press conference called it a huge v for victory for
00:09:41.520the us uh unequivocally and you know trump even had the audacity to say that maybe they will
00:09:47.600be helping iran open up the straits of hormuz maybe economically um you know going into business
00:09:55.840with them i mean it was just all of this sort of bellicose statements of how they've won um which
00:10:01.440is so fantastical you know so in line with this entire administration they live in the fantasy
00:10:07.520world um and and really iran and iranians have shown you know despite the destruction that has
00:10:14.720happened in the country um whatever it comes down to even those who are against the government in
00:10:22.160iran they will rally around their country they don't want to see it destroyed and and you know
00:10:27.920know, they might hate the regime, but they love their country more. And that's what I think the
00:10:33.080U.S. and Israel don't seem to understand about the Iranian people. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know,
00:10:40.080one thing I found really interesting was Mark Carney's reaction yesterday in press conferences
00:10:47.100about, you know, the threats that Trump was making ahead of the deadline. You know, he was literally
00:10:52.980suggesting he'd commit genocide in Iran. And I think after everyone witnessing Gaza,
00:10:59.520you know, there's, it's hard to not take that with a little bit of belief to genuinely worry0.94
00:11:08.300that they could make good on those threats. Yeah, I was, sorry to interrupt you, but I was
00:11:13.660actually quite worried about it. I really firmly did believe that they were going to strike these
00:11:19.040power plants because it was a bit of a misnomer to say you know the civilian infrastructure wasn't
00:11:25.020struck yes and that they were just going to start doing this as we know they've struck public health
00:11:31.380centers hospitals have been impacted bridges were struck schools i mean that on that very first day
00:11:39.520a primary school was struck killing 168 children which there has been no accountability for and so
00:11:47.640So, you know, this idea that they wouldn't go after the power plants isn't, you know, something that was too far-fetched.
00:11:54.320I mean, people really believed that they were going to do this and there would be no electricity, there would be no water.
00:12:01.660They've already struck the oil refineries and oil depots.
00:12:04.440So this was something that was really scary for millions and millions of people inside the country and for many millions outside.
00:12:13.760I mean, as I don't know if you've noticed this, but even people who were for what they're calling foreign intervention have done a bit of a 180 when they realize that it's not just the government officials or, you know, military infrastructure that was under the under attack in Iran.
00:12:32.060It was the whole of the country. And unfortunately, a lot of people who were for this war have learned this the hard way.
00:12:38.540Yeah. Yeah. I actually, you know, I was going to touch on this later, but I think that there's quite a few things that the average person watching the media coverage and, you know, the discussions around this war might not understand the nuances of, you know, like we'll see CBC, for example, doing whole articles platforming Iranians who celebrate attacks by the U.S. and Israel.
00:13:08.540Yeah, I had to slip her in there just for you. But yeah, I mean, actually, do you want to tell
00:13:15.780listeners who you're reacting to right now and maybe contextualize in a broader sense this
00:13:21.140kind of support that you're seeing from these diaspora Iranians and whether it's reflective
00:13:26.120of what Iranians on the ground in Iran actually think? Yeah, I mean, this is Goldie Gamari. She
00:13:31.660used to be a member of Doug Ford's caucus. She was a Ontario member of the provincial parliament.
00:13:38.660She was kicked out of that caucus for fraternizing with well-known right-wing
00:13:44.660far-right nationalist Tommy Robinson. She is highly Islamophobic and racist. If you watch her0.97
00:13:56.360program uh on youtube she makes disgusting comments she was actually telling people to burn0.98
00:14:02.760mosques in iran she's she's vile beyond uh beyond words you know i i can't even describe she also0.54
00:14:10.680had she used to be a lawyer she had her law license taken away by the ontario uh law society1.00
00:14:17.800so it's it's just a huge you know she has a horrible track record having said all that she's
00:14:23.080become a bit of a mouthpiece you'll find her on pierce morgan uh cheering on this war cheering on
00:14:28.920president trump and benjamin netanyahu she's constantly thanking israel for their attacks
00:14:35.640all over the region um and and you know she's she's hold out and as someone who is representative
00:14:43.560of our community which she is not at all and unfortunately as you pointed out legacy media
00:14:50.200is really pushing these voices that are out in the street saying you know keep going we're with you
00:14:55.560trump bb when the fact is that you know if you look at what people who are trying to affect change
00:15:02.280on the ground in iran the civil rights activists the women's rights activists all have come out
00:15:08.440against this war because they know that the biggest losers of this war will be the people
00:15:13.960who are trying to make change on the ground incrementally and in their own way without
00:15:20.040foreign intervention. Yes, and I think that that's sort of a point of confusion for a lot of, you
00:15:26.780know, Western folks watching this, a point of confusion that's exacerbated by, you know,
00:15:32.000certain media coverage. Could you explain maybe a bit of the historical context behind why
00:15:38.080there's such a gap between, you know, I think a lot of people saw, well, there's these protesters
00:15:43.220you know, protesting the Iranian regime within Iran. And then they'd see protesters here
00:15:48.780protesting the regime with randomly some Israeli flags in the crowd and pictures of Trump. And
00:15:54.160they're like, oh, so the Iranian protesters are pro-Israel? And like, they're kind of just
00:15:59.700flatten it all down. Whereas these are like quite different groups with different interests in many
00:16:04.540ways. So could you just explain maybe like why there are these groups that are pro-violence
00:16:12.120against their own people. And the distinction between that and the mass protests that we saw
00:16:18.620that were so viciously cracked down on by the regime in January.
00:16:22.780Yeah, I mean, it depends on where you want to start that history.
00:16:26.640Let's start it, you know, in 1979. So if we start with the Iranian revolution that happened in 1979,
00:16:34.480there have been successive protests against this system of governance for all intents and purposes.
00:16:42.120the government in Iran is a totalitarian theocracy and it holds power through coercion and through a
00:16:51.640very archaic set of laws and it has persecuted its own people according you know abiding by
00:16:58.880those laws and so as I pointed out there have been protests since 1979 particularly since 2009 where
00:17:07.400we saw a massive uprising where people had gone out and voted and the elections were fraudulent.
00:17:14.860Million people were on the streets asking, where's my vote? And then again, from 2017 on,
00:17:21.000there have been just a hamster wheel of successive protests in which the government has cracked down
00:17:26.820in brutal ways, particularly since 2022 in the Mahsa Amini uprising, which was better known as
00:17:34.880woman life freedom movement then we saw protests again in january uh of this year which began
00:17:42.720on december 28th when on purpose iran's currency was debilitated by the american government you
00:17:52.080saw the u.s secretary of the treasury come out scott percent and say we did this we crippled
00:17:59.360their dollar and now we are reaping the benefits and on january 8th and 9th there was a huge
00:18:05.520crackdown uh by the iranian government thousands of people were killed now that number fluctuates
00:18:15.040between you know depending on what your political bent is some people including president have trump
00:18:20.640have come out and said 45 000 that's a ludicrous number um the number that uh human rights activists
00:18:27.360both inside and outside of the country have given is 6 000 including hundreds of iran's own security
00:18:34.400personnel whatever that number is it's still an atrocious number yeah um and so that's what
00:18:41.280you're seeing now the fear that i spoke about earlier is that under the guise of this war
00:18:46.480that was launched by these foreign powers the iranian government will use this as an excuse
00:18:52.080to now crack down on those uh civil rights activists inside the country and that's where
00:18:58.240the biggest worry is right now for many people yeah so it's sort of um you know it adds another
00:19:05.040layer of disingenuousness to people who are kind of claiming uh that they're doing this for the
00:19:11.120protesters i mean trump has certainly uh espoused some of that rhetoric being like we're doing this
00:19:15.440for the people of iran before you know he started talking about genociding them um yeah i mean that's
00:19:20.240That's the thing. And I want to come back to the question you asked because I didn't answer it when we were speaking about the diaspora and what we're seeing in legacy media.
00:19:28.560You know, there are whole pockets of people in the diaspora. You know, the Iranian diaspora, Toronto is home to the second largest Iranian diaspora.
00:19:38.580The Iranian diaspora number around six million people. So it's not a small diaspora.
00:19:43.280and you know they have an impact Trump has said in many interviews that look at them they're
00:19:50.360holding my picture you know they're thanking me they want the bombs to be dropping and that's
00:19:55.820true there are a lot of people in our diaspora who are not only for this war there she is again
00:20:03.580but who are actually espoused the a lot of the ideologies that Trump does you know they are
00:20:11.300against Palestinian liberty. They are highly Islamophobic, and they love ICE. There are
00:20:19.840actual interviews where you will hear Iranians in the U.S. say, we love ICE, we love what they're
00:20:24.680doing, etc. But are they representative of people inside the country? No, I don't think they are.
00:20:32.360And again, Iran is a country of 92 million people. It is the size of Western Europe,
00:20:39.640the 17th largest country in the world. Anybody who comes on any show and says this is what the
00:20:44.840Iranian want with so much certainty is full of shit. You know, we all speculate. And there is1.00
00:20:51.160a multitude of feelings within the country. Iran, despite how it's portrayed, is not a monolith.
00:20:58.680You know, Iranians, millions of Iranians support the Islamic Republic. And I don't think we should
00:21:05.520discount those people's voices either. You know, even if, let's say, the numbers are correct and
00:21:12.06020 to 25 percent of the population still supports the government, Iran, that's millions and millions
00:21:18.740of people. That's 30 million people. That's the population of Canada, for Christ's sake. That's a
00:21:24.420lot of people. So I don't think we should discount those voices, even though we may not line up with
00:21:29.860them politically um they are still part of the fabric and the makeup of that country yeah and
00:21:36.860you know the the Iranian people have a right to self-determination and you know just because I
00:21:42.200vehemently disagree with like freedom convoy protesters for example doesn't mean that I
00:21:47.820think that the things that they say should be like entirely discounted as like their their
00:21:53.400opinions don't count they're less Canadian than I am you know like they're they're part of this
00:21:58.160the fabric of this democracy. And if you believe in a democracy, you have to, you know, have these
00:22:03.920ideas. You know, there's going to be people who disagree with you. But I also think about how I
00:22:09.520would feel if media was, you know, international media was only interviewing Freedom Conway protesters.
00:22:15.340Can you imagine the representative of the whole of Canada? Yeah, yeah, that might upset me a little
00:22:21.760that. But yeah, no, I, and I think that, you know, that's really helpful context. But I think
00:22:29.460there's also another aspect to this that there's a lot of, I think, misinformation, intentional
00:22:37.620misinformation floating around about and, and that is, and you can correct me if I'm wrong in
00:22:43.140any of this, because you're the pro and I'm just, you know, trying to learn as much as I can,
00:22:46.920um is uh the nuclear program in iran i mean i that's one of the things like mark carney when
00:22:54.200he was uh justifying his support of this war he said he supported the objectives of ending iran
00:23:01.160as a state sponsor of terror and uh ending uh iran's nuclear program and um you know i just i
00:23:08.920i find it interesting when you consider that benjamin netanyahu has been saying that iran
00:23:17.720is here's our friend here oh what do we have oh yeah there you go exactly there's the state
00:23:24.200sponsored terrorists right i was gonna say i mean this is the point i made yesterday in a video i
00:23:29.640i made but i i really do think it's it's morally inconsistent to uh you know claim to care about
00:23:37.160mass violence against civilians on the part of like a rogue state um and not have an honest
00:23:43.880discussion about israel but you know benjamin netanyahu has for 33 years and um i actually
00:23:49.640don't know what year that video that i'm using was published but actually i think it's i think that's
00:23:54.52012 2012 if i'm really oh my god yeah so it's been decades uh nonetheless of benjamin netanyahu
00:24:02.360warning that Iran is on the cusp of having nuclear weapons.
00:24:06.460I'll tell you a funny thing about that, actually,0.80
00:24:09.120that Iranians in Iran were making fun of it.
00:24:25.560Since, I think it's 1995, if I'm not mistaken,
00:24:30.300Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying that any day now, Iran will be able to have a nuclear bomb
00:24:37.040and has been beating this horse to death.
00:24:43.960We already know, let's go back to June 2025, just stay in this part where the 12-day war
00:24:50.360was launched on Iran, where Trump used the word obliterated, where for the first time
00:24:56.440the United States used B-2 bombers to drop 30,000 pound bombs. Two 30,000 pound bombs were dropped
00:25:08.980on Iran to get rid of their nuclear capabilities. They had never used that bomb before. And so
00:25:17.580Trump came out and said, we have obliterated their nuclear capabilities. Now, are we supposed
00:25:22.020to believe that less than six months later iran was back to you know developing that nuclear bomb
00:25:28.660absolutely not even rafael grossi back in june of 2025 this is the head of the international
00:25:35.780atomic energy agency said in june iran is nowhere near a nuclear bomb and then again said just two
00:25:43.940days after this war was launched that iran was nowhere near a nuclear bomb and posed no imminent
00:25:51.220threat so we know that this war was launched under the auspices of a lie we know that we know it from
00:25:59.140the head of the international atomic energy agency so for mark carney to come out and say something
00:26:04.260like this he should know better um and you know we i mean i'm old enough to remember iraq i'm old
00:26:11.780enough to remember the weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist and when they didn't exist they
00:26:16.740made up the lie saying saddam is moving them around in vans do you remember that they were
00:26:22.100actually saying that the weapons of mass destruction were moving around baghdad
00:26:27.140oh my god and that they had to drop bombs everywhere in order to try and catch up with
00:26:32.100these moving vans as if it was like the oj simpson hunt you know in a white truck like this is the0.98
00:26:38.420type of idiocy and and rhetoric that we saw regurgitated when it came to iran they launched0.97
00:26:45.700this lie under the auspices under those auspices and the only reason and i firmly have come to0.99
00:26:52.420believe this the only reason that this war was launched was because of israel and because they
00:26:59.620want to see the 17th largest country in the world with the second largest oil reserves in the world0.85
00:27:05.940decimated they want a failed state and they want another client servile state in the region like0.86
00:27:11.780they have with Syria, that they can every once in a while bomb and it would not have the capabilities
00:27:17.540or abilities to protect itself or its citizens or its territory. That's what they want. They0.99
00:27:22.740want to decimate Iran's domestic capabilities and infrastructure. Yeah. Do you think that0.99
00:27:28.820they have, you know, Trump is claiming victory, Iran is claiming victory. How seriously have0.83
00:27:36.340these bombings impacted Iranian life and, you know, its ability to exist as a state with
00:27:43.300self-determination? I mean, how are they doing? I mean, Iran is not decimated. The destruction
00:27:52.100is in pockets. You know, unfortunately, a lot of people's businesses, livelihoods have been
00:27:57.940destroyed, which is awful, considering the crippling sanctions that people are under in
00:28:04.020in the country, and also the horrible economic reality that Iranians have to deal with, you know,0.85
00:28:12.780some of the worst inflation in the world. Their dollar, I think it's now like one to 400 or 40,000
00:28:21.180and something reals, which is just crazy. And unfortunately, a lot of people's businesses have
00:28:27.900gone up in smoke, their homes also. And one of the things that, you know, part of that 10-point
00:28:33.900plan that Iran has included is that maybe they may start charging $2 million per vessel to go
00:28:41.220through the streets of Hormuz as part of that reparation for the damage and destruction that
00:28:46.740has been done in the country. But judging from the footage that came out today, there was a0.60
00:28:53.320running club that I follow inside the country. They were out running today, people doing their
00:28:59.960thing you know don't forget as i said this is the 17th largest country in the world it's the size
00:29:04.600of western europe so life goes on in euron despite um what has happened now with respect to their
00:29:12.280military capabilities i think they've done a lot of damage to iran's capabilities they've really
00:29:19.560destroyed their um their uh you know military capabilities in the sky their sort of anti-aircraft
00:29:27.320missiles have been annihilated. Israel and the US had really taken over the skies of Iran.
00:29:34.840And yet, despite that, we did see some helicopters brought down. We saw an F-15 fighter jet brought
00:29:42.840down. So Iran is still fighting despite the amount of destruction that has been done to them0.70
00:29:49.160militarily. Considering what has happened to their navy also, Iran is still controlling the Straits
00:29:55.880of Hormuz, they never stopped controlling that waterway. So that says a lot about the country1.00
00:30:01.120itself. Yeah. You know, I'm wondering, I think a lot of, you know, Canadians watching this
00:30:08.080might have some, you know, just feel confused about how to support the Iranian people best
00:30:16.100in all of this, you know, particularly relative to like, obviously, the Iranian people know better
00:30:21.960than anyone that the regime in many ways is not great. And, you know, but that's not really
00:30:29.000up to us to decide. Like people can advocate for democracy without advocating for a foreign coup
00:30:34.820led by the US and Israel. But I do think that a lot of people might not know how to talk about
00:30:40.540this with their family and friends to capture the proper nuance. And I'm wondering if you have any
00:30:46.260advice for them about how to go about doing that, how to be supportive of the people in Iran who
00:30:51.540dealing with the outcome of this aggression from the U.S. and Israel, while also living under a
00:30:57.700regime that, you know, are no angels in their own right. But, you know, what's your advice to them?
00:31:04.660You know, I'll take one example. There's a gentleman named Hamid who had a beautiful
00:31:10.780music school in Tehran that he had built with his partner in the past five years,
00:31:17.480and it was thriving. His music school was totally destroyed. I put up a video yesterday of him
00:31:24.520sitting in the rubble with all the sort of shredded music that he had written around him
00:31:31.700and was playing an instrument called the saws. And he said something that was so poetic. He said,
00:31:40.320I don't want the last sounds to have come from this music school to be the sounds of bombs.
00:31:46.600and so he started playing his musical instrument you know unfortunately I don't have as someone
00:31:53.420who sits here in Canada even if I wanted to help Hamid financially to try and get his school up
00:32:01.320and running again or to try and help him with any reconstruction I don't have the ability to do that
00:32:06.380because of the economic sanctions that are on the country there's no PayPal I could help him with
00:32:13.540there's no go fund me the moment that you put the word iran in a go fund me it gets you know
00:32:20.500it gets uh it gets flagged because of sanctions so these are the types of things that you know as a
00:32:27.140diaspora is so painful for us that we can't even help the people inside the country i think one1.00
00:32:33.700of the things that canadians can do is to call out the hypocrisy that we're seeing when it comes to
00:32:41.060Iran vis-a-vis Israel and Canada's stance. Look, as you point out, and I have pointed out many places,
00:32:48.740Iran's government is a brutal repressive government. But for millions of people inside
00:32:55.060the country, it isn't. They are okay with what's happening. What's important is that for those
00:33:00.980people who are trying to affect change inside the country, the human rights activists, the lawyers,
00:33:06.740the trade union leaders the heads of writing associations teachers federations bus driver
00:33:13.140unions all of those people it is important that we don't allow or or or you know compound the
00:33:20.9002000 pound bombs that are falling on their heads you can still support the people of iran without
00:33:26.900supporting a war and i think that is what is important and we need to let our lawmakers in
00:33:31.780canada know that yeah great well that is a really great note i think to uh try to
00:33:39.060pivot to audience questions on because uh that was such a beautiful and heartbreaking story about
00:33:44.820that music school and i i really hope that he uh is able to hear those sounds of his instruments
00:33:50.340again um but i could you know if people go to my instagram they can find that video um and you know
00:33:56.900even any any word of support to Hamid would be great and you can leave it in that in the video
00:34:02.100itself. Yeah and that's actually the next thing I wanted to ask you because I'm sure that anyone
00:34:06.180who has listened to you over this last you know half hour and a bit uh wants to keep up with your
00:34:11.220work and I was hoping while I give people an opportunity to drop their questions in the chat
00:34:16.340um to give you the opportunity to tell them where they can do that. Yeah I mean you can find me at
00:34:21.300on the line media i i have a show on uh youtube and of course you can find me on instagram or x
00:34:28.020at s moyeden great um all right we have an initial question here um samira would iran
00:34:37.940left alone ever have converted to full democracy on their own what a great hypothetical uh
00:34:44.180Unfortunately, and I can take this back to Iran's first revolution, which was in 1905. Iran had a revolution in 1905 referred to as the Constitutional Revolution. This was when we wanted to see a break from the monarchical system.
00:35:03.140Iran had its first and second parliament. And this is where you really first saw the conflict between the clerics and the idea of constitutionalism in the country.
00:35:15.860Unfortunately, Iran has never been left to its own devices, the Iranian people. There has always been some sort of outside foreign intervention, having a hand.0.75
00:35:25.620And so I hope Iran will be left to its own devices. I think the Iranian people themselves have shown that they have a hunger for representative democracy, for freedom, for human rights. And if left alone, they can bring that to fruition.
00:35:43.260Now, is the current government going to allow that? I don't know. They've shown that they will do anything to stay in power, including clamping down on their own citizens. But I think that the people of Iran will come to freedom if left to their own devices.
00:36:02.320All right. Michael O'Bain wants to know, was the Supreme Leader serious? And I guess you can't really get in his head, but, you know, to the extent that you maybe have seen signals, was he serious about the religious ban against nuclear weapons?
00:36:18.840I mean, that's hard to say. You know, he's dead. And, you know, it's not hilarious, but, you know, they've put his son in power. Same last name. So we've substituted one Khamenei for another. His son, unfortunately, is actually a lot more stalwart than he is, has a lot closer relationship with the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
00:36:43.460So, you know, if Iran didn't want to develop a nuclear weapon before, they sure have good reason to want to do it now after this war that was imposed on them.
00:36:54.800So that's unfortunately the reality that we're dealing with today.0.91
00:36:58.480Don't forget this, but Iran's neighbors have nuclear weapons.
00:37:05.820And we never talk about the fact that Israel has between 90 to 400 nuclear warheads, and unlike Iran, is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Let's keep that in mind.
00:37:23.240Yeah, I just pulled up for those of you listening on audio only a excerpt of a New York Times article that asks, how big is Israel's nuclear arsenal? And it says Israel is widely believed to have at least 90 warheads and enough fissile material to produce up to hundreds more.
00:37:39.520So, you know, can't can't totally blame someone who's constantly threatened by them for stockpiling some 60% enriched uranium because I'm laughing because I for a while back in 2015, I kept saying no fissile for your missile.0.83
00:37:58.760That's a good one. I like it. Yeah. Do you know what I am? Oh, sorry.
00:38:03.720there's some there's some more questions on the chat but I want to be greedy and just quickly
00:38:06.780ask you what was your reaction to those AI propaganda videos from the Iranian ones yeah
00:38:13.340the Lego ones I mean you know if if it didn't win the military war it certainly won the meme war
00:38:19.720yeah I couldn't help bopping my head to some of them I have to say yeah that Pete Hegseth one I
00:38:26.460was like that was really good it was really good unfortunately and I you know I'm really not into
00:38:32.600AI, but some of those were pretty on point. A typical Canadian wants to know, and this is,
00:38:41.960I think, a really big question that I wish we had the answer to, but I don't know, Samir,
00:38:47.400if you want to take a crack at it. I want to know, ideally, how will the Iranian people
00:38:51.960get beyond the regime? It's a big one. Can you solve it now?
00:38:56.280I mean, this is a question, I think it's like a million dollar question for so many people.
00:39:02.280And I just, I always try and put it in a historical context. Look, Iran is, I know it's, you know, a 5,000 year old civilization, but when it comes to representative democracy, having any sort of, you know, voting or anything that we tie into a democratic system, it hasn't gotten there yet.
00:39:27.280And, you know, Europe had 400 years to get there.
00:39:31.420I mean, even think of the French Revolution.
00:39:33.900How much brutality, how much killing, how many successes, you know, from Napoleon onwards.
00:39:40.040We allowed Europe to have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years of development to get there.1.00
00:39:46.020And we expect the Iranians to do it in 50 years.1.00
00:39:50.280It's just, you know, let the Iranians get there on their own time.1.00
00:39:55.840You know, when I come back to the last question, like, would Iran have gotten here without foreign intervention? Unfortunately, we don't know. Hopefully, this will be a new chapter where the Iranians can, for the first time in their history, forge their own path, you know, and do it in their own way, without foreign intervention, without foreign meddling.0.96
00:40:16.820yeah yeah it's uh it's really hard to know right like when they haven't had a second of a chance
00:40:25.480uh to try because of all of this so um all right vezro says how should a non-iranian engage with
00:40:34.380the diaspora regarding the war especially those who are for the ongoing conflict due to distaste
00:40:39.420of the regime i i don't know i don't know uh how you want to interact i mean i i don't know
00:40:46.540how you want to engage uh sometimes i warn people of even engaging period you know uh
00:40:53.820i i'm sad to say but my my community people in my community have proved to be wholly toxic
00:41:00.540it is a very toxic environment it's not an inviting environment and when you're seeing0.60
00:41:05.340some of the people in my community waving israeli flags and behaving uh atrociously1.00
00:41:12.700i don't even know why you would want to engage yeah yeah it doesn't seem like there's a lot of0.64
00:41:18.940good faith particularly from certain individuals who you have gone toe-to-toe with samira like a
00:41:25.580a certain uh gg that we know of it's not worth it it's not worth it because um you know i i am
00:41:32.540I've become very selective about people who I even speak to anymore, because some people are
00:41:38.620so whole bent on an ideological way of thinking that it doesn't matter how much historical context
00:41:46.620or truth or facts you show them, they want to remain in that silo. And so I just choose to
00:41:53.260disengage. Yeah, it's exhausting to try and change minds. Yeah, it is. But I'm sure you have achieved
00:41:59.900that with many through your work um so maybe maybe not necessarily the protesters but at least uh0.93
00:42:06.460some ignorant canadians who wanted to learn um scalpel 11 uh wants to know why did we only hear
00:42:12.620about the shah during an early surge and nothing really since i don't i don't really understand0.95
00:42:19.740that question yeah do you think i mean first of all i guess do you agree with the premise like
00:42:24.140Like, did you mostly hear about Shah Reza Pahlavi, I believe?
00:42:36.000I mean, I think it depends on where you're seeing him, because in my, you know, algorithm or whatever, people are still speaking about him on a daily basis.
00:42:46.740You know, but I'm sort of mired in the Iranian community.
00:42:49.980So I'm not sure what they're looking at, whoever is asking this question, because, you know, he still appears on Fox News and other places.
00:43:02.820So I'm not sure if they're seeing a sort of dissipating of his mentioning.
00:43:09.720But, you know, a lot of people, and I'm sure maybe you've seen this, maybe you haven't, who were, as I've noted, for this war very early on, have done a bit of a 180, you know, and as I've said, have quickly realized that it was the whole of the country that was under attack by U.S. and Israel, not just the military, not just the commanders, not just the government officials.
00:43:32.520And I think that, unfortunately, people woke up to that reality a little bit too late as far as I'm concerned, but I'm glad some have woken up to it.
00:43:42.240Yeah. Yeah. And my understanding, and you can correct me if I'm wrong on this, Samir, and I know we're coming up against the end of our time, but is that there isn't a lot of support, I believe, for the Shah's son in Iran.
00:43:54.660It's mostly it's more popular. He's more popular among the diaspora. Is that is that a fair assessment or am I misinformed about that?
00:44:00.940Again, I don't know. I mean, judging from the protests that happened on the streets back in January, we did hear people calling out his name. There's no doubt about that. And, you know, there is such a nostalgia for Iran in the 1970s. Look, Iran in the 1970s, people who held an Iranian passport could go anywhere in the world. They didn't need a visa.
00:44:23.880our dollar at the time was one dollar you know american was seven sorry seven dollars uh iranian
00:44:32.200real was one dollar american now it's 40 000 right so this is what people see we were we weren't
00:44:38.940thought of as being a state sponsor the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world the young
00:44:43.940people of iran and i should point this out before we end the median age in iran rachel is 32 oh wow
00:44:51.000So this is a generation that had nothing to do with bringing this system of governance to fruition. And many of them, if you speak to them inside the country, they just want to be a part of the international community. They really do. They are tired of being seen as pariahs. They are tired of being economically shut out from the world. They want to re-engage with the world.
00:45:16.960Yeah. Well, that's really helpful context, Samira. And frankly, this whole conversation has been incredibly helpful. I think a lot of people are trying to make sense of, you know, as I put in the title, the senseless here. And, you know, your insights are incredibly helpful for doing just that, particularly at a time when, you know, a lot of Western media isn't necessarily doing a great job of covering these issues.
00:45:41.780So I want to just personally thank you for your coverage.
00:45:45.460I regularly tell people when they ask me about Iran, I'm like, go look at Samira's stuff, okay?
00:45:51.000Because Samira knows it way better than I ever will.
00:45:54.800So, you know, thank you for that work.
00:45:57.040And, you know, everyone who's watching right now, definitely give Samira a follow on Instagram, YouTube, subscribe to On The Line Media.
00:46:05.760She's doing great work and it's really essential in this media landscape.
00:46:09.340Thank you so much for covering this, Rachel.