Why American victims of terrorism are fighting Iran’s government in a Toronto commercial court

[Valin]

National Post:

Stewart Bell

February 5, 2016

 

TORONTO — The commercial court on the 8th floor of the Canada Life building looked to be an unlikely front in the fight against international terrorism.

 

Inside, six lawyers in black robes faced a judge accustomed to hearing business disputes. Aside from the ambulances racing to the hospitals on University Ave., it was far removed from the disturbances of a violent world. The only sign that this was not just another corporate case was the docket sheet outside the door.

 

Three feet long, it listed the names of dozens of victims of terrorism. Held hostage, bombed and shot by those who had sought to further their causes through the most uncivil methods, they were fighting back in a way that was conversely civil. They were suing. Not the individual terrorists who saw them only as targets — that would have been pointless. Instead they were going after the government that trained those terrorists, armed them and financed their activities. In other words, Iran.

 

The defendants in the case were the Islamic Republic of Iran, its intelligence ministry and its revolutionary guard, long the silent patron of groups ranging from Hezbollah and the Taliban to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The case, which began on January 25, was a collision of calculated violence and the law of civil responsibility, taking place amid the uncertainty of the evolving relationship between Iran, Canada and the international community.

 

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