We, the undersigned, are writing to report a case of hate propaganda published on social media through an account that apparently belongs to Soroosh Shahriari, a Ph.D. student currently affiliated with the department of Jewish Studies, McGill University. For the reasons below, we request that you immediately investigate this matter, and if the association of the tweet with this student is confirmed, take appropriate action as per the university’s policies.

Issue:
The tweet shown in the header image of this petition has been posted by an account that belongs to Soroosh Shahriari.

Context:
In the wake of the public outrage and mass protests in Iran after the death of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s “morality police,” the Iranian government has resorted to brute violence to crackdown on demonstrators, leading to the death of dozens of protesters across the nation. This toll continues to rise as of the date of this writing. The Prime Minister, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and many other world leaders have expressed support for the freedom-seeking demonstrators. Since the beginning of the unrest, solidarity demonstrations have been held across Canada, including events organized by members of the McGill University community. (More coverage on the story is provided here)

The Iranian state propaganda frames the protesters as "mercenaries of foreign governments" and "Mojahedin agents," the latter term being a reference to the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), one of its many opposition organizations in exile. Thousands of MEK members were executed while incarcerated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1988. This is well documented, including in the Trial of Hamid Noori in Sweden, a recently convicted Iranian government agent who was prosecuted and found guilty of participating in the 1988 mass executions. (More information is provided here)

The tweet at issue is making an obvious reference to MEK.

Impact:
The particular tweet praises execution and may incite violence against protestors. In our view, and given the context summarized above, the “Mojahedin leaders arrested” in this tweet can only be interpreted as a reference to Iranian protesters or a group of protesters whom the tweet author speculates to be members of MEK. Therefore the tweet can only be understood as a threat of or invitation to commit violence.

We would like to highlight that public hate propaganda against an identifiable group is an indictable offence under section 319(1) of the criminal code of Canada.

The statement was felt by us to be a veiled threat to the safety of any individual, including McGill students, who support freedom-seeking protestors in Iran or may share political beliefs that are targeted by this tweet.

Conclusion:
As academics, students, and members of the public who are deeply saddened by the violence that is underway in Iran, we consider the violent statement of this nature in Cyberspace deeply troubling. Since the tweet was met with immediate backlash, all the social media accounts related to this individual have been deactivated. We have exercised due diligence to verify the identity of the tweet owner with the McGill student mentioned above. While we found this identification very likely, we cannot ascertain it beyond doubt and would defer to your thorough investigation.

We would like to thank you for considering this matter with the urgency and sensitivity that it merits.

Sincerely,

The undersigned