Dear Courageous colleague,
It's simple:
Canada is taking part in economic sanctions, initiated by the US, which are causing many unnecessary deaths.
In the case of Iran, where COVID-19 has killed more than 6000 people, sanctions are blocking the availability of basic medical supplies. Today, Courage is holding an online action to put pressure on the Canadian government to end its participation in the sanctions by tweeting with the hashtag #EndIranSanctionsCanada.
Our action page has ready-made tweets that you can post with two clicks, or edit to add your own views.
Join the day of action today!
Background:
Read our statement on Iran sanctions:
“Suspending sanctions during this pandemic should not be seen as a troubling or even monumental thing to do. Proponents of sanctions in the US administration insist that only extreme pressure will bring about changes in Iranian policy – but we are in different times now. Controlling the virus would not be a favour to the Iranian government, but to Iranians themselves – and indeed, to the rest of the world.”
Read our statement on Venezuela sanctions:
"U.S. sanctions against Venezuela have been devastating. The most recent round, initiated in 2017, prevented the country from restructuring its economy—heavily dependent on oil exports—in the wake of a global oil slump, and reduced the availability of essential goods, including food and medicine. The result was devastating. As Mark Weisbrot and Jeffery Sachs note, “The sanctions reduced the public’s caloric intake, increased disease and mortality (for both adults and infants), and displaced millions of Venezuelans who fled the country as a result of the worsening economic depression and hyperinflation.” An estimated 40,000 Venezuelans died as a result of the 2017 sanctions. [...]"
"The U.S. State Department has used the COVID-19 crisis both as cover for military escalation and as an opportunity to bring new levels of crisis and misery to Venezuela."