Iran takes Canada to court for violating sovereign immunity
The Cradle | June 29, 2023
Iran has filed a legal case against Canada at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under the pretext of violating Iran’s sovereign state immunity by designating the country as a “sponsor of terror.”
The Hague-based court confirmed in a statement that Iran launched the case against Canada on 26 June.
A statement on the official website of the Iranian government said that Canada presented these accusations under “false and wrongful” pretenses.
In the press release by the ICJ, Iran contends that “Canada has adopted and implemented a series of legislative, executive, and judicial measures against Iran and its property [since 2012] in breach of its international obligations.”
Iran argues that “as a sovereign state, it is entitled to sovereign immunities from jurisdiction and from enforcement under customary international law” and requests the Court to adjudge and declare that “by failing to respect the immunities of Iran and its property, Canada has violated its international obligations towards Iran.”
In 2021, a Canadian court awarded 107 million Canadian dollars ($84m) to the families of six victims who were killed when Iranian forces shot down a Ukraine International Airlines flight near Tehran in January 2020, which was labeled an “act of terrorism” by Ontario judge Edward Belobaba.
Iranian officials have said the shooting of the plane was an accident caused by “human error” in operating a surface-to-air defense system due to being on “high alert” following retaliatory strikes on US bases for the killing of Top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
In May of 2021, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Saeed Khatibzadeh described the application of Canadian judicial procedures as a “quite political approach,” saying: “the Canadian court, following the US courts, first identifies the accused, then resorts to any relevant or irrelevant information in public sources, especially cyberspace, to find a reason for its biased and predetermined mentality.”
Canada listed Iran as a “sponsor of terror” in 2012 and broke diplomatic ties as relations frayed over Tehran’s support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, its nuclear program, and its stance on Israel.
On 13 March, 2012, Canada amended section 6 of the State Immunity Act (SIA) to remove the immunity from the jurisdiction of a foreign State listed by Canada as a supporter of terrorism, the application for the legal case states.
Following the amendment, section 6.1 of the SIA provides that “a foreign state that is set out on the list referred to in subsection (2) is not immune from the jurisdiction of a court in proceedings against it for its support of terrorism on or after January 1, 1985.”
The ICJ was set up after World War II to resolve disputes between UN member states. Its judgments are final but can take years.

Unfortunately, Canada has a little puppet for a prime minister who will say and do anything Washington and the Globalists want. His actions are disgraceful, dishonest, and stupidly counter-productive to Canadian interests.
LikeLike