In a monologue, the speaker warns that Donald Trump's threat to strike Iran would constitute war crimes, killing civilians and destroying essential infrastructure. He frames the issue through the lens of the Iranian‑Canadian diaspora, noting that about a quarter‑million Canadians of Iranian origin arrived mainly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, quickly contributing as engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs, and public officials. He highlights Canada’s humanitarian legacy, recalling how Canadians sheltered six American diplomats for 79 days during the 1979 hostage crisis. The speaker stresses that many recent Iranian immigrants (over 55,000 since 2020) oppose the Islamic Republic and have family still in Iran, so any US bombing would directly affect their loved ones in Canada. He urges viewers to consider the human cost, arguing that while Canada may not be responsible for the bombing, it will be remembered for its past acts of sheltering and humanitarian aid.
Chapters
Tonight at 5 o'clock Pacific, Donald Trump says he'll commit war crimes against the nation of Iran. Now look, mine is not a political channel, but I want to talk about the connection that Canada has with Iranians, because tonight it matters. There are about a quarter of a million Canadians of Iranian origin living here. They came mostly after 1979 or so, when the Islamic Revolution made Iran basically unlivable for secular professionals and religious minorities and academics and really anyone who believed that women deserve to exist in public without a dress code enforced by police. They came with their families and their grief, and Canada said, "Come in, make this your home." The earliest arrivals slotted very quickly into professional life as engineers and doctors and lawyers and dentists. One Iranian family built the West Edmonton Mall, another founded Future Shop. Iranian Canadians now hold chairs at McGill, lead cybersecurity labs, they serve in Parliament. These are people who, when given the chance to breathe, build things. Employ people. Here's something worth reminding the US administration: in 1979, when the revolution happened and the American embassy in Tehran was overrun, 6 American diplomats escaped into the streets. We took them in. Canadians. We hid them for 79 days in our own homes, spirited them out undercover at great risk. Not diplomatic risk. Risk to the lives of our people. The Americans made a movie of it. Rewrote the story to make the CIA the big heroes because— because of course they did. Since 2020 alone, more than 55,000 Iranian citizens have become permanent residents of Canada. Most of them oppose the Islamic Republic with a depth of feeling that most Canadians can barely imagine. They watched from here as their cousins and aunts and old professors got arrested for protesting, as young women were beaten in the street for showing their hair. They're Canadians now, fully, and they are watching what is happening to their people with a kind of sorrow that has no name in English, although Persian probably has 17 words for it. But tonight they are sitting in their homes in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, watching a clock tick toward 5 o'clock Pacific, knowing that the bombs, if they fall, may very well fall on someone they love. What Trump is threatening to do in Iran will kill civilians. It will knock out power to hospitals and water treatment plants. It will fall on the uncles and grandmothers of kids who go to school in Burnaby and Mississauga and North York. It is by every definition a war crime, but at least when it's all over, Canada won't have to remember this moment for what we bombed. For who we killed. We'll remember it for who we held.
