Lloyd Axworthy, former Canadian foreign minister and President of the University of Winnipeg
Lloyd Axworthy, the former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, will be among the speakers at a public meeting in Toronto, Canada, as part of the Five Years Too Many campaign.
Scheduled for Thursday, 9 May, the event will also feature talks by two relatives of the seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders, Naeim Tavakkoli and Siovash Khanjani.
Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations, is also scheduled to speak.
Dr. Axworthy, currently president of the University of Winnipeg, was Canada’s foreign minister from 1996 to 2000, and has long been a vocal advocate for human rights. He has spoken out in the past against Iran’s persecution of Baha’is, including an Op-Ed in the Huffington Post.
Mr. Tavakkoli, is an Ottawa engineer and the son of Behrouz Tavakkoli, one of the seven prisoners. Mr. Khanjani, a Toronto businessman, is the nephew of Jamaloddin Khanjani, also one of the seven.
Those attending the public meeting will also be shown a video clip of Senator Romeo Dallaire expressing his grave concerns about the targeting of Baha’is in Iran. That video clip can be viewed here.
The meeting will be held at the Toronto Baha’i Center, at 288 Bloor Street West, starting at 7:30 pm. For more information, contact Gerald Filson, director of public affairs for the Baha’i community of Canada, at: [email protected]