Update: Maclean's has more:
A foundation that American authorities say is a front for the Iranian government continues to fund McGill University and a Toronto Farsi school, years after U.S. federal prosecutors went to court to seize the group’s assets and alleged it was channelling money to an Iranian state-owned bank sanctioned by Canada.
The Alavi Foundation is a New York-based non-profit that has given more than $300,000 to Canadian universities, and more than $200,000 to the private Toronto Farsi School, since 2004.
In November 2009, U.S. federal prosecutors filed an amended civil complaint seeking the forfeiture of the foundation’s interest in a lucrative Manhattan office tower, from where it derives most of its income. The property was built in the 1970s by the Pahlavi Foundation, which was controlled by the shah of Iran to run the country’s charitable activities in America.
The claim, which is not resolved, alleges that, following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s new government took control of the property and the foundation, which it renamed, running them through Iran’s ambassadors to the United Nations.
It alleges that the Iranian state-owned Bank Melli, through an offshore shell company, owns 40 per cent of the Manhattan property, while the Alavi Foundation controls the remaining 60 per cent.
Under Canada’s 2010 Special Economic Measures Regulations on Iran, Bank Melli is a designated entity with which Canadians cannot do business...Update: About that private school in Toronto...:
The Toronto Farsi School was founded seventeen years ago as a Persian language and literature centre.
The school is registered as a not for-profit organization and has charitable status.
The school's primary objective is to ensure that Iranian-Canadian children are kept in touch with their heritage...If the school accepts money from Khomeinists, one has to question exactly which part of their heritage these kids are being "kept in touch with." What, for example, are students being taught about the Iranian Revolution? Also, shouldn't any school that receives funding from a front group for the Iranian regime have its charitable status revoked post haste?
1 comment:
Don't know if the first comment got through it gave a 'fault' and told me to do it all over.lol
At first glance I don't seem to find the post I'm referring to in my comment, a number of months ago I read that the role of the Iranian Embassy was also to keep the 'Heimatt' spirit alive among the Iranian ex patriates.
So I presume these 'Farsi Schools' have the equivalent of the good old USRR politbureau commissar.
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