| Amir Khadir | |
|---|---|
| MNA for Mercier | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2008 |
|
| Preceded by | Daniel Turp |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 June 1961 Tehran, Iran |
| Political party | Québec Solidaire |
| Spouse(s) | Nima Machouf |
Amir Khadir (born June 12, 1961 in Tehran, Iran) is a politician in the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA), Canada for the electoral district of Mercier, and currently the male spokesperson for Québec Solidaire, a sovereignist and left-wing political party which was created by the merger of the Union des Forces Progressistes and Option Citoyenne, a feminist political movement, in February 2006.
On December 8, 2008, Khadir became the first and only elected representative for Québec Solidaire in the general election in Quebec.
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He was born in Tehran in 1961 and migrated to Quebec at the age of ten.[1] He was involved in many humanitarian organizations such as Médecins du Monde.
He studied medicine at Université Laval, physics at McGill University, and completed postdoctoral studies at the Université de Montréal.
A medical specialist in infectious microbiology, he practices at the Centre hospitalier Pierre-Le-Gardeur in Lachenaie. Khadir is a member of the Coalition des Médecins pour la Justice Sociale (Coalition of Doctors for Social Justice), which opposes the privatization of the Quebec health system. He has led missions to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Palestinian territories for Médecins du Monde and until 2004 presided over the administrative council of SUCO (Solidarité-Union-Coopération).
Khadir is married to Nima Machouf. They have three children, named Daria, Yalda and Leyli.[1]
In the federal election of 2000, Khadir ran as a Bloc Québécois candidate in the riding of Outremont. He received 28% of the vote and finished second against Liberal incumbent Martin Cauchon.
Khadir worked with the Yes side in the 1980 sovereignty referendum.[2]
Khadir was a member of the Rassemblement pour une alternative politique (RAP) from its inception in 1997 and took part in the founding of the Union des Forces Progressistes in June 2002 and at one point was the spokesperson for the party.
In the fall of 2005, Khadir signed the Manifesto for a Québec based on solidarity.[2]
In August 2010, Khadir was a signatory of an open letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy urging that France pay almost $23-billion in slavery reparations to help Haiti rebuild following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.[3]
In December 2010, Khadir participated in protests organized by Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) that were held outside of the Boutique Le Marcheur, a shoe store in Montreal, because the store sells shoes made in Israel. The protestors stated that they would continue to demonstrate outside the store until it stops selling shoes made in Israel. The store's owners, Yves Archambault and Ginette Auger, dismissed the protest, stating that “No one – no one is going to dictate to me what to sell.” [4] Archambault sharply criticized Khadir, stating that he found it "horrible” that his MNA representative was verbally inciting customers not to enter his store. Archambault responded that Israeli products constitute only 2% of his store's goods, but announced that he would not give in to the protesters' demands.[5][6]
On February 9, 2011, a motion was brought forward in the Quebec National Assembly to condemn the boycott of Le Marcheur. Khadir was the sole MNA to vote against it and prevent its being debated (unanimity is required for such a motion to go to debate). Several members of the National Assembly’s other three parties: François Bonnardel of the Action Démocratique du Québec, Parti Québécois MNA Martin Lemay and Liberal party member Lawrence Bergman subsequently visited the store to show their support and demonstrate their opposition to the boycott.[7]
Khadir later defended his support for boycotts of Israeli products but insisted there had been a "terrible misunderstanding" between himself and Archambault. Khadir denied that he asked people not to enter the store but stated that he only informed customers about the boycott.[6] Khadir subsequently claimed that he misunderstood the nature of the protest, despite the clear message on the pamphlet he held while taking part (the pamphlet said “Boycott Le Marcheur” and vowed to continue the campaign until the store stopped selling Israeli products). Khadir also stated that he now regrets taking part and that he wants people to boycott the products, not the merchant. In an email release, Khadir stated that “I would have hoped the owner would be sensitive to the ethical issues of business and would join the boycott, but that is not the case, which is his right.”[8]
Along with fellow QS spokesperson Françoise David, Khadir is currently one of the two most prominent members of Québec solidaire, a left-wing party whose province-wide support never scored more than five percent of the vote.
He ran for a seat in the National Assembly of Quebec in the Montreal-based district of Mercier against Daniel Turp of the Parti Québécois in the 2003, 2007 and 2008 elections.
On his first attempt, he finished third with 18% of the vote under the Union des forces progressistes party line. During Khadir's second bid, the first as part of the newly formed Québec Solidaire, he placed second, with 29% of the vote.
In 2008, Khadir won the seat and became the first Québec Solidaire candidate elected. He garnered 39% of the vote. During that campaign, Khadir received the endorsement of Robert Perreault, a former PQ cabinet member who represented the district from 1994 to 2000.[9]
A poll conducted for the newspapers Le Devoir and The Montreal Gazette in early December 2010, established that Khadir was the most popular politician in Québec, with an approval rating of 45%.[10]
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service investigated Khadir and his family because of their support for the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI), an organization that opposed the government of Ayatollah Khomeini and which faced fierce repression by the Iranian government. Khadir declared in an interview that he was very involved in the movement saying "I was the main facilitator of the opponents of the mullahs regime" but that in the mid 1980s he took his distance from this organization because he disagreed with their "autocratic turn" and their support for violence against the Iranian regime.[11] The United States in 1997, The Council of the European Union in 2002, Canada in 2005, Iraq, and Iran have designated the PMOI a terrorist organization.[12][13] On January 26, 2009, the Council of the European Union removed the PMOI from the EU terror list. The group said it was the outcome of a “seven-year-long legal and political battle”.[14][15][16][17]
In a 2011 interview, Khadir expressed his opposition towards the use of tax dollars for an upcoming royal tour through Montreal and Quebec City by the newlywed Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, referring to them as "parasites".[18]
Khadir has also expressed criticism of the Bush administration's policies, throwing his shoes at a picture of the president outside the U.S. Consulate at a protest in Montreal in December 2008. The event was supposed to symbolically replicate Muntadhar al-Zaidi's actual attempted shoeing of the President in Iraq. He and other protesters then headed to the Canadian Forces recruitment centre on Sainte Catherine Street and threw shoes at a photograph of American president George W. Bush.[19] Khadir was accused of betraying the "dignity and responsibilities of a[n] MNA," though Khadir himself says his constituents expected nothing less.[20]