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One of Canada’s trademark icons in the national capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a rather obscene trophy plucked from the dwindling herd of a seriously endangered species. The Government of Canada has no embassy in Tehran, no formal diplomatic relations with the country of 80 million people that embodies the contemporary face of the ancient Persian civilization. What does represent Canada in the Persian capital, however, is a big polar bear rug on very public display.

The pelt and head of the big white polar bear is on prominent exhibit in one of the most famous estates formerly owned by the notorious Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Shah was cultivated as a puppet dictator charged to rule Iran on behalf of foreign masters after the CIA removed Mohammad Mosaddegh from power.

An elected champion of the nationalization of Iranian oil for the benefit of the Iranian people, Prime Minister Mosaddegh was removed in a notorious case of US-directed “regime change” in 1953. The Shah of Iran dominated the resource rich-country until 1979, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile in France to direct and embody the Islamic Revolution that set Iran on its current course. In mid-June US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson openly called for “regime change” in Iran, bringing back memories of the Shah’s ruthlessness in deploying his secret police force, SAVAK, against dissident Iranians.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper harshly broke off diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2012. Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to re-open a Canadian embassy in Tehran but so far that he has failed to make good on this promise. It seems the Canadian government’s higher priority right now is to sell weapons to the Saudi Arabian government for deployment in Yemen and to quell internal dissent in the notoriously corrupt monarchy. What message is being signalled by the symbol of Canada’s polar bear rug at the Shah’s former palace in a country lacking a Canadian embassy?