Canada has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization under the Criminal Code.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc made the announcement Wednesday after years of mounting pressure from Iranian Canadians and opposition parties.
“Our government will ensure that there is no immunity for Iran’s unlawful actions and its support of terrorism,” LeBlanc said at a press conference in Ottawa.
MPs voted unanimously last month to approve a report from the House of Commons justice committee that, among other measures, recommended the terrorist designation, but the motion was non-binding.
Families of Canadian victims of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight PS752, which was shot down by the IRGC in 2020, have been calling on Ottawa to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization ever since. All 176 passengers onboard the plane were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at an event in January marking the four-year anniversary of the shootdown that the government was looking for “ways to responsibly list the IRGC as a terrorist organization.”
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Being a listed terrorist entity carries severe consequences. It is illegal to contribute to any activity of a listed group, and its property can be seized and forfeited.
The Qods Force, an international wing of the IRGC, has been listed as a terrorist organization since 2012. But the federal government has stopped short of pinning the label on the entire IRGC, which is a branch of the Iranian military that reports directly to Iran’s supreme leader.
The Qods Force trains, bankrolls and arms terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, according to the government.
An Ontario Superior Court judge ruled in 2022 that the IRGC was a listed terrorist entity “by association” due to the Qods Force designation, citing the relationship between the two groups.
Days before that 2022 ruling, Canada designated Iran as “a regime that has engaged in terrorism” and human rights violations, and barred senior members of the IRGC and the Iranian regime from Canada.
The United States listed the IRGC as a foreign terrorist entity in 2019.
More to come…
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