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The federal government is listing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization under Canada’s Criminal Code after years of mounting pressure.
Federal ministers delivered the news Wednesday afternoon, hours after CBC News first reported the government was preparing to make the announcement.
“This action sends a strong message that Canada will use all of the tools at its disposal to combat the terrorist entity of the IRGC,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters. “Our government will ensure that there is no immunity for Iran’s unlawful actions and its support of terrorism.”
Once a group is placed on the country’s terror list, police can charge anyone who financially or materially supports the group and banks can freeze its assets.
The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian armed forces that answers directly to Iran’s supreme leader. The IRGC shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 above the skies of Tehran in January 2020, killing 175 passengers, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly warned that Canadians in Iran might face a heightened risk of arbitrary detention after Wednesday’s announcement.
“For those who are in Iran right now, it’s time to come back home. And for those who are planning to go to Iran, don’t go,” Joly said.
This latest development comes after years of pressure on the federal government to list the IRGC.
The association representing family members of Flight PS752 victims, members of the Iranian Canadian community, the Conservative Party and the NDP have all called on the government to designate the entire militia group as a terrorist entity. MPs voted unanimously last month to do so.
Hamed Esmaeilion, a board member with the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, said the families are “happy to hear” the government is moving forward with this designation after they demanded it at every rally and event they held over the past four years.
“It has been a long journey. Long and painful,” said Esmaeilon, who lost his daughter and wife on Flight PS752. “It’s very important to punish those people or those organizations that were involved in atrocities against Canadians and Iranians.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said his party has been calling on the government to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization for six years, ever since the House of Commons first adopted a Conservative opposition motion to do so in 2018.
“Because of the government’s inaction over the last six years, the Iranian regime’s capabilities here in North American have only increased,” Chong said Wednesday. “The government is only taking action now because of recent reports outlining that increased capacity by the Iranian regime.”
NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson called the move a “good step,” adding that “it should not have taken this long.”
‘Now is the time,’ LeBlanc says
When asked why it took the government so long to make the move, LeBlanc said the decision was made based on the advice of security services and foreign policy considerations.
“The decision to list an organization under Canada’s Criminal Code as a terrorist entity isn’t made because of comments on Twitter or question period,” he said.
LeBlanc added that Canada’s security services hold a monthly review to determine whether to recommend that various entities be listed as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code.
“The government of Canada has concluded after a deliberative process, based on very, very strong and compelling evidence that the cabinet received, that now is the time,” he added.
Canada does not have an embassy in Iran; it cut diplomatic ties with the country in 2012.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre renewed his calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, according to Israeli government estimates.
Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist organization, is also a member of a Tehran-backed alliance of militant groups in the Middle East known as the “Axis of Resistance.”
The government’s news release cited the IRGC’s “known association” with Hamas and Hezbollah, another listed terrorist group.
“Based on their actions, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the IRGC has knowingly carried out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity, or has knowingly acted on behalf of, at the direction of, or in association with an entity that has knowingly carried out terrorist activity,” the news release said.
Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed welcomed the new designation.
“We appreciate the decision of the Government of Canada and at the same time recognize the importance of the broad and long standing cross-party parliamentary support in this regard,” he said in a news release.
Justice minister says government being ‘careful and measured’
After years of reluctance by the government, Trudeau told victims’ families at a ceremony on the fourth anniversary of the destruction of the plane that his government was looking at ways to “responsibly” move forward with that designation.
“We know there is more to do to hold the regime to account and we will continue our work, including continuing to look for ways to responsibly list the IRGC as a terrorist organization,” the prime minister said on Jan. 8.
That comment came after the government explained for years why it hadn’t listed the IRGC.
In 2022, the government said that including the militia group on the terrorist list could unfairly affect Iranians in Canada who opposed the regime and fled, but had to serve with the IRGC in the past as part of mandatory military service. Then-justice minister David Lametti said designating the IRGC as a terrorist entity could be too much of “a blunt instrument.”
Instead, the government opted to take action that year through immigration laws by designating the Islamic Republic of Iran as a “regime that has engaged in terrorism and systematic and gross human rights violations” under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
On Wednesday, Lametti’s successor, Justice Minister Arif Virani, said the government remains concerned about the impact of the listing on those conscripted into the IRGC, but is being “careful and measured” in its approach.
“If an individual was conscripted at one point in time and no longer serves with the IRGC, that would affect the analysis,” he said.
The government has also argued it already listed the Quds Force — a branch of the IRGC — as a terrorist organization. But the victims’ families said that wasn’t enough because the Quds Force was not the branch responsible for shooting down Flight PS752.
At a media conference earlier this week, Iranian Canadian human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay, speaking for Iran’s Justice Collective, called on the government to act. She said IRGC regime officials and affiliates are living in Canada and buying up expensive properties, and they pose a risk.
“For us, it’s extremely important to list them on the terrorist list, not just because of what they do to Iranians but the security risks they pose to all Canadians,” she said at the Tuesday media conference about an NDP motion targeting Iran.
The Canada Border Services Agency said last year it had denied entry to dozens of senior Iranian regime officials trying to enter Canada and was investigating about 100 more with status in Canada.
The U.S. listed Iran as a terrorist organization in 2019, when Donald Trump was president.