Trudeau says the move will affect the top tiers of the IRGC and will be permanent
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government is taking steps to prevent top members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from entering Canada
Trudeau said the move would affect the top 50 per cent of the IRGC — roughly 10,000 members — and will be permanent
We are using the most powerful tools at our disposal to crack down on this brutal regime,
Trudeau told a press conference Friday
The move comes after weeks of pressure on the government from opposition MPs and advocates to add the IRGC to Canada’s terrorist list
What the government announced falls short of listing the IRGC as a terrorist entity. Instead, the government is using provisions under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) to target members of the regime and the IRGC
Members of Parliament passed a motion in 2018 calling on the government to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Four years later, it still hasn’t done so — although the guard’s paramilitary Quds Force is already on the list
The Conservative opposition has been amping up the pressure on the government to add the IRGC to the list in recent weeks. Conservative MPs have brought up the topic up in nearly every question period since Parliament returned last month
The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims also has calling on Ottawa to add the IRGC to the list of terrorist organizations in response to its role in destroying the civilian aircraft two years ago
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland insisted Friday that by taking the steps it has taken, the federal government is recognizing the IRGC as a terrorist entity
The IRGC is a terrorist organization. Today, by listing the IRGC under IRPA and indeed by listing the broader leadership of the Iranian regime, we are formally recognizing that fact and acting accordingly,
she said
When asked why the government didn’t actually add the IRGC to the list of terrorist entities, Trudeau didn’t rule out doing so in the future
We have looked very, very carefully at all the potential tools and we’re not taking any further tools off the table,
he said, adding that the IRPA was used against individuals in Rwanda and Bosnia in the 1990s
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office said previously that adding an organization to the terrorist list is not up to politicians
Determining whether a group constitutes a terrorist entity is a careful, non-political process undertaken by Canada’s national security agencies,
spokesperson Alexander Cohen said in an email to The Canadian Press in September
These agencies are continuously working to identify and assess entities that may meet the threshold for listing
Earlier this week, the government slapped sanctions on 34 Iranians and Iranian entities, including members of the IRGC and Iran’s morality police
Trudeau said Friday the government will be expanding those sanctions and will allocate $76 million to boost the RCMP’s capacity to seize and freeze the assets of sanctioned entities
