Liberals designate Iran’s IRGC as terrorist group after delays

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OTTAWA – After years of pressure, the Liberal government declared Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters in front of the House of Commons, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government had received “very, very strong and compelling evidence” that it should list the IRGC as a terrorist group under the Criminal Code.

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The designation comes six years after the House of Commons, including the Liberals, first supported a motion to designate the IRGC as a terrorist entity. Last month, a similar motion once again passed unanimously in the Commons.

Once the designation is enacted, it will be a crime to participate in or contribute to the group’s activities, as well as give the government the power to freeze any Canadian assets of IRGC members.

LeBlanc faced multiple questions by reporters as to what took so long for cabinet to add the IRGC to the list of designated terrorists, something members of the Iranian diaspora have demanded for years.

LeBlanc said that there are ongoing reviews by Canada’s intelligence and security agencies of the IRGC’s activities and whether they have met the level of terrorist organization designation.

“I’m told that there’s literally a monthly review by the security agencies of different entities around the world and whether or not the threshold has been met” to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization, LeBlanc said.

“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 to list the IRGC as a criminal organization.”

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The IRGC is a major component of the Iranian military, virtually a parallel army that was formed after the Iranian revolution in 1979. It was designated a terrorist organization in the United States in 2019.

The IRGC numbers 150,000 and oversees the country’s missile program and nuclear efforts. It’s also linked to militias fighting throughout the Middle East and supports terrorist groups, including Hamas.

According to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Centre, the IRGC is the Iranian regime’s “primary organizations responsible for conducting covert lethal activities outside of Iran, including asymmetric and terrorist operations.”

It says the IRGC’s external operations force “has plotted and conducted covert operations worldwide, and it provides guidance, training, funding, and weapons to Shia militant partners and proxies in other Middle Eastern countries.”

Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said that listing the IRGC as a terrorist organization increases the chances of arbitrary detention of Canadians in the country.

“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. We don’t have an embassy in Iran. We’ve cut diplomatic ties for years now, and therefore we won’t be able to provide the consular expertise that would be required,” Joly warned.

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The Liberals have long argued that listing the IRGC as a terrorist organization could have the unintended consequence of affecting Iranians who were conscripted into the military group as part of mandatory service.

Justice Minister Arif Virani said that an individual’s willingness and intent to support the IRGC is an important consideration under the Criminal Code.

“If an individual was conscripted at one point in time and no longer serves with the IRGC, that would affect the analysis and inform the analysis. If the person who is sending the money does not know what it is going to be used for and is, in fact, kept in the dark about that information, that would also affect the analysis,” he said.

In a statement, the Conservatives lambasted the Liberals for taking six years to finally declare the IRGC a terrorist group.

“As a result of that delay, the IRGC has been able to grow stronger as a result of Trudeau’s inaction. They have been allowed to fundraise, recruit and operate in Canada while terrorizing countless Iranian-Canadians who fled to Canada to escape the IRGC in the first place,” Conservative MPs Michael Chong and Melissa Lantsman said.

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“The Liberal government’s refusal to stand up to hostile foreign states has undermined our democracy while leaving Canadians open to harassment and violence.”

National security expert and University of Ottawa professor Thomas Juneau said that targeted sanctions against Iranian regime members and foreign interference actors would be more effective than listing the IRGC as a terrorist organization.

“The reality is that Canada already has difficulty in enforcing its existing sanctions, and this hurts our reputation with allies. Targeted sanctions would be more effective and a better use of scarce resources,” he wrote on social media.

“Basically, this is typical Canadian foreign, defence, or national security: there is a problem (IRGC activities here) but instead of thinking hard about the smartest way to tackle it, we take the politically expedient one, driven by domestic political considerations,” he added.

National Post
cnardi@postmedia.com

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