The protests, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, who died on September 16 after being arrested for allegedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code for women, prompted Canada to take action against Iran and condemn the IRGC . The federal government has referred to the IRGC as a terrorist organization, described its leadership as terrorists and announced measures to make certain members of the group inadmissible to Canada. Also, the government continues to designate a branch of the IRGC, its Quds Force, as a terrorist entity. However, despite calls from the federal Conservative Party, activists and the PS752 Family Association of Flight Victims, the government has refused to designate the entire militia group as a terrorist entity under Canada’s Criminal Code. “It’s a valid question about what the reluctance is. I don’t know what’s going through the mind of the foreign minister or the public security minister or the prime minister,” said Phil Gurski, a former terrorism specialist at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. . “I mean, if anything, this is really funny.” “The IRGC certainly meets that criteria.” Protesters in Toronto organized by the Families Association of Flight PS752 joined others across Canada on Saturday in a show of solidarity with the ongoing protests by Iranians against the regime. (Tyler Cheese/CBC) CBC News explains what steps the government has taken, its stated reasons for not designating the IRGC as a terrorist entity and other possible motivations for its reluctance.
What is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps?
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was created after Iran’s 1979 revolution, created to protect the new government. Since then, according to the Council on Foreign Relations website, it has grown into one of the most powerful paramilitary organizations in the Middle East. It operates its own intelligence services and answers directly to Iran’s supreme leader. It is a branch of Iran’s armed forces but operates independently of the regular army and has huge financial interests across the country. The US estimates that it may control or have significant influence over up to 50% of the Iranian economy, including civilian sectors such as banking and shipping. But it has also been accused of orchestrating a number of terrorist attacks around the world while providing support to terrorist organizations, charges Iran denies.
What is Canada’s terrorist list?
The list was created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which amended the Criminal Code in 2001. To be included on the list, which now includes 73 groups, there must be “reasonable grounds to believe that an entity knowingly engaged in or facilitated terrorist activity, or knowingly acted on behalf of, at the direction of, or in cooperation with such an entity ,” according to the Government of Canada website. If designated, banks can freeze a group’s assets and police can charge anyone who financially or materially supports such a group. The list includes al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and the Proud Boys.
What did Canada say about the IRGC?
In June 2018, the federal Liberals supported a House of Commons motion introduced by the Conservatives that sought to “immediately designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a designated terrorist entity under the Criminal Code of Canada.” But since that proposal, the IRGC has yet to be defined. There was a new push last year after an Ontario Superior Court ruled that the downing of Flight PS752 by the IRGC was a deliberate act of terrorism. and constitutes “terrorist activity”. In response to Amini’s death, the federal government announced last month that it would take action under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) to make inadmissible top members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – potentially 10,000 individuals. Canada. And it was during this announcement that Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland referred to the IRGC leadership as “terrorists” and the IRGC as a “terrorist organization.” However, Canada has not gone the extra step of designating it as a terrorist entity.
So why doesn’t Canada list the IRGC as a terrorist entity?
At a press conference last month, Attorney General and Justice Minister David Lamety explained that since the IRGC is part of Iran’s military and military service is compulsory, there are concerns that the Criminal Code would be too much of a “blunt tool” to dealt with. with the team. He said the government should target the truly “bad actors without also targeting innocent people”. Including the IRGC on these terrorist lists could unfairly incarcerate Iranians in Canada who oppose and defected from the regime but had been recruited into the IRGC. “We don’t want to punish innocent people or those against the regime,” he said. Thomas Juneau, who specializes in Middle East politics at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, agreed that the problem with the IRGC is that in more than 40 years of the Islamic Republic, they have ended “hundreds of thousands of people, mostly men, who have been in the IRGC, in many cases conscripts. “They were cooks. They were in administrative or clerical positions for a while in the 1990s or 2000s. So do you really want to sanction them? In some cases they are innocent.”
Are there other reasons the government might be reluctant?
The implementation of listing the IRGC as a terrorist entity would be extremely resource-intensive, Juneau says. The demand such a listing would place on agencies such as the RCMP, CSIS, Canada Border Services Agency and FINTRAC, the financial intelligence unit, would be enormous, he said. WATCHES | Canada bans top members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard under new sanctions:
Canada bans top members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard under new sanctions
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced a new round of sanctions on Iran, barring 50 percent of the top members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from entering Canada. “It’s not just about hiring five summer students. You have to hire people with very technical skills in financial intelligence and border security. You have to train them. You have to get them security clearances, usually at the top secret level,” he said. But there is also a legal issue the government has not discussed, which could be the most significant obstacle to listing the IRGC. Andrew House, who specializes in national security law and was chief of staff to former public safety minister Vic Toews, said that during the Stephen Harper government, there was a legal categorization debate about what kind of entity had to be included in this list. Under the Criminal Code, an entity is defined as “a person, group, trust, partnership or fund or association or unincorporated body”. This means that the IRGC, as an arm of the Iranian government, may not technically fall into this category. arguably, he is a state actor, who is subject to sanctions, but will not be put on a terrorist list. “That’s the clear legal position,” House said. “Judges do a lot of these kinds of disputes. So, from a technical legal point of view, the advice that was always pushed by the system itself was, ‘Hey, make sure you categorize them correctly. You might have to face it in court some day.” But in 2012, the Harper government wanted to send a message that the IRGC’s behavior was terrorist in nature, despite the objections of officials who wanted to preserve the purity of the legal charges, House said. A compromise was reached to include a branch of the IRGC, Iran’s Quds Force, on the list, the logic at the time being more of a loosely-linked militia, House said. WATCHES | Canada seeks to ban members of the Iranian regime from the country:
Canada seeks to ban members of the Iranian regime from the country
In addition to adding more Iranian officials and entities to its sanctions list, the federal government is pursuing measures that would prevent members of the Iranian regime from entering Canada and potentially deport their family members from the county. “In the cold light of history. I don’t think that argument can be sustained anymore,” House said. “The Quds force, as we understand it, is led by uniformed members of the IRGC. They are very much part of the state.” However, House said despite the legal technicalities, the symbolic messages are important and he believes the IRGC should be on the list as “we have already crossed the bridge”. “Let’s go all out,” he said. House points out that the Taliban, for example, are on the list and are the de facto government of Afghanistan. “If you want it to be legally clean about it, you’d have to write off the Taliban. And I don’t know anyone who would support that.”
