June 19, 2024
OTTAWA – The Government of Canada has announced that it is listing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group following a unanimously adopted motion in the House of Commons last month.
Wednesday’s decision comes after years of relentless advocacy on the part of B’nai Brith Canada, which had been urging the Government to take concrete measures against the Islamic Republic of Iran due to its decades-long state sponsorship of terrorism.
“Today’s announcement, though long overdue, is a victory for all Canadians. The victims of IRGC terror deserve to know that Canada will no longer function as a safe haven for members of the Iranian regime or their assets,” said Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy.
The House of Commons first voted in support of listing the IRGC in 2018. However, the Government failed to actuate accordingly, and members of the IRGC continued to be able to operate with impunity in Canada up until today.
The IRGC remained unlisted despite the IRGC’s Quds Force being designated as a terrorist entity by Canada in 2012. This was an illogical predicament as there is often no distinction between members of the IRGC and members of its Quds Force and substantive overlap exists between the groups.
In addition to terrorizing the Iranian people domestically, the IRGC also serves as the main link between Iran and its terrorist proxies, which include Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthi Movement, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Hamas, Hezbollah, and PIJ are all listed terror entities in Canada. A main function of the IRGC has been to facilitate the proliferation of terrorism. This includes the Hamas-led terror attacks against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023.
The IRGC’s designation follows its brutal suppression of protests in the wake of the extrajudicial killing of Mahsa Amini in 2022 and the IRGC’s downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 in 2020, which killed 176 civilians and 64 Canadians.
B’nai Brith had previously launched letter-writing campaigns to, and a lawsuit against, the Canadian Government with the goal of having the IRGC listed as a terrorist group.
“As part of our commitment to defending human rights and protecting those who have been marginalized, B’nai Brith committed itself to ensuring that the IRGC be recognized for what they are, terrorists. We did so in solidarity with the Iranian community and in the memory of those who were silenced by the IRGC,” Robertson concluded.
