The federal government is preparing to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization under Canada’s Criminal Code after mounting pressure, CBC News has learned.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the talks say an announcement is expected as early as this week. Discussions are still ongoing and details not finalized, they said.
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 assets.
The latest development comes after years of pressure including from the Association of Flight PS752 Victims, members of the Iranian Canadian community, the Conservative Party and the NDP to designate the whole militia group as a terrorist entity. MPs unanimously voted last month to do so.
The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian armed forces that answers directly to Iran’s supreme leader. The IRGC shot down Flight PS752 above the skies of Tehran in January 2020, killing 175 passengers, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
Ever since then, the victims’ families have loudly campaigned for the government to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
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. 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.”
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.
On the fourth anniversary of the downing of Flight PS752, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will look for ways to hold Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accountable for the deaths of the 176 passengers, some of whom were Canadians.
That comment came after the government explained for years why it hadn’t done so.
In 2022, the government said that including the militia group on the terrorist list could unfairly hurt 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 and designate the Islamic Republic of Iran a “regime that has engaged in terrorism and systematic and gross human rights violations” under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
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.
More to come.