QUESTION PERIOD — Foreign Affairs
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
June 23, 2020
Honourable senators, I have a question for the government leader. Continuing on the leader’s questions in regard to Iran and Canada’s relationship to Iran, it has now been over two years since the other place passed a motion to immediately designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a listed terrorist entity under the Criminal Code of Canada. Two years ago we believed this was a priority for your government, as the Prime Minister supported this motion. His current and former Minister of Public Safety and Minister of Foreign Affairs all voted for this motion. Yet, here we are, two years later, no further ahead than we were on that day in June 2018.
Leader, shortly after the vote took place two years ago, your government claimed that it had begun the process of listing the IRGC. Has that process been abandoned? If so, when did that occur and who gave the order to end that process?
Thank you for your question. This government, like the previous government, despises terrorism in all its forms and condemns all terrorism sponsors.
As you know, the previous government listed the Quds Force portion of the IRGC as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code. This government has maintained its listing. The previous government also declined to list the IRGC as a whole when the then opposition pressed them to do so as recently as March 2015. The fact is, there’s a legal standard of evidence that must be met before listing any of the other components of the IRCG. I’ve been advised that the government continues to assess that on an ongoing basis.
In conclusion I will add, as senators may recall, that in the spring of 2019 this government also added three Iranian-backed groups to the list of terrorist entities, including the Fatemiyoun Division, which is directed by the IRGC’s Quds Force.
So you’re saying that the process to list the IRGC was abandoned or is ongoing but it has been two years and it hasn’t been done. Would you confirm that that process is ongoing then?
In February, B’nai Brith filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court against the Government of Canada regarding its failure to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity. Senator, I won’t ask you to comment specifically on that lawsuit because I know you cannot comment. However, I would ask you to reflect upon the frustration and distress which would prompt an organization to take such a step in an effort to hold your government to its word.
My question is: B’nai Brith and the Council of Iranian Canadians joined together shortly after the crash of flight PS752 in January to ask your government to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity. Did your government respond to these groups?
Thank you. Although I can’t answer the specific question of the particular response, I can assure this chamber that the government is in regular contact with both of these groups and listens carefully to their suggestions and interventions.
With regard to the first part of your question, my understanding is that this is an ongoing assessment. That is to say, the possibility of listing other entities or the IRGC as a whole is the subject of an ongoing assessment. It’s not something that has been abandoned.
I would remind senators as well that Iran remains listed as a state sponsor of terrorism under the State Immunity Act, which removes any legal immunity from any court proceedings against Iran for its support of terrorism and, furthermore, that senior Iranian officials remain subject to sanctions under the Special Economic Measures Act.
Otherwise put, colleagues, there is a suite of measures already in place that represents this government’s and previous governments’ condemnation of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.
