Honourable colleagues, Iran Accountability Week is an opportunity to draw attention to the human rights abuses and lack of religious freedom in Iran, as well as its ties with and support of extremist terrorism movements throughout the Middle East and the world.

Sadly, Canada appears to have regressed when it comes to honestly confronting and opposing the Iranian regime.

While a few weeks ago, the United States of America took the steps of designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, a foreign terrorist organization. Canada has yet to follow through on the similar action despite Parliament’s unanimous decision to do so.

Honourable colleagues, it’s time for Canada to follow through if for no other reason that, as Senator Harder has previously said, we must not be seen to be out of step with our allies when it comes to Iran.

The IRGC has operated beyond the bounds of the law and the judiciary. Instead, it answers directly to Iran’s theocratic Supreme Leader. Iran’s revolutionary Islamist ideology has led it to support international terrorism and terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, Hamas and dozens of others. It is this ideology that is the foundation of its international policy.

According to the respected U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, the IRGC’s ties to terrorist groups in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, help Iran to promote its international policy objectives. Hezbollah is arguably the most powerful terrorist entity in the world. Hezbollah, in fact, is so powerful that it constitutes a state-within-a-state in Lebanon. Hezbollah is not only committed to the destruction of the only democracy in the Middle East, the State of Israel, it is heavily engaged in the civil war in Syria and closely allied with the regime of Bashar al‑Assad.

A wide range of open-source literature tells us that Iran has bankrolled Hezbollah, provided it with arms, including long-range missiles that are now capable of striking at most parts of Israel, and provided that terrorist group with advice and leadership. It has done this in complete violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Actions like these are why Canada under the previous government decided to completely sever relations with Iran. That extraordinary step is a demonstration of the threat this regime poses to international security and to the international community.

And what of the threat this regime poses against its own people? Tens of thousands of Iranians have been imprisoned, abused, tortured and murdered by the regime over nearly four decades. According to NGO Iran Human Rights, Iran is estimated to have executed 273 people in 2018. Iran has the highest rate of juvenile executions in the world, with six confirmed executions of minors in 2018, including the executions of two child brides charged with the murders of their husbands.

This violence has touched Canadians as well. We are all saddened, aware of the suspicious death of Kavous Seyed-Emami while in Iranian custody. The IRGC is one of the entities implicated in this man’s detention and custody. We cannot look away from that. We cannot turn our backs on those people and their loved ones.

Iran Accountability Week isn’t only about holding Iran accountable. It is about our own accountability. It is not enough to espouse platitudes about respecting human rights and defending religious freedoms if we are not willing to walk the talk.

It is time to designate the IRGC a terrorist organization under the Criminal Code of Canada. Not to do so is to lose all credibility at home and abroad.