QUESTION PERIOD — Global Affairs
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
March 20, 2024
Senator Gold, yesterday, Minister Joly announced that Canada would no longer be exporting weapons to our ally Israel. She pointed to the fact that this was something included in the non-binding motion adopted on Monday in the other place, referring to that motion as “. . . a real thing.” I find it beyond troubling that your Minister of Foreign Affairs is now literally writing foreign policy on the back of a napkin based on an opposition day motion, not from the official opposition, not from a third party, but from your coalition fourth-party partners.
It strikes me as odd that she is so quick to implement something in that motion when there was a motion adopted by Parliament seven years ago — calling on the government to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, as a terrorist entity — that has yet to be implemented.
It’s amazing how a terrorist group gets preferential treatment while a democracy gets none. For the Minister of Foreign Affairs, is the IRGC motion a fake one and the motion on Monday a real one?
Senator Housakos, as you know, since January 8, the government has not approved any new arms export permits to Israel, and, indeed, what the Minister of Foreign Affairs announced was simply an extension or affirmation of that position that was taken some months ago.
Again, with regard to the listing of that regime as a terrorist entity, as I have said on many occasions, there have been a very robust series of sanctions imposed on many institutions and individuals, and the issue of further sanctions or listings continues to be a matter of active review.
Thank you for confirming what your government is doing and where they stand. However, the question still remains.
Senator Gold, it’s clear that the IRGC is funding Hamas and helped them plan and execute the October 7 attack on Israel. So why would your government move so swiftly to suspend arms to our ally Israel, which, it says, has the right to defend itself, but in five years has taken no action against Israel and Canada’s enemy, the IRGC? That sounds like your government is picking sides, Senator Gold, and it’s not picking the right side of history.
The government is not picking sides, senator. It remains focused on doing the right thing by way of its sanctions regime and will continue to do so.
