Canada Reiterates Resolve To Designate IRGC

Iran International Newsroom
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a memorial service to remember the victims of Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada January 8, 2024.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a memorial service to remember the victims of Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada January 8, 2024.

In an event to mark four years since Iran’s Revolutionary Guards downing of Flight PS752, Canada’s premier reiterated his resolve to label the IRGC a terrorist organization.

During the Monday ceremony, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government is looking at ways to list the Guards, which shot down the Ukrainian airliner by two missiles shortly after taking off from Tehran on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 people onboard, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.

He criticized the Iranian government's "disregard for the rule of law" and expressed Canada's ongoing efforts to responsibly designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, citing sanctions against select IRGC officials.

"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," Trudeau said. 

The Iranian government claimed in a 2021 report that the airliner was shot down accidentally after being "misidentified" by an air defense unit as a "hostile target" — a conclusion Canadian safety officials say Iran failed to support with evidence.

Canada has been wrestling with designation of the IRGC as a terrorist entity for years, but calls grew louder after the Flight PS752 incident. Canada’s federal government has referred to the IRGC as a terrorist organization, described its leadership as terrorists, announced measures to make its senior members inadmissible to Canada, and has listed the outfit’s extraterritorial expeditionary division Quds Force as a terrorist entity. 

However, despite numerous calls from the federal Conservative party, activists and even US lawmakers as well as the families of victims of the Ukrainian flight, the government has refused to designate the whole entity as a terrorist entity under the country’s Criminal Code. In June, Canada's Senate passed a non-binding motion to designate the the Guards as a terror organization, echoing a similar motion in 2018. The country's Liberals supported the Tory motion in the House of Commons back in 2018, but have not done so since. 

Trudeau’s government argues that such a listing would be a blunt-force approach that could affect low-level people who were forced to serve in the force as part of their mandatory military service. According to the CIA, conscripts make up more than 50 percent of the IRGC.

In addition to the prime minister, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez and Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman attended Monday's ceremony in Richmond Hill. 

Lantsman, who serves as Canada’s opposition deputy, criticized Trudeau's government for its handling of Iranian officials on Canadian soil, promising a definitive designation of the IRGC as a terrorist group. Canada’s Official Opposition emphasizes the need to end legal activities of IRGC members in Canada and their luxurious lifestyles funded by embezzled Iranian money.

Lantsman repeated her party's call to designate the IRGC a terrorist organization, saying "This evil act of murder ... underscored a truth that our country has known for a very long time — the IRGC is a terrorist group." 

She highlighted that “the IRGC terrorists have given safe harbor in Canada by a Liberal government without the courage to ban them. To this day, over 700 IRGC terrorists have been able to legally operate on our soil and live in luxury with the money they stole from the Iranian people.” 

Critics argue that existing measures, including expanded sanctions and amendments to the Magnitsky legislation, are insufficient to address the issue of regime-connected officials residing in Canada. The debate surrounding the designation of the IRGC continues, with members of the diaspora expressing concerns about accountability for crimes committed abroad by those holding Canadian citizenship.

In November, the Canadian opposition leader, running to be the next prime minister, said the IRGC poses the most significant security threat to his country. Describing the IRGC as the “most sophisticated, well-financed terror group on Planet Earth,” Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada's Conservative Party, said that the group was also behind the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and is an ally of Hezbollah, which has been designated in Canada as a terrorist group.

The ceremony for the fourth anniversary of the downing of Flight PS752 was held a few hours after Canada, Britain, Ukraine, and Sweden filed a complaint with the UN civil aviation agency against Iran. The four countries, announcing their complaint to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, said Tehran had used “weapons against a civil aircraft in flight in breach of its international legal obligations."