June 15, 2018
By Aidan Fishman
Director of the League for Human Rights
B’nai Brith Canada
OTTAWA – B’nai Brith Canada is pleased to report significant progress in having the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) designated as a terrorist entity in Canada, a position the organization has strongly advocated for many years.
The IRGC, a branch of Iran’s military, is specifically tasked with upholding the Islamist dictatorship and serves as the main link between the regime and its terrorist proxies, such as Hezbollah and Hamas. The Quds Force, which is the IRGC’s external operations branch, is already a designated terrorist entity in Canada.
A private member’s motion passed in the House of Commons Tuesday included a call for Canada to list the IRGC as a terrorist group. The motion was submitted by Conservative MP Garnett Genuis and supported by both the Government and the Official Opposition.
Then, Thursday afternoon, Liberal MP Michael Levitt shared a copy of a letter he sent to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, urging him to put Parliament’s words into action. According to Levitt, Goodale “confirmed that the process has been initiated.”
Earlier today I sent the following letter to @RalphGoodale asking him to initiate the formal process for listing the #IRGC as a terrorist entity in Canada, further to the House motion on #Iran adopted on Tuesday. He has confirmed that the process has been initiated. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/EhT23M5EIl
— Michael Levitt ???????? (@LevittMichael) June 14, 2018
“We welcome these strong steps by both the Government and the Official Opposition to rightly designate the IRGC as a terrorist entity,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “The IRGC as a whole is responsible for the atrocities plotted and carried out by the Quds Force, ranging from planting bombs in India to spying on civilian targets in Germany in recent years.
“By the same token, B’nai Brith will continue to combat other efforts inspired by the human-rights-abusing regime in Iran to spread hatred and antisemitism in Canada, most notably the annual al-Quds Day hatefest.”
In 2002, B’nai Brith turned to the courts to force Ottawa to designate the entirety of Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese group, as a terrorist entity. Pressure from B’nai Brith also swayed the federal government to blacklist the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a Palestinian terrorist group linked to the governing Fatah party.
