Canada’s Public Safety Minister, Dominic LeBlanc, has announced that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been officially designated as a terrorist entity. This decision comes after months of growing political pressure to take action against the IRGC.
In May, Members of Parliament unanimously voted to list the IRGC, a branch of Iran’s Armed Forces, as a terrorist entity. The Liberal government had previously expressed concerns that such a designation could impact individuals who were forced to join the organization.
Prior to this decision, the Canadian government had already prohibited tens of thousands of high-ranking Iranian officials, including top IRGC members, from entering the country. Additionally, Canada had previously labeled the Quds Force, another branch of the IRGC, as a terrorist entity.
The move to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization gained momentum following the tragic downing of a Ukrainian Airlines plane in early 2020, which resulted in the deaths of all passengers on board, including 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents. The families of the victims had been advocating for the IRGC to be listed as a terrorist entity in response to this incident.
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