As MPs debate how to end Iran’s violent human rights crackdown, experts say Canada has limited power to pressure the regime.
Large protests have erupted across Iran since Mahsa Amini died in police custody earlier this month. Iranian morality police arrested the 22-year-old, allegedly because her headscarf was too loose.
To demonstrate their opposition, many women burned their hijabs in large-scale protests across the country that prompted Iranian security forces to retaliate with brutality not seen in years. At the same time, the regime has been beset by drought and rising inflation, while its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is bedridden.
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will sanction senior Iranian officials, including those working for the morality police, but no list had been released by Tuesday afternoon.
The Conservatives have repeatedly urged Ottawa to act on a motion the House of Commons passed in 2018 to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, part of the country’s military, as a terrorist group.
But experts believe that none of these policies will put much pressure on the Iranian regime.
Thomas Juneau, a professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa and an expert on Iran, says the group has undoubtedly committed acts of terrorism in Iran and abroad. However, he considers that the parliamentary motion was inapplicable.
“This is a symbolic policy, it does not achieve concrete results,” he said.
Since Iran has conscripted millions into this corps over time, the list would include a lot of people, such as a man who served as a cook in the corps for two years in the 1990s, Mr. Juneau explained, arguing that Canada would have no interest in extending the terrorist designation to every person who was part of the group.
Trying to limit penalties to those who have taken part in terrorism would require identifying individuals and monitoring them, Juneau explained. Ottawa should either spend a lot more money or cut other programs.
“A lot of resources would have to be devoted to it, and the reality is that we are far from being able to do that,” he argued.
Mr. Juneau assumes that is why the Liberals did not go ahead with adding this group to the list of terrorist entities. Mr. Trudeau and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, refused to provide an explanation when questioned about it on Monday.
Other possible measures
Juneau said Canada could better target visa bans and sanctions on senior Iranian regime officials who have family or business interests in Canada, some of whom are accused of money laundering.
“This is where Canada could do much more targeted things, and we would have more impact,” said Mr. Juneau. The measures are not very restrictive at this level. »
This year, retired Iranian police commander Morteza Talaei confirmed the authenticity of photos taken in January of him exercising at a gymnasium in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Iranian diaspora groups have questioned how he was able to obtain a Canadian visa after overseeing Tehran’s police force at a time of human rights abuses.
Jessica Davis, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service analyst who specializes in counterterrorism financing legislation, doubts that individual sanctions will do much to pressure the regime.
Still, she claimed these individual sanctions would likely be more effective than putting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list.
“Canada has very limited enforcement capacity,” said Davis, who now heads Insight Threat Intelligence. She said there are “very few people” who do in-depth analysis of foreign assets in this country.
New Democratic Party (NDP) Foreign Affairs Critic Heather McPherson believes this means Canada needs to think outside the box.
“Let’s make sure it’s not just words, but that we follow up on concrete things,” said the Edmonton MP.
Solutions expected in the field
Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi, whose Toronto riding of Willowdale has a large Iranian population, stressed that the diaspora wants a multilateral response.
Mr Ehsassi has called on his fellow liberals and US officials to do more, such as calling an emergency UN meeting and a human rights fact-finding mission to Iran.
“We have every right to ask the international community to listen to their plight and do everything in our power,” said Ehsassi, who chairs the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Standing Committee. .
He believes this could cause countries to suspend negotiations to reinstate the Iran nuclear deal until the country stops cracking down on human rights protests. The deal aims to allow Iran to produce energy while limiting its ability to produce weapons.
Stephen Harper’s Conservative government suspended Canada’s diplomatic relations with Iran in 2012, and Minister Joly said this week there were no plans to change that position.
In January 2020, Iranian officials shot down a Ukraine International Airlines flight, killing dozens of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Ottawa says its attempts to obtain compensation for the families have been unsuccessful.