(Ottawa) Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre urges the Liberal government to add the Houthis to the list of terrorist entities.
The leader of the official opposition made this request Thursday in a Toronto synagogue, wearing a yarmulke, behind a lectern reading “Let’s ban terrorists.”
“The government should ban the Houthis and put them on the terrorist list, which would end their ability to fundraise, organize and recruit in Canada,” he said.
He accused the Trudeau government of having “fueled extremism in our country” in addition to “refusing to tackle violent extremism abroad, such as the terrorist armies of Tehran.”
Active in Yemen, the Houthis benefit from the support of the Iranian regime, explains Thomas Juneau, associate professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.
“The Houthi missiles and drones that hit Israel or Saudi Arabia come from Iran,” he said of the group that has attacked ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in support of the Palestinians.
“It is an extremely brutal and repressive, extremely ideological group, which terrorizes civilian populations […] and whose attacks in the Red Sea have a very negative economic impact,” he notes.
Do their tentacles reach as far as Canada? Difficult to say, answers Professor Juneau.
“I am not aware of a significant Houthi presence in Canada, in terms of the fundraising aspect. But they are really developing their regional and international role,” he explains.
Chief Poilievre did not fail to point out that the Liberal government took several years before adding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to this blacklist.
The decision was described as opportunistic by the Conservative Party because it came days before a by-election in a riding with a large Jewish community.
The conservatives finally won, stealing a real stronghold from the liberals.
Bombing Iranian nuclear sites
The conservative leader has considerably raised the tone in recent days on the issue of the war that has been raging in the Middle East since the attacks perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
He notably argued that Israeli bombing of nuclear and oil installations would represent “a gift from the Jewish state to humanity.”
In the liberal camp, Ministers Bill Blair and Mélanie Joly, respectively at National Defense and Foreign Affairs, expressed different opinions on the issue.
On Monday, the first affirmed that he was not opposed to the Jewish state carrying out airstrikes on Iranian oil installations.
He was contradicted by his colleague two days later.
“International law is clear on this. When we come to military interventions, we must target military sites, full stop,” argued the head of Canadian diplomacy on Wednesday.
Houthis considered terrorists by Washington
The United States announced last January the designation of the Houthis as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group.”
“These attacks endangered mariners, disrupted the free flow of commerce, and interfered with the rights and freedoms of navigation,” read the statement from the US State Department.
“If the Houthis cease their attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the United States will re-evaluate this designation,” it also emphasizes.
With Janie Gosselin, The Press