The Trudeau government announces a plethora of sanctions against the Iranian regime’s elite, without however adding the body of the (IRGC) to the list of terrorist organizations.
• Read also: Denmark: an Iranian man armed with a knife arrested at the Iranian embassy
• Read also: Iran: Mahsa Amini’s death due to illness and not “beatings”, according to a medical report
• Read also: Iran: justice denies the death of a teenager under the blows of the police
The new measures, announced at an impromptu press briefing on Friday afternoon, include a permanent ban on entry into Canada for the “main responsible” for injustices in Iran.
“The top 50% of the IRGC, among others, so more than 10,000 people, officers and senior ranks, will be banned from Canada forever,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced.
It is a measure used “only in the most serious circumstances against authorities that have perpetrated war crimes and genocide, such as in Bosnia and Rwanda”.
Added to this are economic sanctions targeted against these same individuals.
Everything will be overseen by the creation of a new “sanctions office”, at a cost of $76 million, which will endeavor to impose the financial measures of the federal government.
“We will restrict financial transactions with Iran associated with the IRGC and the proxies that support them,” Trudeau continued.
The announcement comes two weeks after the outbreak of protests for women’s rights and against the Islamic political regime in the wake of the death of a young Iranian, Mahsa Amini, after her arrest by vice squad for having “incorrectly” wore the veil.
“The Iranian regime is a state that supports terrorism. It is repressive, theocratic and misogynistic,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Friday. “The IRGC leadership are terrorists. The IRGC is a terrorist organization.”
Asked about his decision not to place the IRGC on the list of “terrorist entities”, the Prime Minister said he “looked carefully at all the different tools that we can use, and the Canadian Criminal Code is not necessarily the best tool to going to hold responsible the States or entities, the armed forces of the States”.
The US, however, went ahead and listed the IRGC as a terrorist entity. Canadian Conservatives have been calling for this for several years.
The paramilitary organization has the mandate to keep the Islamic regime in place.
These new measures are in addition to those taken previously, which were already among the most robust in the world against the Iranian regime according to the government.
Earlier this week, Canada also announced sanctions against senior Iranian leaders directly responsible for the Iranian regime’s crackdowns, human rights abuses and propaganda. “These sanctions have made it possible to freeze any assets that these people may hold in Canada,” the government said.
It should be noted that Canada continues to work to hold the Iranian regime responsible, in particular for the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752, which killed 138 people traveling to Canada, including 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents. .