(Ottawa) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opens the door to listing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity in Canada.
He expressed this openness on the fourth anniversary of the crash of a Ukrainian International Airways civilian aircraft. It was hit by two surface-to-air missiles launched by the Iranian regime as it had just taken off from Tehran airport on January 8, 2020.
“We will continue our work, including continuing to look for ways to responsibly list the IRGC as a terrorist entity,” he said at the commemoration ceremony in Richmond Hill, England. Ontario, Monday.
PHOTO CHRIS YOUNG, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Justin Trudeau walks in front of photos of victims of the crash of Flight PS752.
Already, under the sanctions announced against Tehran, more than a year ago, 141 investigations have been opened, and proceedings have been initiated against around ten people, Justin Trudeau had just before announced to an audience of bereaved loved ones.
In an opening speech, a representative of the victims of Flight PS752 reiterated the request to include the IRGC on the Canadian list of terrorist entities. This passage of the speech, which preceded that of the Prime Minister, was the most applauded.
Conservatives have been urging liberals for years to add the armed wing of the Iranian regime to the blacklist. The Trudeau government never said no to the idea, supporting a motion to this effect in the Commons in June 2018, but it never moved forward either.
The Prime Minister’s office did not provide details on the statement made Monday afternoon.
Designating the IRGC as a terrorist entity would impose a colossal burden on Canadian intelligence agencies, according to Thomas Juneau, associate professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, in September 2022.
Legal proceedings against Iran
Flight PS752 crashed at 6:18 a.m. local time four years ago.
Among the 176 victims, 138 had ties to Canada.
Canada is part of a group of four countries whose nationals lost their lives in the tragedy, along with the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ukraine.
In July 2023, the quartet sued the Islamic Republic at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.
On Monday, they decided to initiate a new appeal against Tehran, this time, before the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), for “its inability to refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against a civil aircraft in flight.
“And so, we now have two cases, in two jurisdictions, under two laws, against Iran. Iran must take full responsibility, and provide full compensation, for the crash,” said Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly.
“The world needs to know what happened on January 8, 2020,” she insisted in Richmond Hill.