Listing the IRGC
"There is a difference between causal responsibility and moral responsibility."
"These things are connected causally. But is there a sense in which the president is morally responsible? We tend to think that moral responsibility is about foreseeable consequences of your actions. It is at that level that we decide someone's behaviour is blame-worthy or credit-worthy."
"Certainly there is a causal responsibility, on both sides, but who is morally responsible here? It is far less clear."
"A lot of different forces had to conspire to bring down that aircraft."
Scott Matthews, Memorial University, Newfoundland
"We continue to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force as a terrorist entity, and we also continue to impose sanctions on Iran and the IRGC targeting all four of its branches as well as senior-level members of its senior leadership."
Public Safety Canada
"Right now, the next few days or weeks, is not the time to slap additional sanctions on Iran."
"The enforcement of this is mind-boggling in its complexity."
"Sanctioning the entire military of a country is extremely complicated and if you actually carry through on the implications of that, it is astonishingly labour intensive."
Thomas Juneau, associate professor, University of Toronto
"Our focus right now is providing the support to grieving families that need answers, need closure, that need justice, that need access to consular support, both in Iran and in Canada."
"We are doing everything we can to ensure that, that happens in the short term, but obviously there are reflections in the medium and long term as we go forward."
"If there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
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The Islamic Republic of Iran has, since its revolutionary fervour was first introduced to an unready world, been the source and inspiration of thousands of deaths. Those deaths brought no remorse to the Ayatollahs who had ordered their proxy militias to strike those considered enemies of the Republic, while shielding it from direct accusations of terrorism. But it is a terrorist state, as evidenced by the condition in which political dissenters within Iran, in which the Baha'i, and those accused of deserting Islam for Christianity live and die.
It is a terrorist state which is guilty of creating Shiite non-state militias, training, funding, arming and directing them to Iran's advantage in creating Iran-linked militias that respond to Iran's orders. It is a terrorist state that has time and again openly threatened the existence of the State of Israel. It is a terrorist state that seeks to perfect its long-range ballistic missiles and to enrich uranium to weapons-grade. It is a terrorist state that threatens the stability of the Middle East in its aspirations of command.
It is a terrorist state whose IRGC threatens, harasses, and assaults through its al-Quds Force, its Arab neighbours in Sunni-majority geography. And it is a terrorist state that a week ago saw the horror of a Ukrainian Airlines passenger jet with 176 people aboard blasted out of the sky mere minutes after takeoff from Tehran International Airport. The singular man with the highest terrorist credentials who masterminded many if not most of the Iranian Republic's overseas atrocities and whose focus was on creating further deaths deserved to be the target of a drone strike.
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| A photograph sits among flowers at a memorial for victims of the plane crash in Iran at Mel Lastman Square in Toronto on Monday, January 13, 2020. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/THE CANADIAN PRESS) |
Both sides of the Canadian House of Commons, government and opposition, agreed a year ago, to place the Iranian Republican Guard Corps on Canada's terror list, to join it with the al-Quds division already there, and Iranian proxies Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. No action to do so has ever proceeded. The IRGC oversees Iran's missile and nuclear programs, it is linked to militias fighting in Syria and Yemen. Its air defence unit shot down flight 752, killing 57 Canadians.
When the Government of Canada finally deigns to designate the IRGC a terrorist entity it would become a criminal offence to participate in or contribute to any activities of the group. That at rallies taking place on al-Quds Day in Canada Hezbollah and Hamas flags are seen to fly in public by Canadians of Middle Eastern origin is a crime unto itself, and a crime under the criminal code. It is past time for Canada to take the necessary steps involved in indicating in no uncertain terms that these events will no longer be tolerated.
Labels: Canada, Iranian-Canadians, IRGC, Terror listing, Ukrainian Airliner
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, January 16, 2020
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