Recognizing Iran for Its Terrorist Credentials

"We need to name and shame the perpetrators."

"It stands out that the architect of all of this repression, Ayatollah Khamenei, is not on Canada's sanctions list."

Brandon Silver, director, policy and projects, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights 

 

"It is very frustrating for Iranians to be walking the streets [of Canada] and [to] see our oppressors alongside with us and having no real tools to put them behind bars, even though we've reported many of them."

"We see them at our local gyms, we see their sons and daughters spending millions of dollars in expensive  houses, cars, living lavish life-styles, while our people back home can't afford even a loaf of bread."

Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay

 

"This is a moment, perhaps as significant as the Berlin Wall falling itself."

"Can you imagine for a moment what a world of peace might look like if we listen to the call of the Iranian people, of whom tens of thousands have now been brutally massacred?"

Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar 

Protesters burn pictures of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as they march in support of regime change in Iran during a protest in Toronto, on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. Photo by Sammy Kogan /THE CANADIAN PRESS

 

In 2012, the-then Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper took the step of responding to the Islamic Republic of Iran's interference in Canadian affairs, its operatives' presence in Canada and the harassment of Iranian-Canadians, by closing the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa and obliging Iranian diplomats to leave. Some Iranian government assets were frozen. And Iran took steps to counter the situation by expelling Canada's diplomatic staff and closing the Canadian mission in Tehran.

 

When Justin Trudeau took over the helm of Canada's government in 2015 he mused for a while about restoring diplomatic relations with Iran. It became impossible to overlook the Iranian government's support of terrorism, the implications of its interference in Canada, including money laundering, so the diplomatic fissure remained. Eventually Canada outlawed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, placing them alongside Hezbollah and Hamas, its proxies, on Canada's terror list.

 

That occurred in the wake of the 2020 targeting of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 where 55 Canadian citizens were killed as the plane exploded in mid-air. The IRGC shot missiles at the airliner as it left the Iranian capital during a period of high tension, but Tehran denied the event until it no longer could, given the damning evidence. The al Quds branch of the IRGC has been involved in terrorist plots abroad targeting enemies of the regime, most notably from among the Jewish and Israeli eeecommunity.

 

Demonstrators in Iran (MAHSA/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images)

 

The regime is known to have tasked Canadian expatriate Iranians to launch assassinations in the United States. Similarly assassination plots meant to take place in Canada were foiled by the RCMP; former federal Solicitor General Irwin Cotler was one of those on the Iranian assassination list, as a high-profile human rights campaigner. After the October 7 Iran-inspired-and-enabled Hamas atrocity in southern Israel, pro-Hamas protests on Canadian university campuses were promoted by Iran.

 

Iranian government agents as well as those belonging to the IRGC have notoriously moved about freely in Canada, both for personal relaxation in a country where their presence is not opposed by the government, and to pursue the Iranian objective of money laundering through Canadian real estate. Some 20 senior members of the regime have bypassed Canada's immigration system while others are under active investigation.  

 

Having done so, the government took no action on removing IRGC operatives from Canadian soil. Now, members of Parliament and human rights activists have joined in a move to press Canada's Liberal government to place pressure on Iran; the official sanctioning of its supreme leader and and focusing on an increased criminal investigation into regime perpetrators, would represent a good start for a government that has scarcely moved itself to mobilize condemnation against the regime that has been using military means to stifle a popular uprising demanding the end of the Iranian Republic dominating their lives.

 

Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar, Liberal MP Miville-Dechene and Iranian Canadian human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay joined other morally-principled activists in calling on Canada to make overtures to allies to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as the terrorist entity it is. An energetic commitment to advance investigation  into human rights violations perpetrators and crimes committed in Iran in response to mass protests that struck against the regime across the country is called for.

 

Brandon Silver of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre urged that such an "structural investigation" is required, to have the RCMP launch a thorough investigation for the purpose of assembling evidence implicating Canadian residents who have been involved in war crimes and atrocities. "We must go beyond issuing statements, we must act. This means supporting independent international investigations and treating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization in practice, not just in name", stated Afshin-Jam MacKay.

 

A timely call to action in the wake of thousands of Iranians killed by the Iranian regime's crackdown against widespread anti-government protests in January. While the European Union foreign ministers agreed to list the IRGC as a terrorist group last week, the United Kingdom has made no such commitment. 210 Iranian individuals and 254 Iranian entities have been sanctioned by Canada under the criminal code. Yet only one such IRGC designation has resulted in deportation. 

 

The IRGC is a major military, political and economic force in Iran   EPA