(Ottawa) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opens the door to designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity in Canada.
Posted at 5:18 p.m.
He expressed this openness on the fourth anniversary of the crash of a Ukrainian International Airways civilian plane. It was hit by two surface-to-air missiles fired by the Iranian regime just as it was taking off from Tehran airport on January 8, 2020.
“We will continue our work, including finding ways to responsibly designate the IRGC as a terrorist entity,” he said at the memorial 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.
As part of the sanctions against Tehran announced more than a year ago, 141 investigations have already been initiated and proceedings have been initiated against around ten people, Justin Trudeau had announced shortly before to an audience of bereaved families and dignitaries.
In an opening statement, a representative of the victims of flight PS752 reiterated the call for the IRGC to be placed on Canada's list of terrorist organizations. This passage of the speech, which preceded the Prime Minister's speech, received the most applause.
Conservatives have been urging liberals for years to blacklist the armed wing of the Iranian regime. The Trudeau government never said no to the idea, supporting a motion to do so in the House of Commons in June 2018, but it never made any progress either.
The Prime Minister's Office did not provide details of the statement made Monday afternoon.
Designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization would place an enormous burden on Canadian intelligence services, Thomas Juneau, associate professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa, said in September 2022.
Trial against Iran
Flight PS752 crashed four years ago at 6:18 a.m. local time.
Of the 176 victims, 138 had connections to Canada.
Canada is among 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 launch a new appeal against Tehran, this time before the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), over “its inability to refrain from using weapons against a flying civilian aircraft.”
“And so now we have two cases, in two jurisdictions, under two laws, against Iran. “Iran must accept full responsibility for the crash and provide full compensation,” Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said.
“The world needs to know what happened on January 8, 2020,” she emphasized in Richmond Hill.