This week saw a turnaround in the Trudeau government’s approach to Iran, as an unprecedented revolt against the clerical government that began three weeks ago showed no signs of slowing.
The change began Tuesday in Dartmouth, NS, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government would take stronger action against members of the Iranian regime, “including making sure we go after them for any assets or homes they have in Canada.”
Back in Ottawa, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra attended a rally commemorating the 1,000 days since the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot down Flight PS752, killing 55 Canadians and 30 others permanent residents
Then on Friday, the government announced an entry ban on thousands of rank-and-file members of the IRGC, although it failed to get the full list of terrorist activists it was looking for.
The new approach was announced on the government’s social media channels, but conservatives have continued to press hard on Iran and tweet their exchanges with the government.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stands to question the government in the House of Commons on Wednesday, September 21, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s embrace of Iran’s uprising has earned him praise in the Iranian community. Poilievre personally attended and spoke at both Tuesday’s Ottawa rally and a weekend march in Richmond Hill, Ont., attended by about 50,000 people.
Trudeau, on the other hand, was criticized on Iranian social media for not appearing at any Iran-related events while finding time to bungee jump in the hills of Gatineau.
The Toronto Star criticized Trudeau’s government, calling it “weak” and “out of touch” with Iran.
“The message came through loud and clear”
“In the last few days, I think [the federal Liberals] they realized that the facts on the ground have changed, and I also think they’ve seen reactions from Iranian Canadians,” said Kaveh Shahrooz, a lawyer who organized the march in Toronto. “The process of working with the government is that you continue pressing and eventually they give in to your demands.”
Shahrooz told CBC he is aware the change in direction may have been prompted by Poilievre’s forays with Iranian voters.
“I think that’s really, really good, and that’s how democracy should work,” he said. “If one party doesn’t respond to your demands, another comes forward and speaks to your needs. And the point I’ve tried to make in my own community, and I hope all other communities will follow suit, is : ‘Don’s’ Don’t let politicians take your vote for granted.
“If a politician ignores your demands, consider what the other party has to offer. And I think the message came through loud and clear in the Liberal Party this week.”
But Shahrooz also said he found Friday’s announcement of new sanctions on the IRGC misleading.
“I started to feel quite happy when I first heard the word ‘terrorism,'” he said. “But on further reflection, once I analyzed the words a little more, I have to say I was a little underwhelmed.
“The message from the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister seemed to suggest a terror list when that’s not really what’s being delivered. And I think once the community realizes that, they’re going to ask tough questions.”
Protesters in Vancouver are calling for an end to mandatory hijab laws and are calling out their moral policing over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in custody. (Janella Hamilton/CBC)
The announcement did suggest that the Trudeau government has recognized what the Star called the “political risk” of alienating a large and successful community that is concentrated in suburban Toronto suburbs like Richmond Hill, where some already see incumbent Liberal MP Majid Jowhari. the Iranian-Canadian community as too close to the regime of the Islamic Republic.
Jowhari appeared at the rally for the families of the victims of Flight PS752 on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, but organizers could not speak to him.
Perceived government inaction over the destruction of a civilian plane full of people with ties to Canada has cost the Iranian community support, which has rallied around people like Shahin Moghaddam, who lost his wife Shakiba and the his son Rosstin.
Moghaddam told CBC News that the federal government has obstructed efforts to enforce an Ontario Superior Court ruling that concluded the attack was an act of terrorism by the IRGC and awarded $107 million to relatives
“I have judgments against the leader and the five commanders from the Ontario Superior Court, but how do I enforce them?” he asked.
RCMP accused of inaction
Moghaddam said he also blames the government for the RCMP’s decision not to open a criminal investigation into the killings. Instead, the RCMP says it is assisting a Ukrainian investigation (the plane belonged to a Ukrainian company).
“For the last three years it’s just talk and no concrete action,” he told CBC News. “They blacklisted Russian leaders, but nothing against Iranian leaders or the IRGC.”
And he echoed others in the community who say the government has allowed Tehran to take advantage of Canada.
“Canada is a haven for those with ties to the Iranian regime,” Moghaddam said. “They use it for money laundering. People come on visitor visas and spend millions of dollars and no one asks questions.”
Moghaddam and others say they want the Trudeau government to deploy stronger legal tools against the IRGC, including Magnitsky sanctions and terrorist lists.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Shahin Moghaddam, who lost his wife and son on Flight PS752, in January 2020. Since then, the Toronto man said, the government has done too little to look for justice (Submitted by Jalal Mortazavi)
The government has done a poor job of explaining its reluctance to list the entire IRGC as a terrorist entity, said Thomas Juneau, who specializes in Middle East politics at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at University of Ottawa.
“The government has not been absolutely transparent in explaining why it has been doing certain things and why it has not done certain things,” he told CBC News. “And I don’t think there is any reason for this lack of transparency.
“In an ideal world, the government would provide written reports to Parliament in which it would not only list its sanctions but also detail their implementation.”
Some things should remain unsaid for reasons of privacy or national security, Juneau said, “but in a healthy democracy, there’s a lot that could be said.”
Some of it, he acknowledged, could be “politically embarrassing.”
Identifying the real bad actors is difficult
If the government chose to be forthright, Juneau said, it would have to explain that it lacks the technical capacity to enforce the kind of far-reaching sanctions that would be needed to cover the IRGC, a group that “has had hundreds of thousands of people”. of the members of the last 43 years”.
Canada has already listed the IRGC’s overseas expeditionary Qods Force, which fought in Syria, as a terrorist body. But the IRGC also operates its own land, air and sea forces that operate in conjunction with the Artesh, Iran’s regular army, navy and air force. Thousands of ordinary young people have been drafted into these forces over the years, without the option to say no.
WATCH: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces new measures against Iran’s regime
Canada pursues Iran’s IRGC as a terrorist organization
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces that Canada will pursue Iran’s IRGC as a terrorist organization.
The United States’ widespread designation of the IRGC as a terrorist entity, which does not distinguish between recruits and volunteers, has led to the separation of families. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has acknowledged that it has had little effect on the IRGC’s senior leadership.
“The real bad guys have no intention of traveling here anyway,” he told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April.
Canadian sanctions have been applied lightly
But the situation in Canada may be different. The Iranian community here argues that the real “bad guys” are already entering the country and even buying up property.
Juneau said Canada should pursue “senior officials who have permanent residence in Canada, or who visit Canada, or have assets in Canada, or are involved in money laundering in Canada, or … who pressure the members of the Iranian diaspora to try to stop their advocacy of human rights.”
“This is a huge problem and we have a much better chance of addressing this problem with targeted sanctions than through a blanket sanction that we have little real chance of enforcing,” he said. “Sanctions are a tool the government uses to appease domestic constituencies, to try to send a signal that ‘we’re doing something’ without actually doing it.
“Canada already has a reputation for being very lax in terms of our implementation, not our declaration, but our implementation, of sanctions against Russia and others that we have imposed over the years.”
Friday’s announcement of an additional $76 million for sanctions enforcement was welcomed by experts as a sign that the government is finally getting serious about giving them real teeth.
“In theory, Friday’s announcement includes useful tools to try to counter these activities. In practice, the proof will be in the pudding,” Juneau said.
Former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) officer Jessica Davis welcomed the new resources. “This is long overdue. Financial crime in Canada has been underfunded for decades,” he said. “There are big questions about how Canada, or even whether Canada, is enforcing its sanctions.”
He said targeted sanctions could be more effective than a comprehensive terrorism list, but questioned how the government proposed to follow through on its pledge to ban 10,000 Iranian officials.
“It would be very…