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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 314

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 21, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 314 - May/22/24
Mrs. Élisabeth Brière (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and to the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/22/24 12:04:42 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Canada is committed to holding the Iranian regime accountable for its terrorist activities and gross violations of human rights. The government is exploring all possible measures to constrain the activities of the Iranian regime, and recognizes its disregard for peace and stability in the region. The government uses multiple instruments and has measures in place to hold Iran accountable for its actions, including listing key entities and proxy actors pursuant to its Criminal Code terrorist-listing regime. In 2012, Canada listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Qods Force as a terrorist entity. The Qods Force is known to be responsible for terrorist operations and for providing arms, funding and paramilitary training to other terrorist groups, including the Taliban, Hizballah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. I would like to reiterate the various measures Canada is imposing against Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. They include vigorous sanctions under the Special Economic Measures Act, or SEMA, explicitly targeting the IRGC, its leadership and several sub-organizations, including the IRGC air force and the air force missile command. To date, Canada has sanctioned 442 Iranian individuals and entities under SEMA. Since October 2022, Canada has imposed 16 rounds of sanctions under the act, targeting 153 individuals and 87 entities at all levels of Iran's security, intelligence and economic apparatus. These measures effectively freeze any assets that the listed individuals and entities may hold in Canada. Canada has also taken inadmissibility measures through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, and the CBSA. For example, in November 2022, Canada designated Iran as a country that has engaged in terrorism and systematic and gross human rights violations under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, or IRPA. As a result, thousands of Iranian senior officials, including high-profile leaders, are now banned from entering Canada if they apply for a visa or seek to enter the country. Current and former senior officials who are here in Canada may be investigated and removed from the country. As of March 2024, approximately 17,800 applications had been reviewed for potential inadmissibility under the IRPA, and IRCC had cancelled 82 visas under the act. The CBSA had launched 86 investigations, and additional investigations were to be launched as new information became available. Forty-three investigations had been closed, and 13 individuals had been deemed inadmissible to Canada. Since June 2023, when Bill S-8, An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, received royal assent, the IRPA has been aligned with SEMA to ensure that all foreign nationals subject to sanctions under SEMA are also inadmissible to Canada. Finally, Canada lists Iran as a state supporter of terrorism under the State Immunity Act. This designation, together with the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, allows victims to bring civil actions against Iran for losses or damages relating to terrorism—
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