44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 15, 2024 11:00AM
- Apr/15/24 3:40:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise to speak to this important motion because of what we witnessed this weekend.
There was the delay of the government to say anything at all on following our allies and at least condemning this in a reasonable amount of time. We did not see that.
I ask members to imagine being part of a government that six years ago voted in favour of listing the IRGC, to imagine seeing what happened this weekend with 300 projectiles being fired directly on a democratic ally, to imagine being part of a government when the Saudis were better allies to our friend and democratic partner than the Government of Canada has been, and to imagine getting up in the House to say that the motion today is not an important motion to debate after witnessing 300 projectiles directly fired on a friend and democratic ally. Members do not have to imagine it. It just happened.
There has been six years of foot-dragging. The question has been asked hundreds of times in the House as to what day and at what time the government is going to list and ban the IRGC terrorists, who are operating openly in our country. Today, in the House, the answer was exactly the same. The government is trying, consulting and working on it. This has been the answer for six years, yet the Prime Minister himself got up and voted to ban the IRGC.
Today the mullahs in Iran and their proxies are fighting wars that kill Canadians. They killed hostages with Canadian citizenship. They killed 55 Canadians in the downing of flight PS752, 30 of whom were permanent residents. Since 2015, the government has done nothing but appease the mullahs in Iran. The Prime Minister himself met with the foreign minister, bowing his head in respect, in 2016, not even a year after the flight went down. It was absolutely disgusting to watch.
There are communities all over the country that know that operatives of the regime openly spend money. They have blood money to buy homes and assets in this country. Their kids go to school at universities here. The flood gates are open. We know that they intimidate Canadians in every single neighbourhood. We know that the chief of police of Tehran worked out in at GoodLife Fitness in midtown Toronto. We know that senior members of the regime are eating steak dinners in fancy restaurants in Toronto openly, with impunity. This is after eight years of the government.
The worst is what we saw in the streets of Toronto. At the very moment the projectile missiles fired on a democratic friend and ally, there was celebration and jubilation in the streets of our biggest cities. There was a failure to denounce that by a party that we know is capable of denouncing all kinds of protests in this country. If its members were at all concerned with the desecration of a statue in front of Parliament and said nothing about what has happening in our streets, the mobs of protesters with covered faces brandishing swastikas, I cannot help them.
However, what we can do today, as a country, is to ban the open operations, the ability to raise money and organize, of the IRGC terrorists who live among us, and there are at least 700 who we know about in this country, yet we get the same answers over and again. The government has been asked no less than 100 times in the House, and the answer is always the same. They say that they take terrorism seriously, that they are working on it and that they are looking into it. It has been six years.
If this weekend and the events from this weekend have not changed that answer, then we have a really big problem with the government. We have a really big problem with how it treats terrorism, how it treats national security in this country and how it treats the very communities who elect its members to come here. We also have a problem with members of Parliament from the other side, particularly the member of Parliament for Richmond Hill, who meets with agents of the IRGC in his office. It is open, and it is known. I will say it inside of the House and outside of the House. His community knows that, and it is shameful. The fact that the answer is the same today, that they are working on it or they are looking at different ways to do it, is absolutely shameful.
The 700 IRGC agents we know about who we have living in this country, and there are potentially more, intimidate Canadians every single day. They intimidate Canadians in neighbourhoods right across the GTA and in North Vancouver. We hear them. Our own conversations with them happen sometimes with a blurred out background because they are so scared about making the call to somebody in government or their MP for help that they blur out the background. They sit in their car away from their home because they are terrified of the intimidation that they face here.
There are thousands of Iranian Canadians, freedom-loving Iranian Canadians, who fled that regime to find safety and a better life here in Canada. Their expectation from their government is that they will be kept safe and free of intimidation, be able to go to school and to work, and be able to talk to their MP from their home without being terrified of being watched by the regime. That is what we are dealing with in Canada. That is what the community is dealing with in Canada. Those people have said so, and they continue to call on the government, after six years of it doing nothing to at least list these operatives as the terrorists they are.
Today in Canada, they can raise money, have meetings and organize. This is the Islamic regime in Iran that has been fighting proxy wars against our ally until the direct attack on the weekend. This is the regime in Iran that has funded Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. This is the most destabilizing force in all of the Middle East and one of the most destabilizing forces in the entire world. The very fact that the government answers the question in the same way today as it has for the last six years, and for two years before that, is a darn shame because there are people in this country who want to see the government take national security and terrorism seriously. It is about time that it do that. It is about time that it does that for every single freedom-loving Canadian who sees what is going on in their streets, where the progressive left has been co-opted by the Iranian regime with things like Al-Quds Day, which is funded entirely by the mullahs in Iran to destabilize our own streets here.
It is unbelieve that the Liberals' answer after six years is exactly the same. They say, “We are working on it. We are going to do it. We have a tough sanctions regime on Iran.” They do not even know how many operatives are here. They do not know how many people they are going to put on their list because they do not have a list. If they did have a list, they would produce that list. It is a government that does not take terrorism seriously. It is a government that does not take national security seriously. Soon there will be a government that does, but until then, the Liberals can do one thing. They can ban the IRGC from organizing, from fundraising and from living freely here and intimidating our own citizens. That is what this motion calls on, and I hope the Liberals vote in favour of it.
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- Apr/15/24 4:18:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, one of the problems with the motion to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity is the implementation of this measure. We know that the government generally has a hard time implementing its own proposals. Look at the sanctions. Sanctions against Iran were announced as early as 2022-23. As we have seen with sanctions relating to Ukraine, the government is completely incapable of following through with what is happening.
When the government announces something, would it not be a good first step for it to at least implement it? Maybe we would not always want to bring more things forward if the government followed through every time. Would it not be the first thing for the government to do, on its own, when it decides to impose sanctions against a regime, for example, to ensure that those sanctions are truly implemented?
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- Apr/15/24 4:19:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I do believe that there are some sanctions that are already in place. I want to re-emphasize that the minister responsible indicated very clearly to the House just an hour or so ago that we have security agencies that are charged with the responsibility of doing the work that is necessary in order to provide the type of quality advice that Canadians expect of our security agencies. It would be pre-emptive to do something before that is actually provided. I appreciate the question and look forward, as no doubt the member opposite does, to what ultimately is decided on this.
I would go back to the European Union. From what I understand, it was not until maybe the summer of last year that the E.U. ultimately recognized the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
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- Apr/15/24 5:36:50 p.m.
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- Re: Bill S-8
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join this debate, but before going any further, I want to mention that I will be sharing my time with my colleague from the Standing Committee on Finance, the member for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley.
As this motion points out, recent events have brought renewed focus on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or the IRGC. Canada strongly condemns the blatant disregard for human rights and human life shown by the IRGC in recent acts against Iranians. We continue to listen to and join our voices with those who are demanding better in Iran.
Here in Canada, we are continuing to take decisive action against this regime. On November 14, 2022, the Government of Canada announced the designation of Iran as a regime that has engaged in terrorism and systemic and gross human rights violations under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
As a result, senior officials of the regime are now permanently inadmissible to Canada. This includes tens of thousands of Iranians, such as the head of state, senior IRGC members, intelligence operatives, senior government officials, diplomats and judges. The government also announced significantly expanded sanctions against those responsible for the Iranian regime's egregious human rights violations.
Those new sanctions would build on our existing sanctions. All told, these measures amount to the most robust and comprehensive set of sanctions in the world against Iran and the IRGC.
I would also like to point out that the Government of Canada announced its intention to pursue legislation intended to ensure that no sanctioned individual connected to the IRGC can enter Canada.
Thanks to the passage of Bill S-8, the law now aligns the IRPA with the Special Economic Measures Act to ensure that all foreign nationals subject to sanctions under SEMA will also be inadmissible to Canada. This designation means thousands of members of the regime, including many members of the IRGC, intelligence operatives, government officials and judges, among others, are now inadmissible in Canada.
The government also announced it would invest $76 million to strengthen Canada's capacity to implement sanctions and to ensure we can move more quickly to freeze and seize sanctioned individuals' assets. This includes a dedicated bureau at Global Affairs Canada. It also includes additional support to the RCMP to investigate and identify assets and gather evidence, building on authorities announced in budget 2022. It is a suite of measures that will help hold the Iranian regime to account for its egregious actions, and we are going to continue to pursue all the tools at our disposal.
I will highlight that we already have a strong foundation. That is a result of our previous actions, which were already some of the strongest in the world. They include designating the state of Iran as a state supporter of terrorism under Canada's State Immunity Act, and this allows civil actions to be taken against it under the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act.
We also announced additional sanctions against senior Iranian officials and prominent entities who directly implement repressive measures, violate human rights and spread the Iranian regime's propaganda. These sanctions effectively froze any assets these individuals may hold in Canada.
As I note, Canada continues to have in place a series of strong measures to hold both Iran and the IRGC accountable. In November 2022, the then minister of public safety implemented the designation of the Iranian regime, pursuant to paragraph 35(1)(b) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. This renders all senior officials in the service of the Iranian regime inadmissible to Canada from November 15, 2019, onward. This designation also acts as a prevention tool, as it ensures that prescribed senior officials will not be granted a Canadian visa in the first place. The fact that the regime has been designated also serves to discourage Iranian senior officials from attempting to travel to Canada.
Under this designation, as of November 20, 2023, approximately 17,800 visa applications had been reviewed for potential inadmissibility, and 78 individuals had been denied access to Canada. Dozens of Iranian regime officials have been denied entry to Canada, and Canada has deported several former Iranian officials, including Majid Iranmanesh, who is the first to face deportation under sanctions adopted in November 2022.
Further, based on referrals from IRCC and tips from the public, 141 cases are now being investigated by the CBSA and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. So far, 38 investigations were closed by the CBSA for individuals who were either out of the country or deemed not inadmissible to Canada.
In June 2019, Canada added three new Iran-backed groups to the terrorist list under the Criminal Code, including the Fatemiyoun Division, known to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan. Iran has provided these groups with substantial resources, including training and weapons to carry out terrorist acts that advance its goals in the region. Canada continues to list the IRGC Quds Force and a number of terrorist entities that have benefited from the force's patronage, including arms, funding and paramilitary training, and that help advance Iran's interests and foreign policy. These include Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Taliban.
As the motion before us today suggests, the listing regime is one important tool for countering terrorism in Canada and globally and is part of the government's commitment to keeping Canadians safe. The listing process is ongoing and vigorous, but it is of course just one of our many tools. We need to stay adaptable and change with the times. Global instability and the rapid changes we are seeing demonstrate, again and again, how we need to work every day to retain the democratic values we cherish.
Our collective efforts to counter terrorism reflect the fact that we must think and co-operate globally. For Canada, for example, one of the main terrorist threats stems from violent extremists inspired by terrorist groups. We must continue to take seriously the threat of those espousing extremist views who may be travelling or returning to our countries. Canada has a robust approach in place to address this issue as well. In fact, it is a Criminal Code offence for any Canadian citizen or permanent resident to travel abroad to support or engage in a terrorist activity or the activities of a terrorist group. Law enforcement conducts criminal investigations to the fullest extent they are able, with a view to supporting criminal charges and prosecutions of Canadian extremist travellers and returnees.
When charges cannot be laid, a number of other tools are considered, including surveillance and monitoring; terrorism peace bonds; no-fly listings; refusals, cancellations or revocations of passports; and other threat reduction measures. Canadians who involve themselves in terrorism and violent extremism can expect to be investigated, arrested, charged and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. That is the government's prime objective and priority.
As with many other security issues, we continue our multilateral partnerships to improve coordination, information flow and capacity building. Our principles in countering terrorism affirm Canada's democratic values. They provide a clear articulation of how Canada conducts its work. Colleagues can be assured that Canada is looking at all possible options to constrain the activities of Iran that threaten national security.
From an operational perspective, the RCMP has investigated numerous areas in relation to Iran pertaining to its federally mandated activities. These include national security, transnational organized crime, money laundering, sanctions violations, threats of harm to individuals in Canada or elsewhere, instances of transnational repression and other national security offences.
This is a time of tension and uncertainty, but Canadians can rest assured their government is working for them on all fronts. As my colleagues will point to, we are actively getting funding to communities through programs like the security infrastructure program, funding mechanisms like the community resilience fund and anti-hate initiatives across the government.
I am sure they will also highlight that the Minister of Public Safety is committed to continuing to engage communities directly. He met with federal, provincial and territorial leaders to discuss this urgent matter. He has met with universities to discuss needs on campus as well. He met recently with the cross-cultural round table on security, or CCRS. The CCRS an important mechanism for the minister to hear directly from diverse community members on the topics concerning their safety. Tensions in the Middle East, along with their impacts on our communities, were a key topic of discussion.
In sum, there is a remarkable amount of work being done across government to counter acts and words of hate and violence, and we need to continue to do more.
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- Apr/15/24 5:48:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is not easy for Canada to have any credibility on the international stage when it comes to security. A major player in the government told us that “Canada is back”, but it is definitely not. Canada was eyeing a seat on the United Nations Security Council, but it lost the bid. When it comes to security, Canada has had problems, especially with the Winnipeg lab, a maximum-security facility.
When it comes to security, this report talks about recognizing a terrorist group and putting it on the list of terrorist entities, a targeted list, so that the group is identified by the government and its security agencies.
I would like my colleague to talk about sanctions. The government, along with other G7 countries, seems inclined to impose sanctions on the Iranian regime and the current Iranian government. The government is already having difficulty targeting, analyzing and monitoring the sanctions against Russia. I cannot see how it will manage to do the same for Iran.
I would like my colleague to enlighten me and to explain in practical terms how his government is trying to resolve the situation and act in an effective, meaningful way.
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- Apr/15/24 5:49:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think our sanctions program is an important part of our foreign policy.
I think we can do a lot more to strengthen it. There are sanctions against the Iranian regime and the Russian regime. The truth is, it is very difficult to figure out where people are who have money and other property in Canada. Very recently, we set up a beneficial ownership registry for corporations. I think tools like that are very important in order to find out what these people own in Canada when we are issuing sanctions. That helps make sanctions effective.
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