Senator Housakos: Government leader, this story was broadcast on the CBC. Your government should be aware. This is not the first time I have raised these questions on this chamber floor. We now know it’s been a number of months that the Chinese Beijing regime is operating police stations illegally on our territory. We now have concrete examples of individuals connected to the ayatollah and to the terrorist regime in Iran who are using Canada as a headquarters for them to do business.

Before Christmas, I asked you a question about a Russian oligarch connected to President Putin who is mining and doing business and extracting resources in Quebec — all of this without the Trudeau government taking any steps. And excuse me, but there have not been Magnitsky sanctions in any one of these instances that I have asked about. Now, government leader, is this Prime Minister Trudeau’s way of attracting more foreign investment into our country?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Leader, I want to return to the answer that you gave Senator Miville-Dechêne last week regarding your government’s refusal to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code. I have raised this with you many times, leader, and I will continue to raise it until either your government does it or we have a new Conservative government that will honour the promise that all parties made in the House of Commons in June of 2018. You stated, leader:

. . . this decision must be . . . based on the counsel and advice of our international security agencies. To date, that isn’t what our experts have recommended that we do. . . .

Leader, I have asked in a written question for information on the process to list the IRGC. The response I received did not answer my questions. Now you are saying our security experts don’t recommend it. Did they produce a report? When did this occur, leader? It’s almost five years. Did any Minister of Public Safety bring a recommendation to cabinet?