Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) march during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the devastating 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, in the capital Tehran on September 22, 2018. – In Iran’s southwestern city of Ahvaz during commemoration of the same event, dozens of people were killed with dozens others wounded in an attack targeting another army parade, state media reported on September 22. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran Accountability Week – May 2019

The full report at the link:

Executive Summary 

1. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) 

➢ Iran is the globe’s most egregious state sponsor of terrorism. The regime allocates approximately $16 billion annually to support terrorism. The IRGC is responsible for executing the regime’s terrorist exploits. The IRGC, in its entirety and from its inception, has supported and directly committed acts constituting “terrorist activity” under Canadian law. The budget of the IRGC is $8.2 billion with billions more from the IRGC’s empire of licit and illicit business enterprises and industries including narcotics smuggling. The IRGC controls an expansive criminal, financial, and industrial empire accounting for between 20 to 40 percent of the Iranian gross domestic product by most estimates. 

➢ Mohsen Sazegara, a founder of the IRGC, and now an Iranian dissident and a fellow at Harvard University, echoes many other experts in stating he doesn’t know “of any other organization in any country like the Revolutionary Guards”. Sazegara describes it as “something like the Communist Party, the KGB, a business complex and the mafia… a kind of a government inside the government of Iran,” that doesn’t “answer to anybody.” 

➢ The IRGC is also directly complicit in the slaughter of half a million Syrians by the Assad Regime; has coordinated the assassination of Iranian dissidents abroad; has overseen the brutal repression of the Iranian people; and is responsible for the imprisonment or torture or death of Canadian citizens. 

2. June 12, 2018 – Parliament Passes Motion to List the IRGC in its Entirety 

Over the years there has been support for listing the IRGC from both Liberal and Conservative MPs. On June 12, 2018, Parliament passed a motion stipulating that Canada “immediately designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a listed terrorist entity under the Criminal Code of Canada.” Shortly thereafter, Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale confirmed that the process has been initiated.”

3. No Legal Obstacle to Listing the IRGC under Canadian Law 

The Criminal Code empowers the Governor in Council to create a list of entities that are treated as terrorist groups. The IRGC may be considered an “entity” for these purposes. 

4. Listing the IRGC is Consistent with Canadian Policy on Terrorism 

Listing the IRGC in its entirety is broadly consistent with: the foreign policy and human rights objectives of the current government and the official opposition; the existing IRGC sanctions regimes under the current Liberal government and its Conservative predecessor; the approach taken by both the current government and its predecessor in listing other terrorist entities; and with the recent findings of the Canadian courts.