Campaign against IRGC in Canada

Champaign’s First Statement, May 13 Rally in Vancouver & Contnuation of Hunger Strike

Letter to Justin Trudeau RE: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Campaign of #IRGCterrorists in Canada

کارزار برای قرارگیری سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی در لیست

تروریست‌ها در کانادا؛ همایش 13 مه در ونکوور و ادامه اعتصاب غذا

نسخه پارسی بیانیه را اینجا بخوانید
همزمان با بیانیه، نامه‌ای هم در پیوند با کارزار علیه سپاه به نخست وزیر ترودو فرستاده شد

See here for the PDF version of Statement 1.

May 11, 2023

No. 1

Statement

for the Campaign against the IRGC:

#IRGCterrorists in Canada

On this May 7, there was a social media announcement regarding a new wave of the campaign against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), namely, “#IRGCterrorists in Canada” (the “Campaign”), demanding that the government of Canada designate the IRGC as a  terrorist entity. This statement serves as a first formal introduction to the Campaign. The idea of the Campaign originated from an ongoing hunger strike in Vancouver in protesting the interference of the IRGC’s affiliates in Canada and the egregious misconduct of the courts supporting these agents and their individual and organizational enablers. The hunger strike, which started on Feb 21, will go on under the Campaign with a clear call on the Government of Canada: “End the interference of the Islamic Republic and put the IRGC, in its entirety, on the list of terrorist entities in Canada.”

It has been almost 5 years since a motion of the Parliament of Canada demanding the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist entity was passed with bipartisan support. And today, the government is yet to fulfill the Parliament’s demand. Meanwhile, the prominently rising illegal activities of the Islamic Republic’s regime particularly through members, families, and affiliates of the IRGC, in the form of espionage, buying influence in the public and private sectors, infiltrating the academia and research labs, raising funds for terrorist groups, money laundering, drug trafficking, etc., are mostly ignored by the Canadian government despite occasional verbal acknowledgements from the highest level of the political arena, including the Prime Minister who has personally called the IRGC a terrorist group, of course with zero legal effect, but adamantly resists placing the IRGC on the list of terrorist entities under the Criminal Code of Canada.

Indeed, it is not even a mixed message when the government declares that “the IRGC is a terrorist organization” but at the same time delays to an unspecified time in the future a decision to actually designate this terrorist organization as such- see, e.g.,  the joint announcement by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister regarding Iran situation, Oct 7, 2022. Considering such matters as (a) the almost 5-year delay (and counting) to respond to the Parliament’s motion of June 2018 that called on the government to “immediately” designate the IRGC as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code; (b) the government’s pushing the RCMP to not open a criminal investigation into the IRGC’s intentional missile attack on Flight PS752 killing 176 the vast majority of whom were Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or, students on their way to Canada; (c) frequent announcements of nominal and hollow sanctions “against” the Regime; and, on top of that, (d) the government’s continuing engagement with the lobbyists and “former” diplomatic agents of the regime some of whom have been openly violating the international sanctions against the Regime; the message that this oppressive mullahs regime hears from Canada is clear: This government is strongly signalling its reluctance to end the policy of appeasing the regime, no matter the level of domestic atrocities and human rights violations, and breach of international peace by the regime.

The lack of meaningful action against the IRGC, particularly in resisting a long-awaited designation as a terrorist entity has emboldened the Regime’s operatives in Canada and its oppressive forces in and outside Iran. In that regard, the government’s continuing inaction against the IRGC is complicity in many crimes of the Islamic Republic, domestic and abroad. Moreover, as long as the IRGC is not listed as a terrorist entity, the overall interference of the Islamic Republic in Canada may not be meaningfully countered and the embarrassing situation for the contaminated public bodies by this interference will only expand and higher risk to the national and international security will be caused.

Indeed, the impact of the interference of the IRGC agents seems to have created a situation where the interests of some highly influential Canadian politicians will be endangered once the IRGC is listed as a terrorist entity. However, this could change if, for the presumably compromised individuals, the loss of political, financial, and other interests due to their continued resistance to meaningfully sanctioning the IRGC outweighs the benefits of standing by and working with the IRGC. In that regard, exposing the illicit engagements between some influential public officeholders and the prominent interfering agents of the Regime seems to be a necessary step to take against the IRGC’s presence and interference in Canada.

The latter will have a pivotal role in this campaign.

Authored and endorsed by Masood Masjoody, Ph.D., on May 11, 2023.

PDF version of Statement 1:

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