By Pishtaz | 2024-05-15

Canada's House of Commons on May 8 voted unanimously in support of a motion to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization.

The vote does not constitute a binding obligation on the government.

Still, the government has been facing mounting pressure to declare the IRGC a terrorist group under Canada's Criminal Code after Iran's unprecedented air strikes on Israel last month.

Families of victims of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 have been calling on the government to designate the IRGC for years.

Two IRGC ground-to-air missiles downed Flight PS752 on January 8, 2020, as it was heading from Tehran to Kyiv, killing all 176 people on board.

The victims included 82 Iranians, more than 50 Iranian-Canadians and 11 Ukrainians, as well as nationals from Sweden, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan and Germany.

Canada has taken steps in response to the IRGC's actions, including barring high-ranking members of the Iranian regime from entering the country.

"We know there is more to do to hold the regime to account and we will continue our work, including continuing to look for ways to responsibly list the IRGC as a terrorist organization," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a Flight PS752 commemoration ceremony in January.

Already Sweden, the United States, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have listed the IRGC as a terrorist organization.

In addition to specific sanctions related to Tehran's nuclear program, systematic human rights violations and corruption, Canada in 2012 designated the state of Iran a supporter of terrorism.

It designated the Quds Force, the IRGC's external arm, a terror organization in 2017.