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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has introduced plans to bar about 10,000 members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from getting into Canada, as worldwide strain on Tehran builds amid ongoing anti-government protests.
Throughout a information convention on Friday, Trudeau stated the highest 50 p.c of the IRGC’s management would get lifetime entry bans underneath new penalties imposed via Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Safety Act.
Trudeau stated the focused people embody “the over 10,000 officers and senior members [of the IRGC] most accountable” for what he dubbed Iran’s “heinous state behaviour”.
“The designation of a regime is a everlasting determination. Because of this greater than 10,000 members of the IRGC management, for instance, can be inadmissible to Canada perpetually,” he advised reporters.
The Iranian regime continues its reprehensible disregard for human rights. Right this moment, we’re utilizing essentially the most highly effective instruments at our disposal to crack down on this brutal regime. Watch our announcement reside: https://t.co/MojOl3SEkp
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) October 7, 2022
The IRGC is a department of the Iranian army that finally solutions to Supreme Chief Ali Khamenei. It’s chargeable for the Iranian authorities’s covert overseas operations and army help for regional allies.
Trudeau additionally stated his authorities would make investments $55m (76 million Canadian {dollars}) to implement its sanctions regime, whereas increasing its capability to stop people and teams affiliated with Iranian state authorities from laundering cash in Canada, amongst different curbs.
Iran has confronted rising worldwide condemnation following the loss of life of Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody. The 22-year-old died after she was detained final month in Tehran by the nation’s so-called “morality police” for her apparel.
Dozens of individuals have been killed within the ensuing demonstrations, whereas many others have been arrested.
Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden’s administration sanctioned Iranian authorities officers for his or her alleged involvement in “violence towards peaceable protesters and the shutdown of Iran’s Web entry”.
Iranian police have denied that Amini was crushed in custody, and Khamenei, the nation’s supreme chief, earlier this week blamed the USA and Israel for the protests, which he dubbed “riots”.
However her case has mobilised demonstrations throughout the nation, in addition to internationally; a latest rally in Toronto, Canada’s largest metropolis, drew tens of hundreds of individuals, in keeping with police estimates.
Canada’s Iranian sanctions push got here amid frayed relations between the 2 nations, which worsened within the aftermath of the downing of a Ukrainian Worldwide Airways airplane over Tehran in early 2020.
The IRGC stated it shot down Flight PS752 accidentally after mistaking it for a missile at a second of heightened tensions over the killing of Iranian Common Qassem Soleimani in a US strike in Baghdad, Iraq.
The incident – which killed all 176 passengers and crew on board, dozens of whom had connections to Canada – spurred international anger and the Trudeau authorities has led worldwide efforts to hunt accountability.
“We stay relentless in our pursuit of justice for the households of those victims, and we’ll cease at nothing to make sure the regime is held accountable,” the prime minister stated in an announcement this week marking 1,000 days because the crash.
It isn’t clear how Canada will establish the highest IRGC officers who Trudeau stated on Friday could be focused by the brand new sanctions. Iran has necessary army service the place conscripts might be drafted to the IRGC, which boasts tens of hundreds of officers.
Trudeau’s authorities has confronted strain from the opposition Conservative Occasion to designate the IRGC as a “terrorist” organisation.
However doing so would have been an act of the home legal code, risking unintended penalties, and would have been impractical, a authorities supply advised the Reuters information company.
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