Ottawa added Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to the list of terrorist organizations, as it called on Canadian nationals in Iran to leave the country.
"Our government has made the decision to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code," Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told a news conference.
Opposition legislators have long demanded the IRGC be listed but the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has so far declined, saying to do so risked unintended consequences.
In October 2022, Ottawa said such a move might unfairly capture Iranians in Canada who had fled the country but were conscripted into the force when still in Iran.
Canada already lists the IRGC's overseas arm, the Quds Force, as a terrorist group. Ottawa broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2012.
Once a group is placed on the terror list, police can charge anyone who financially or materially supports the group and banks can freeze assets, the CBC said.
In October 2022, Canada said it would ban the IRGC's top leadership from entering the country and promised more targeted sanctions. At the time, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland stated that "the IRGC is a terrorist organization."
The IRGC, a powerful faction that controls a business empire as well as elite armed and intelligence forces in Iran, has been accused by Western nations of carrying out a global terrorist campaign. Iran rejects that.
