Liberals face credibility questions over whether announced Iran sanctions will actually happen

The Liberal government’s announcement of new sanctions against the Iranian regime Monday, in response to protests there over government oppression, was met with skepticism by observers concerned about Ottawa’s lack of transparency and “follow-through” with past sanctions.

The Liberal government “has overall a bit of an issue with following up on rhetorical commitments in its foreign policy in general, and specifically on sanctions, to actually implement sanctions,” said University of Ottawa associate professor of international affairs Thomas Juneau. He said Canada already has a history of announcing but not fully implementing sanctions, which “carries a cost in terms of credibility” both with allies and opponents. “The issue for me is always to actually follow through,” he said.

NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson said she has already been struggling with trying to get information about how sanctions on Russians related to the war in Ukraine, which have been in place since February, have been implemented. “We can’t get information about how much, what’s been seized, how effective have they been,” she said. “I worry that they (the new Iranian sanctions) are not going to be as effective as they could be, because the government doesn’t want to be transparent on how that’s being rolled out,” said

The Liberal government named 25 individuals and nine entities in a list of new sanctions Monday. The list includes individuals from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s morality police and its notorious Evin Prison.

Protests against the cleric-led regime that has been in charge of Iran since the 1979 revolution have now reached their third week. They began after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in custody of Iran’s religious police, allegedly for violating the country’s hijab rules, which force women to cover their hair.

The protests have also spread worldwide, including protestors marching in the streets of Canadian cities. The biggest rally, in Richmond Hill, Ont. this past weekend, drew more than 50,000 people.

Juneau said “the symbol of announcing sanctions on these individuals is necessary, and it’s a good first step, but what I think we should all be looking at now is if it actually happens.”

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The Opposition Conservatives say the sanctions should go further, with the government listing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity. The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian military, responsible for safeguarding the country’s Islamic regime.

“The Iranian regime are known to have assets, are known to come and go freely in this country, and they should be banned as a terrorist organization,” said Conservative foreign affairs critic Melissa Lantsman.
Once an organization is listed as a terrorist entity, its property is automatically frozen, while “persons seeking entry into Canada may be inadmissible if they are found to be associated with a listed entity,” Public Safety Canada said in a press release last year.

The IRGC as an entity has been under economic sanctions since 2012. Juneau said sanctioning each member of the organization would involve hundreds of thousands of individuals, some of whom are already legally living in Canada.

“What if an individual shows up at the Canadian border, or an individual is a permanent resident or a citizen in Canada, and he says, ‘yes, I was in the IRGC, but I was a cook as a conscript for one year in 1997.’ How do you know that’s true?” he said. Having to verify that information in hundreds of cases “becomes a massive resource demand on the RCMP, CSIS, CBSA, and others who have to implement this.”

Juneau said the United States, which has the IRGC on its terrorist list, has “significantly more resources” and “actively more bureaucratic capacity” than Canada does.

The 25 individuals named on the Canadian sanctions list will have their accounts frozen and won’t be able to enter the country. Lantsman said the government should go further and seize the assets of the Iranian regime in Canada, redistributing the money to victims of flight Ukraine International Airlines flight 752, which was shot down by Iran in January 2020 which killed 176 people, as well as seeking prosecution at the International Criminal Court of Justice for the attack on a civilian aircraft.

Lantsman noted that attack killed more than 50 Canadians. “That’s what would do justice to those victims,” she said.