Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre says he wants to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization over their shooting down of a plane that slaughtered 55 Canadians.
“I am here today with family members of victims of the flight shot down by Iran in January 2020 and their advocates in the community to commit to do what the Trudeau government will not: Seek justice for these families by standing up to Iran,” Poilievre said in a statement.
“The Trudeau government has paid lip service to victims, but because of its support for a US-Iran deal, refuses to stand up to the perpetrators, leaving their families without the justice and support they need. Canada must compensate victims by seizing regime assets, list the IRGC as a terrorist organization, pursue the PS752 case at the International Criminal Court and expose Iran’s human rights atrocities.”
Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 from Tehran, Iran, to Ukraine was shot down on January 8, 2020, almost immediately after taking off. One hundred seventy-six people were on board, including 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents. There were no survivors.
The Canadian court system awarded $107 million to the victims’ families in response to the tragedy. However, the Trudeau government did nothing in the way of solidifying Canada against Iranian military aggression, though lawyers in Canada and other countries promised to go after the assets of various Iranian officials.
For their part, the Iranian government said that the launching of a surface-to-air missile that instantly killed 176 people due to “human error” and that the plane was mistaken for a “hostile target.”
In response, Poilievre announced that he would implement the following seven recommendations upon being elected Prime Minister:
1. List the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
2. Compensate victims now and pass legislation to seize regime assets to do so.
3. Direct the Minister of Foreign Affairs to personally hold the Iranian regime to account at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Court of Justice (ICJ)
4. Make law enforcement resources available to secure the Iranian Canadian community by ending the sanctuary of former regime officials in Canada.
5. Pursue the PS752 case at the International Criminal Court.
6. Expose the Iranian regime’s manipulation of UN institutions, laying bare their human rights atrocities.
7. Impose Magnitsky Sanctions on all regime agents responsible for rocketing PS752 out of the sky.
8. Pass Human Shields Legislation – the Iranian regime used commercial flights as human shields against a perceived attack on Iran – and hold the regime accountable.
