Mr. Speaker, I rise to follow up on a question that I first posed in the House last November respecting the Iranian fourfold threat: the nuclear threat, the threat of state sanctioned incitement to hate and genocide, the state sponsorship of international terrorism and massive domestic repression.
In particular, I asked whether the government would sanction the Central Bank of Iran, put the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorist list and expand the orbit of sanctions against those entities and individuals engaged in the massive assault on human rights in Iran.
Since posing that question three months ago, the Iranian fourfold threat has not only escalated but intensified. In the matter of the nuclear weaponization program, the International Atomic Energy Agency has just reported a dramatic acceleration in the nuclear weaponization program. Indeed, it is reported that Iran has tripled its production capacity for a more purified type of fuel that is far closer to what is needed to make the core of a nuclear weapon. In a word, and on this threat, the report documents and details an elaborate and highly organized nuclear weaponization program designed to develop, produce, test and deliver a nuclear bomb.
In the matter of state sanctioned incitement to genocide, the Supreme Leader Khamenei, on February 4, publicly called for the annihilation of Israel, saying that it was cancerous tumour that must be cut out and will be cut out, while underpinning the genocidal threat with theological justification for the eradication of Israel in a matter of 9 to 12 minutes.
In the matter of the state sponsorship of international terrorism, in the last weeks alone we have witnessed terrorist threats and terrorist activities in such diverse places as Thailand, Georgia and India, the whole with Iranian footprints, following up on earlier terrorist threats and activities from Central Asia to Central America.
In the matter of massive domestic repression, we have witnessed yet again an escalation of human rights violations that are tantamount to crimes against humanity, including the highest per capita rate for executions in the world. I might add that in 2012 alone the rate is above the rate that it was in 2011, which itself was the highest rate. It has jailed more journalists than any other country in the world. It has engaged in the persistent and pervasive assault on women's rights. It targets ethnic and religious minorities, particularly the Baha'i and the ethnic Kurds. It criminalizes fundamental freedoms to speech, association and assembly. I could go on in that regard.
Accordingly, I called then, and reaffirm now with even greater urgency, the need for the government to undertake the following measures: First, sanction the Central Bank of Iran, the nerve centre of Iran's financing of the nuclear weaponization program and international terrorism; and second, list the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Simply put, the IRGC is at the epicentre of the fourfold Iranian threat and, in order to combat that threat, we need to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity.
When I put a question on the order paper on this point, the response noted that “the listing of an entity pursuant to the Criminal Code is a very public means of identifying a group or individual as being associated with terrorism”. Precisely, and that is the reason I sought it.
The answer then goes on to say that Canada's position was that “sanctions targeted at key IRGC entities and individuals were considered to be the most effective mechanism to disrupt IRGC involvement in nuclear proliferation activities”.
That response misses the point entirely. First, we are not talking only about sanctioning the nuclear threat. Second, we are not talking about a fragmented response but a comprehensive response to listing it as a terrorist entity.