Canada's Official Terror List

"[Blood & Honour], an international neo-Nazi network whose ideology is derived from the National Socialist doctrine of Nazi Germany [now appears on an expanded list of terrorist entities under the Criminal Code list]."
"Through their armed branch, Combat 18 [C18], the group has carried out violent actions, including murders and bombings."
"The various divisions of Blood & Honour organize concerts and white pride rallies that bring together skinheads and other neo-Nazi supporters. Many acts of violence are attributed to members affiliated to the group."
Public Safety Canada

"[Both groups have] a presence in various places across the country. There has been accelerating public interest in this regard."
"The government is constrained from commenting any further, but what the listing demonstrates is that these two entities have been thoroughly investigated, that the proper police and security reports have been presented to the government, and the evidence is clear that they fall within [the criteria for a terrorist entity]."
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale

Canada's national security agencies have focused their sights on right-wing extremism as a threat to safety and security in the country, nudging off to a lesser focus it would appear, the threats emanating from Islamist terrorist groups, previously taking centre stage as imminent violent threats. In updating the list of terrorist organizations white supremacist groups and their "armed branches" now share space with threatening groups more familiar to the Canadian public, joined by three new groups, Iranian-backed Shia militias.

Canada is still avoiding the recognition long overdue that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's military, its military leaders answerable to the Republic Grand Ayatollah, is by definition a terrorist group. The Islamic Republic of Iran tasked the IRGC with recruiting Shia Muslims in Lebanon in the 1980s to form an offshoot terrorist group now known as Hezbollah, training and arming them and dispatching them internationally for terrorist actions abroad.

Officials in the current Liberal Trudeau-led government feel more comfortable asserting their vigilance over neo-Nazi and other far-right groups as a destabilizing threat to Canadian unity and protection of vulnerable groups within the country. Blood & Honour originally established in Britain has been implicated in violent attacks in North America and Europe, and active in Canada where their focus is on victimizing visible minorities. Their offences revolve around weapons and assaults.

By listing a group under terrorism, authorities can legally seize property, prevent financial institutions from business associations with such groups and prosecuting those who "knowingly participate in or contribute to, directly or indirectly, any activity" of the group. "This participation is only an offence if its purpose is to enhance the ability of any terrorist group to facilitate or carry out a terrorist activity", according to Public Safety Canada.

Under the previous Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada cut off all diplomatic and official relations with the Iranian Republic, acknowledging its support of terrorism, its cult of aggrandizing Iran as a malign influence in the Middle East with its nuclear aspirations and its openly-stated threats against Israel. Islamist fundamentalism in Canada is not monopolized by Shia Iran; the Muslim Brotherhood, its Sunni counterpart, has a well-established foothold in the Muslim Canadian community.

The Brotherhood is as worrisome a threat to most countries of the Middle East and internationally as is the aspirations of Iran to take command of the region. Official Canada has placed Brotherhood-linked Hamas on its terrorism list, but not the Muslim Brotherhood which inspired Hamas's formation. A year ago a Conservative motion in the House of Commons to declare the IRGC a terrorist group had the support of all political parties and the Liberals pledged to support the motion, then failed to follow through.

In this file photo taken on Sept. 22, 2018 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) march during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the devastating 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, in the capital Tehran.AFP / Getty Images

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau intended to 'mend fences' with Iran, to re-establish the Canadian mission in Tehran and invite Iran to re-open its embassy and consulates in Canada. And no doubt restore to Iran all the assets frozen by the previous Conservative government. Negotiations had been underway between Ottawa and Tehran on that agenda, with events since then stalling the effort. But then, Ottawa, led by Justin Trudeau, has had other problems to contend with; its failed relations with India, and then with China among other 'irritations'.

"The listing process requires careful consideration of criminal or security intelligence reports by our security and intelligence agencies, which are reviewed by Department of Justice counsel to ensure that entities meet the legal threshold for listing under the Criminal Code." 
“Canada is committed to working with like-minded countries to ensure Iran is held to account. This includes strong measures to hold Iran accountable for its support of terrorism."
Scott Bardsley, spokesman, Ralph Goodale, Public Safety Canada

Holding Iran to account? By what measure exactly! What would make Iran fall within the 'criteria for a terrorist entity' to satisfy its inclusion on Canada's terrorist list when it has consistently and repeatedly carried out terrorist acts through the Revolutionary Guard Corps, and its Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah? Its complicity in Syria's war against its own Syrian Sunni population, its instigation of conflict in Yemen through support and arming of the Houthi Shias. And its ongoing threat of weaponizing its long-rage missiles with nuclear tips in the too-near future...