When the federal government added Samidoun to its list of terror entities, joining Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. and the Proud Boys, it could have wide-ranging implications for the group.
Over the past year, a major pressure campaign was underway to have Samidoun listed as a terrorist entity. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had said were he prime minister, the activist group, which the U.S. government said is a fundraising front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, would have been listed already.
On Tuesday, the Liberals moved to do just that.
But what does it mean?
How is a group put on the list?
Jessica Davis, a counterterrorism expert at Carleton University, said that the way it’s supposed to work is national security and intelligence agencies look at various organizations that perhaps ought to be on the list, and then would go to the minister of public safety with that information, and then the group could be added to the list.
“Now I think what we’ve seen in practice over the last couple of years is an abridged version of this process, I’ll put it very politely, an abridged version in which there’s been political pressure,” said Davis. “What I think is probably happening there is more of a top down direction to the security and intelligence organizations to determine whether or not the organization meets the threshold for listing.”
What other groups are on the list?
Some of the groups on the list are obvious. Al-Qaida, for example, is on the list. So is Boko Haram, the Nigerian terror group, and the Islamic State.
There are several neo-Nazi organizations as well, including the Atomwaffen Division and Aryan Strikeforce.
There are also several governmental groups, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Taliban, which forms the government in Afghanistan.
The listed entities cover multiple continents. Ejército de Liberación Nacional, a Colombian guerrilla group, is listed, as is the Russian Imperial Movement, a monarchical organization.
What are the implications?
When the Canadian government listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity, it said such a listing would restrict the group’s financial activities in Canada.
“Canadian financial institutions, such as banks and brokerages, are required to immediately freeze the property of a listed entity. It is a criminal offence for anyone in Canada and Canadians abroad to knowingly deal with property owned or controlled by a terrorist group,” says the news release.
A listing could also help police lay terrorism charges and block terrorism financing, the government says. For example, fundraising for a listed terrorist group could lead to Criminal Code charges. Or, the government says that a charitable organization could lose its status if it maintains connections to a listed terror group and can “facilitate removal of an entity’s online content.”
Outside the realm of criminal charges and investigations, other countries can use Canada’s list to make determinations about, for example, whether to allow someone to cross an international border or a bank might consider whether it wanted to do business with a group that’s a listed terrorist entity in Canada, said Davis.
It could become difficult for Samidoun members to enter, say, the United Kingdom, because of such a designation.
So far, Samidoun does not seem to have shut down: its website is still functional, and was updated Wednesday with a press release decrying the American and Canadian sanctions against it.
“It won’t necessarily have a lot of restrictions on their current activities, but it does open up a few other avenues for potential charges,” said Davis.
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