At the end of last week, the families of the Canadian victims of flight PS752, which was shot down by Iran, gathered to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the tragedy.

On January 8, 2020, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard shot down a Ukrainian Airlines passenger plane as it was taking off from Tehran. All 176 people on board were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.

The Canadian federal government recently stated that it does not rule out designating the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity - something that families have been demanding for years.

The incident occurred five days after the killing of Soleimani, the former military commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, by a US drone, and Iran also launched a series of retaliatory missile attacks on US military targets in Iraq.

There was also an explosion at the fourth anniversary commemoration ceremony of Soleimani's death in Iran, which killed more than 100 people.

In a 2021 report, the Iranian government claimed that the air defenses mistakenly identified the plane as a hostile target and shot it down by accident – but Canadian security officials said Iran failed to provide evidence supporting this conclusion.

Over the past four years, opposition Conservatives and the families of PS752 victims have called on the Canadian government to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist entity, but the Liberal government has been hesitant to do so, arguing that such an approach could affect the paramilitary forces who are forced to serve in the military.

However, the CIA reported that over 50% of the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are recruits.

The United States designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist entity in 2019.

Also, in December of last year, a group of American lawmakers from various parties sent a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging Canada to do the same, citing the links between the Revolutionary Guard and Hamas forces.

Last Friday, Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc yielded when answering a question from CBC:

He also said he asked national security agencies to continue providing relevant suggestions to the government, and if there is progress, he will explain that to everyone.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is a paramilitary force established after the Iranian Revolution in 1979 to defend the Islamic Republic against internal and external threats.

In 2017, Ottawa designated the Iranian Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard responsible for operations beyond regional borders, as a terrorist entity.

Korosh Doshinas, spokesperson for the Association of Families of PS752 Victims, told a CBC reporter: Canada must find a way to list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.

He cited, for example, Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was beaten by the Iranian morality police in 2022 for wearing a hijab that did not comply with standards, and later died. The incident sparked widespread and long-lasting women's protests. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard participated in a brutal crackdown campaign against the protesters.