Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the Liberal government to add the Houthis, a militant Shi'ite Islamic movement based in Yemen, to Canada's terrorist list.
“The Houthis are a front for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an organization that is the largest and best-organized terrorist group in the world that supports Hamas and Hezbollah,” Poilievre said in Toronto on Thursday.
“The murderous Iranian regime uses groups like the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas to spread violence and terror across the world.”
Poilievre said the Houthis “may operate in our country,” but he doesn’t “know for sure if they did, because we don’t have laws to stop or even monitor them.”
Designating the Houthis as terrorists would allow Canadian banks to freeze any assets they hold in Canada. It would also allow police to charge anyone who supported them financially or materially.
The Houthis have disrupted commercial shipping and launched drones and missiles at Israel since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.
Since January, US and British forces have been hitting targets in Yemen, in response to Houthi attacks on commercial ships that the militants described as retaliation for Israel's actions in the war in Gaza.
Israel also attacked many of the things he said were military targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The Israeli army said the strikes were “in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel in recent months.”
Conservatives also want Samidoun added to the list
In January, the United States announced that it was classifying the Houthis as a global terrorist group specifically designated for its actions in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said at the time that Canada's security and intelligence agencies were considering whether the Houthis meet the criteria for inclusion on Canada's list.
“The Americans banned the Houthis in January, the liberals at the time said they were thinking about it. What is there to think about?” Poilievre asked Thursday.
“Common-sense Conservatives are calling on the NDP/Liberal government to list the Houthis as a terrorist group… this will give our authorities the power to seize their bank accounts, shut down their operations, criminalize recruitment, logistics and planning on Canadian soil. “
On Thursday, LeBlanc spokesperson Gabriel Brunet told CBC News that Canada's law enforcement agencies are working with allies to determine whether more groups should be listed as terrorist entities.
“We have full confidence in their ability to do this work and ensure the safety of Canadians,” Brunet said in an email.
Poilievre's comments came days after his party called on the federal government to add another group to the terrorist list: the pro-Palestinian Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network.
On October 7, Samidoun organized a protest in Vancouver that has since received widespread condemnation.
In videos posted onlinean unidentified masked woman is shown leading a crowd of hundreds in chants of “death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel.”
Some members of the group were seen burning Canadian flags.
During question time in Parliament on Tuesday, Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman reacted to the protest by calling for Samidoun to be designated a terrorist group.
“So if burning a Canadian flag, calling for the death of Canadians, fomenting hatred in this country and, most of all, being a front for an already listed terrorist organization is not enough to get them on the list, then what What the hell will it take for them to ban them?” she said.
