OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says that while legislation is coming within weeks to get tough on the Iranian regime, there is no timeline for hiring people to help enforce fresh sanctions.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a week ago that Canada would ban thousands of Iranian officials from entering the country, pledging $76 million to enforce new sanctions.
Mendicino said Thursday this would involve hiring 30 new people as either RCMP officers or public servants
"We're not talking about months, I would say certainly within weeks," Mendicino told reporters.
But on Friday, Mendicino clarified that timeline, saying he meant legislation will come soon. He had no target date for hiring experts to enforce the new sanctions.
"The time frame, of referring to weeks, is about making sure that we can move forward with that designation of the Iranian regime," Mendicino said.
The Canada Border Services Agency is working on that aspect, he added.
This month’s announcements follow sustained criticism from members of the Iranian diaspora, who have spotted officials associated with human-rights abuses moving freely in Canada.
Hamed Esmaeilion, who represents relatives of those killed when Iran’s military shot down Flight PS752 in January 2020, testified about the issue on Oct. 6.
"Canada has become a safe haven for the criminals of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Esmaeilion told the House justice committee.
Sanctions experts have said Canada is far behind its peers in having the capability to enforce existing sanctions.
"We don't have a deep bench when it comes to financial crimes and enforcement in Canada," Jessica Davis, who studies terrorism financing, said last week.
She noted it can take years to train people to have the expertise to monitor people who are sanctioned.
Canada is hoping to not just freeze assets but hand over cash to victims and human-rights groups, and Davis said judges will only approve such transfers if officials have gathered adequate evidence.
While Mendicino had no timeline for hiring, he stressed Friday that Canada already has been enforcing sanctions, including against Iranian officials.
"It's not as though we are just standing up resources now to make good on the sanctions we have imposed," he said.
"This is not about starting from square one — this is about building on top of an already robust public safety and national security apparatus."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2022.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
