Poilievre calls on Liberal government to designate Houthis as a terrorist group

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the Liberal government to add the Houthis, a Shia Islamist militant 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 biggest and most well organized terrorist group in the world which supports Hamas and Hezbollah," Poilievre said in Toronto Thursday. 

"The murderous Iranian regime uses groups like Houthis and Hezbollah and Hamas to spread violence and terror throughout the world."

Poilievre said the Houthis "can operate in our country" but he doesn't "know for sure if they have because we don't have the laws to stop or even surveil it."

Designating the Houthis as terrorists would allow Canadian banks to freeze any assets they have in Canada. It would also permit police to charge anyone who supports them financially or materially.

The Houthis have disrupted commercial shipping and launched drones and missiles toward Israel since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.

Since January, U.S. and British forces have been striking targets in Yemen in response to Houthi attacks on commercial shipping that the militants have described as retaliation for Israel's actions in the war in Gaza. 

Israel has also attacked a number of what it has said were military targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. Israel's 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 list

In January, the United States announced it was classifying the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group over 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 back 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 terror group…that will allow our law enforcement the power to seize their bank accounts, shut down their operations, criminalize recruitment, logistics and planning on Canadian soil."

On Thursday LeBlanc's spokesperson Gabriel Brunet told CBC News that Canada's security agencies are working with allies to determine whether more groups should be listed as terrorist entities.

"We have every confidence in their ability to do that work and ensure the safety of Canadians.," Brunet said in an email. 

Poilievre's comments come days after his party called on the federal government to add another group to the terror list: the pro-Palestinian Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

On Oct. 7, Samidoun organized a protest in Vancouver that has since garnered widespread condemnation. 

In videos circulated online, an 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 in the group were shown burning Canadian flags.

During question period in Parliament Tuesday, Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman reacted to the protest by asking that Samidoun be designated a terror group. 

"So, if burning a Canadian flag, if calling for the death of Canadians, if fomenting hate in this country, and most of all being a front for an already-listed terrorist organization is not enough to put them on the list, then what the hell is it going to take for them to ban them?" she said.