The federal government has added the Houthis, a Shia Islamist militant group based in Yemen, to Canada’s terrorist list.
The Houthis, also known as Ansarallah, have been waging an insurgency in Yemen for the past two decades in an effort to overthrow the government of that country.
More recently, 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.
Designating the Houthis as a terrorist entity allows Canadian banks to freeze any assets they have in Canada. It also permits police to charge anyone who supports them financially or materially.
People who are affiliated with the group are also barred from entry to Canada.
“Today’s addition of Ansarallah as a listed terrorist entity contributes to our efforts in fighting terrorism globally and aligning Canada with our allies,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a media statement Monday.
A government statement said Houthis have “contributed to unrest in the Middle East through numerous attacks targeting civilian and naval vessels on the Red Sea and other waterways, as well as those against Israel.”
The statement said the group is also closely linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah, both of which are listed terrorist entities in Canada.
The United States added the Houthis to their list of designated global terrorist groups in January.
Poilievre called for designation in October
Since January, U.S. and British forces have been striking targets in Yemen in response to Houthi attacks on commercial shipping, which the militants have described as acts of retaliation for Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza.
Israel 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.”
In October, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the Liberal government to add the Houthis 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 earlier this year.
LeBlanc’s office said that while members of Ansarallah are commonly referred to as “Houthis,” people should not confuse the militant movement with the ethnic group in Yemen with the same name.
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