Canada has listed Ansarallah—who are commonly referred to as Houthis—as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code.
The militant group, which has waged an insurgency in Yemen since the early 2000s seeking to unseat a internationally recognized government, now controls vast swaths of northwestern Yemen including the capital city of Sana’a.
Houthis has contributed to regional unrest since November 2023 by repeated targeting of civilian and naval vessels on the Red Sea and other waterways, as well as those against Israel and Israeli commercial interests.
Ansarallah is closely linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and Hezbollah, two other listed terrorist entities in Canada. Back in January, the U.S. Department of State announced the designation of the Iran-backed group as a specially designated global terrorist through executive order.
(There is a differentiation between the armed political movement referred to as “Houthis” and the ethnic group in Yemen by the same name, which is not targeted in the listing.)
“Today’s addition of Ansarallah as a listed terrorist entity contributes to our efforts in fighting terrorism globally and aligning Canada with our allies” stated public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc. “Acts of violent extremism and terrorism have no place in the world and we will continue to take action to curtail the spread of these activities internationally and to counter threats to Canada, its citizens and its interests around the world.”
As a listed entity, the Islamic Republic of Iran-backed group has met the definition of “terrorist group” under Canada’s Criminal Code, which prohibits certain actions in relation to terrorist groups, including those related to terrorist financing, travel and recruitment.
“This designation is long overdue,” said David Granovsky, the director of government relations for B’nai Brith Canada. “Other countries, including the United States, have regarded the Houthis as terrorists for years. Thousands of Canadians joined B’nai Brith’s letter-writing campaign last February demanding Canada take a similar approach.”
After the brutal October 2023 terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas, the Houthis began targeting international shipping through the Red Sea, sinking multiple vessels and abducting crew members, notes B’nai Brith, which in a joint statement last July with Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Education (FSWC), highlighted these concerns following an unprecedented Houthi drone strike on Tel Aviv.
The move to list the Houthis brings Canada in step with its allies, said B’nai Brith Canada’s director of research and advocacy Richard Robertson, but he also stressed the importance of making changes to domestic policies.
“As B’nai Brith outlined in its recent 7-Point Plan for Combating Antisemitism in Canada, our Government should not continue to tolerate mass rallies in support of listed terrorist entities such as the Houthis or Hamas. These gatherings, which glorify acts of terror and incite hate against the Jewish community, make a mockery of Canadian values.”
Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) lauded the addition with a statement: “Their founding slogan calls for ‘death to America and Israel’ and curses all Jews. Since Oct. 7, Ansarallah has targeted commercial ships in the Red Sea and fired dozens of rockets at Israel in support of Hamas.”
Ottawa listed Samidoun—also known as the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network—as a terrorist entity in concert with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s similar designation through executive order on Oct. 15. Already listed as a terrorist entity by Germany, Samidoun is closely linked with, and advances the interests of terror group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is listed as a terrorist entity in Canada, the United States and the European Union.
Samidoun’s leadership is composed of reported current and former members of the PFLP according to Public Safety Canada, and its Canadian director Charlotte Kates has played a key role in rallies across Canada where chants of “Death to Israel” and in praise of Oct. 7 are often heard.
CIJA is calling on the federal government to re-examine whether Kates and her husband Khaled Barakat obtained Canadian citizenship fraudulently by failing to fully disclose their affiliation with the PFLP.
Canada now has 79 terrorist entities listed under the Criminal Code.
