Legal landscape

For nearly two decades, IRCC and CBSA relied on Al-Yamani (2006 FC) and Gebreab (2010 FCA) to apply an extremely broad interpretation of “membership” under IRPA s.34(1)(f). These decisions allowed inadmissibility purely based on association with an organization, even if the person never voluntarily joined, never supported the organization, and never engaged in wrongdoing.

This broad approach is no longer legally valid after three major decisions: Mason, Weldemariam, and Ali.

1. Mason (2023 SCC 21) – Supreme Court of Canada Overturns Broad Membership Approach
2. Weldemariam (2024 FCA 69) – Federal Court of Appeal Narrows Section 34
3. Ali (2025 FC 1682) – Court Rejects the Use of Old Membership Jurisprudence

Canada’s current practice of treating all IRGC conscripts as “members” of a terrorist organization is no longer aligned with Supreme Court and Federal Court jurisprudence. Decisions such as Mason, Weldemariam, and Ali, while not all binding, provide persuasive and increasingly authoritative precedent confirming that involuntary, compelled, or non-volitional associations cannot be treated as genuine “membership” for the purposes of terrorism-related inadmissibility.