Canadian law enforcement has reportedly quashed an Iranian jihad attempt to murder Canadian human rights advocate and former Liberal MP Irwin Cotler.Authorities identified two suspects involved in the assassination plot, but could not confirm if they were arrested or fled Canada. Cotler, who served as justice minister and attorney general under Paul Martin, has been combatting antisemitism for decades. In 2008, Cotler instigated a global campaign to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity, where he first garnered the attention of Iran. He has been under 24-hour RCMP protection since the deadly October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack on Israel, including bulletproof vehicles and heavily armed officers.Canada now faces foreign interference threats from China, India, Russia and Iran. .WATCH: Trudeau says he is looking at designating IRGC a terrorist organization .The RCMP on October 26 notified Cotler, 84, that he faced an imminent assassination threat by Iranian agents within a 48-hour window, an anonymous source told the Globe and Mail.Two of the suspects were identified, but their whereabouts were unknown, the source said. The RCMP could not confirm if they were detained or had been allowed to escape the country.On Thursday, Cotler was advised the threat against his life was “significantly lowered.” The RCMP did not respond to the publication’s request to comment. Cotler after the Hamas attack on Israel was told by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that he has become a high-profile target of Iran, a Hamas sponsor. .'Yes or no' Poilievre grills Trudeau on whether the IRGC is a terrorist organization.In addition to campaigning to designate the IRGC as terrorists, a position Canada only adopted in June, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals faced heat from opposition parties, Cotler has advocated for Iranian political prisoners and staunchly supported Israel, as Canada’s first special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism.Cotler is on the Board of Advancing Human Rights, has addressed the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy multiple times and is an honourary member of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He is also the past president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, a member of the Middle East Media Research Institute’s board of advisors and is a board member of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations..Some Parliament Hill suspects in foreign interference named . It wasn’t just the RCMP and CSIS that warned Cotler his life was in danger. The Globe’s source said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has also contacted Cotler regarding the unsealing of a New York indictment from October 22 involving an Iranian murder-for-hire operation, in which Cotler was named as a target. The US Justice Department accused senior IRGC official Ruhollah Bazghandi of his involvement in a 2022 plot to kill American human-rights activist Masih Alinejad.“That is happening more and more with intelligence services using criminals to do work for them and it gives them plausible deniability,” said former CSIS Saudi Arabia station chief Alan Treddenick. Former CSIS senior manager Daniel Stanton told the Globe Iran targets high-profile critics like Cotler and Alinejad as a warning to others.“Regimes like Iran and also India want to hit the most high-profile, outspoken critics and dissidents because that sends a message to the people who don’t have that status to basically shut up,” said Stanton.“A lot of these intelligence agencies find it difficult to operate in countries like Canada and the United States so they have to hire unscrupulous proxies to carry out the dirty work and that is easy to detect.”
Canadian law enforcement has reportedly quashed an Iranian jihad attempt to murder Canadian human rights advocate and former Liberal MP Irwin Cotler.Authorities identified two suspects involved in the assassination plot, but could not confirm if they were arrested or fled Canada. Cotler, who served as justice minister and attorney general under Paul Martin, has been combatting antisemitism for decades. In 2008, Cotler instigated a global campaign to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity, where he first garnered the attention of Iran. He has been under 24-hour RCMP protection since the deadly October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack on Israel, including bulletproof vehicles and heavily armed officers.Canada now faces foreign interference threats from China, India, Russia and Iran. .WATCH: Trudeau says he is looking at designating IRGC a terrorist organization .The RCMP on October 26 notified Cotler, 84, that he faced an imminent assassination threat by Iranian agents within a 48-hour window, an anonymous source told the Globe and Mail.Two of the suspects were identified, but their whereabouts were unknown, the source said. The RCMP could not confirm if they were detained or had been allowed to escape the country.On Thursday, Cotler was advised the threat against his life was “significantly lowered.” The RCMP did not respond to the publication’s request to comment. Cotler after the Hamas attack on Israel was told by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that he has become a high-profile target of Iran, a Hamas sponsor. .'Yes or no' Poilievre grills Trudeau on whether the IRGC is a terrorist organization.In addition to campaigning to designate the IRGC as terrorists, a position Canada only adopted in June, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals faced heat from opposition parties, Cotler has advocated for Iranian political prisoners and staunchly supported Israel, as Canada’s first special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism.Cotler is on the Board of Advancing Human Rights, has addressed the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy multiple times and is an honourary member of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He is also the past president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, a member of the Middle East Media Research Institute’s board of advisors and is a board member of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations..Some Parliament Hill suspects in foreign interference named . It wasn’t just the RCMP and CSIS that warned Cotler his life was in danger. The Globe’s source said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has also contacted Cotler regarding the unsealing of a New York indictment from October 22 involving an Iranian murder-for-hire operation, in which Cotler was named as a target. The US Justice Department accused senior IRGC official Ruhollah Bazghandi of his involvement in a 2022 plot to kill American human-rights activist Masih Alinejad.“That is happening more and more with intelligence services using criminals to do work for them and it gives them plausible deniability,” said former CSIS Saudi Arabia station chief Alan Treddenick. Former CSIS senior manager Daniel Stanton told the Globe Iran targets high-profile critics like Cotler and Alinejad as a warning to others.“Regimes like Iran and also India want to hit the most high-profile, outspoken critics and dissidents because that sends a message to the people who don’t have that status to basically shut up,” said Stanton.“A lot of these intelligence agencies find it difficult to operate in countries like Canada and the United States so they have to hire unscrupulous proxies to carry out the dirty work and that is easy to detect.”
