Irwin Cotler says Iran's assassination plot should be a 'wake-up call' to the world
Former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler says Iran's alleged plot to kill him should serve as a “wake-up call” to democracies around the world against international oppression and violence by Iran and other rogue actors.
In an interview with Global News, Cotler, a vocal critic of the Iranian regime, said he was informed by his RCMP security detail late last month that they had received “information about an imminent assassination attempt in the next 48 hours” while he was in Montreal. to attend the 60th graduation ceremony for his law class at McGill University.
“My security has been tightened for the next 48 hours,” he said. His security was then downgraded to “high level” a few days ago, he added, although it was not clear to him what had changed.
“Then I read – I wasn't told – then I read that two suspects may have been arrested.”
The Globe and Mail newspaper reported for the first time about the alleged plot against Cotler on Monday, and the source said that law enforcement knows about the two suspects but it is not clear whether they have been arrested or fled the country. The report said Cotler advised last week that the threat against him had been “significantly reduced.”
Cotler has been under 24-hour RCMP protection since Oct. 7, 2023, an attack on Israel by Hamas, which is supported by Iran. He told Global News that he was first informed of the “dangerous and dangerous threat to my life” when he arrived in Montreal from a trip to Washington, DC, with his wife in November 2023, and his security detail began “immediately” after that.
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“The protection I have had has been exemplary,” he said.
“They accompany me wherever I go. Even if I go to the barber shop or go on dialysis, they are always with me.”
When he later learned that the threat came from Iran, he said he was not surprised, considering his many years of fighting for the rights of the Iranian people and criticizing the Iranian regime.
He began lobbying the international community 15 years ago to list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. The Canadian government did so in June, after months of mounting political pressure.
Cotler said he has “seen a pattern” of increasing alleged killings of Iranian dissidents and western political critics of the regime abroad, as well as attacks on dissidents at home, including the killing and kidnapping of two people who were extradited to Iran.
“You actually have a combination of intensified domestic repression, intensified international repression, a massacre as part of that international repression and the urgent and urgent need for a democratic society to contain the Iranian regime,” he said.
“At the same time, as we express our support and solidarity with the Iranian people who are under increasing attack.”
US intelligence agencies have seen an increase in Iranian assassination threats against US president-elect Donald Trump during his campaign this year, and the US Justice Department has indicted several suspected assassins who prosecutors say were tasked with carrying out Iranian plots to assassinate Trump.
Earlier this month, an unsealed US case revealed two men allegedly hired by the IRGC to track down and kill a prominent Iranian-American journalist, Masih Alinejad, who has endured multiple Iranian assassination plots that have thwarted law enforcement. The indictment alleges that the person connected to the IRGC was tasked with plotting to assassinate Trump before the US election.
Cotler said the allegations of framing Alinejad, whom he called a friend and colleague, and himself were part of an increasing pattern of repression of critics of Iran.
Trump took a tough line against Iran and angered the regime after his first administration carried out a strike that killed IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani in early 2020.
Cotler said he expects Trump to continue on that path if he returns to the White House next year, though he noted that the incoming president is “unexpected.”
“If the past is a precedent, we may see the tightening of sanctions again by the Iranian regime, and I think we will get a strong response from the Iranian regime,” he said.
He hopes Canada and other countries will follow suit and make repression and genocide a priority at next year's G7 summit, which Canada will host.
Canada has been facing growing allegations of foreign interference not only from Iran but also from China, Russia and India. The government has been talking about the relationship between New Delhi and Indian embassies in Canada and the recent spate of indiscriminate killings against Sikhs on Canadian soil, including the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year in British Columbia.
Iran has been accused of recruiting members of the Hells Angels in Canada to carry out the killings, and immigration officials have found 16 members of the Iranian regime living illegally in Canada so far.
Cotler called for an independent government agency to deal with cases of foreign interference and foreign coercion.
“I see this as something that has nothing to do with me personally, but with the great fear of international repression and killing,” he said.
“This must be seen as a wake-up call to a democratic society because this is a threat to our security, our democracy and our rights.”
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