Liberal MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler speaks to allegations of illicit organ harvesting by the Chinese regime at an interview on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Dec. 4, 2012. Cotler says China must be held to account. (Jonathan Ren/NTD Television)
By Noé Chartier
Some members of Parliament say more should be done to counter the Iranian regime after a media report said Tehran allegedly plotted to assassinate former justice minister Irwin Cotler.
Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman said Canada’s decision not to ban Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) earlier on allowed the group to prepare its attack on Cotler.
“The IRGC used that time to set up the infrastructure that is being used today — they planned to assassinate a former [attorney general],” Lantsman said on social media platform X.
Ottawa listed the IRGC as a terrorist entity in June. This Iranian defence and security organization is responsible for safeguarding the regime and controls swathes of the country’s economy. Its expeditionary arm, the Quds Force, outlawed by Canada since 2012, is responsible for planning attacks abroad and supporting proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Lantsman, who has been outspoken against Iran and its proxies, was reacting to a Nov. 18 Globe and Mail report on the alleged plot against Cotler. Cotler has since confirmed the report to CBC News.
The Globe says the RCMP informed Cotler on Oct. 26 he was facing an “imminent threat of assassination within 48 hours from Iranian agents.” The report, based on an anonymous source, said legal authorities were aware of two suspects involved in the plot but their whereabouts are unknown.
The source said the RCMP told Cotler on Nov. 14 the threat against him had been significantly lowered.
Cotler served as a Liberal MP in Montreal from 1999 to 2015 and held the role of minister of justice and attorney general under Paul Martin from 2003 to 2006. He has been a staunch defender of Israel and had advocated for the listing of the IRGC as a terrorist entity.
Cotlter currently serves as the international chair for the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
The Epoch Times reached out to the RCMP and the Wallenberg Centre for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
Another outspoken MP on the matter, Kevin Vuong, criticized Canada’s policy on the Middle East in reaction to the Globe’s report on Cotler.
“The Islamic regime in Iran plotted to kill Irwin Cotler. The Trudeau government cannot continue to be a doormat & must respond—being a doormat is not a policy,” said Independent MP Kevin Vuong on the X platform.
Vuong suggested immigration should be tightened to prevent IRGC agents from “abusing our refugee system.” A number of Iranian officials living in Canada are facing immigration probes and deportation, Global News has reported.
Ottawa announced in September it was expanding its ban on Iranian senior officials seeking to enter to Canada, making those who worked for Tehran up to year 2003 inadmissible. The previous cut-off date was 2019.
US Plot
News of the alleged plot targeting Cotler surfaced shortly after the U.S. government announced charges against an IRGC asset and two local operatives on a separate case.
The U.S. Department of Justice said earlier this month Iranian asset Farhad Shakeri and his associates plotted to assassinate president-elect Donald Trump and a U.S. citizen publicly opposed to the Iranian government.
While in office in 2020, Trump had authorized a drone strike in Iraq killing the leader of Iran’s IRGC-Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani. Trump said Soleimani was “plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel.”
Soleimani had been the architect of Iran’s strategy in the region, overseeing Iranian-sponsored militias in Iraq involved in targeting coalition forces.