Canada foiled Iran plot to assassinate former minister

OTTAWA – The Canadian authorities recently foiled an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Mr Irwin Cotler, a former justice minister who has been a strong critic of Tehran, his organisation said on Nov 18.

The 84-year-old was justice minister and attorney-general from 2003 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2015 but has remained active with many associations that campaign for human rights around the world.

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported that he was informed on Oct 26 that he faced an imminent threat – within 48 hours – of assassination from Iranian agents.

The authorities tracked two suspects in the plot, the paper said, citing an unnamed source.

The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, where Mr Cotler is international chair, confirmed the report in an e-mail to AFP.

Mr Cotler “has no knowledge or details regarding any arrests made”, an organisation spokesman said.

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc declined to comment, telling AFP: “We cannot comment on, nor confirm, specific RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) operations due to security reasons.”

Mr Francois-Philippe Champagne, another senior government minister, called the plot “very concerning”.

Mr Jean-Yves Duclos, the government’s senior minister in Quebec province – where Mr Cotler lives – said it was likely “very difficult for (Cotler), in particular, and his family and friends to hear” about it.

The House of Commons, meanwhile, passed a unanimous motion praising Mr Cotler’s work in defence of human rights and “condemning the death threats against him orchestrated by agents of a foreign regime”.

He had already been receiving police protection for more than a year after the Oct 7, 2023, attack in Israel by Hamas gunmen.

Mr Cotler, who is Jewish and a strong backer of Israel, has advocated globally to have Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps listed as a terrorist entity.

His name reportedly also came up in a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe of a 2022 Iranian murder-for-hire operation in New York that targeted American human-rights activist Masih Alinejad.

Ottawa, which severed diplomatic ties with Iran more than a decade ago, listed the Revolutionary Guard as a banned terror group in June.

It said at the time that the Iranian authorities displayed a consistent “disregard for human rights both inside and outside of Iran, as well as a willingness to destabilise the international rules-based order”.

As a lawyer, Mr Cotler also represented Iranian political prisoners and dissidents.

His daughter Michal Cotler-Wunsh is an Israeli politician and diplomat who previously served as a member of Israel’s Parliament. AFP