Members of Parliament have voted unanimously to salute former justice minister Irwin Cotler for his human rights advocacy work after it was reported Iran plotted to assassinate him.
“We will never stand by while people of whatever political stripe are threatened with death because of their opinions,” Bloc MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe
said in the House of Commons on Nov. 18.
Brunelle-Duceppe tabled the motion in support of Cotler, which cites his fight against racism and anti-Semitism and his political contribution as attorney general and minister of justice.
MPs were reacting to a Nov. 18 Globe and Mail
report on Iran’s alleged plot against Cotler. Cotler has since confirmed the report to CBC News.
The Globe says the RCMP informed Cotler on Oct. 26 that 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.
Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman, who has been outspoken against Iran and its proxies, 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. The 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.
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.
Cotler currently serves as the international chair for the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
The RCMP told The Epoch Times in a statement it could not comment on protection services provided to individuals, nor on the threat faced by Cotler.
“The RCMP does not generally confirm or deny who, or who may not be, subject of an investigation until it is a matter of public record, nor does the RCMP comment on investigations conducted by other countries, therefore we have no further comment at this time,” said spokesperson Robin Percival.
Independent MP Kevin Vuong also reacted to the Globe’s report on Cotler and
criticized Canada’s policy on the Middle East.
“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 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 currently facing immigration probes and deportation.
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.
Editor’s note: This article was updated with information about the motion adopted in the House of Commons and with a statement from the RCMP.
