Canadian authorities foil 'Iranian plot' to kill former justice minister

Irwin Cotler is a long-time human rights campaigner who has represented Iranian political prisoners in court

Irwin Cotler, former Canadian justice minister, speaks in the House of Commons in Ottawa on December 15, 2011. Reuters

Canadian authorities have foiled what they called an Iranian plot to assassinate former justice minister Irwin Cotler, it was revealed on Monday. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the international chairman of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights on October 26 of an imminent plot to kill him, reported The Globe and Mail.

According to sources, authorities knew of at least two people involved in the plan but it is not yet known whether they were arrested. The newspaper said Mr Cotler has been under 24-hour police protection for the past year, with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service telling him he was a high-profile target of Iran, which has denied the allegations.

Kaveh Shahrooz, a senior fellow at the McDonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, said he was shocked but not surprised that Iran would try to do something like this on Canadian soil.

"It's a mix both of shock that this would happen to such a senior figure in Canada, and at the same time a feeling that this was entirely predictable," Mr Shahrooz, an expert in Canadian-Iranian relations, told The National. "Iran's regime has been quite active in carrying out transnational repression against activists, usually of Iranian descent, but sometimes others and so it's entirely predictable that they would go after someone like Irwin Cotler."

Mr Shahrooz, who ran for a conservative nomination in the Richmond Hill riding of Ontario, accused Iran of spreading misinformation to sabotage his efforts.

"The Iranian regime seems to be operating in Canada, it seems to be getting involved in our elections, it seems to be trying to break into our online systems and our computer systems," he said. "It's really very, very troubling that a country like Iran, such a malign international actor, has such free rein to do what it wishes in Canada."

Iran's state news agency described the alleged plot as a "ridiculous propaganda stunt and in line with the campaign to spread false information about Iran".

Mr Cotler, 84, was a member of parliament for a Montreal riding from 1999 to 2015 and campaigned to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organisation – a move Canada made last June. As a lawyer, he has represented Iranian political prisoners in court. He also served as Canada’s first special envoy for Holocaust remembrance and combating anti-Semitism.

The former politician did not respond to The National's request for comment. Iran's mission to the UN also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The news comes after the US this month charged a man accused of involvement in a plot allegedly ordered by the IRGC to assassinate president-elect Donald Trump. Iran has previously called allegations that it was trying to assassinate the president-elect a "third-rate comedy" and reportedly informed President Joe Biden's administration that it was not trying to kill Mr Trump.