Irwin Cotler says Iran assassination plot should be ‘wake-up call’ to world

Former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler says an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate him should serve as a “wake-up call” for democracies around the world to combat transnational repression and violence by Iran and other hostile 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 they had received “information of an imminent assassination attempt within the next 48 hours” while he was in Montreal to attend an event marking the 60th anniversary of his law class at McGill University.

“My security was intensified for those next 48 hours,” he said. His security was then lowered from the “highest level” several days ago, he added, though it’s unclear to him what changed.

“I then read — I have not been told — I then read that two suspects may have been apprehended.”

The Globe and Mail first reported on the alleged plot against Cotler on Monday, and that a source said law enforcement was aware of two suspects but it was not clear if they were arrested or fled the country. The report said Cotler was advised last week that the threat against him had been “significantly lowered.”

Cotler has been under 24-hour RCMP protection since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, which receives backing from Iran. He told Global News he was first informed of an “imminent and lethal threat on my life” upon arriving in Montreal from a trip to Washington, D.C., with his wife in November 2023, and his security detail began “immediately” afterward.

“The protection I’ve had has been exemplary,” he said.

“They accompany me wherever I go. Even if I go to the barber shop or if I go for my medical treatment under dialysis, they are with me all the time.”

When he later learned the threat came from Iran, he said he wasn’t surprised, given his years-long advocacy for Iranian human rights and criticism of the Iranian regime.

He began lobbying the international community 15 years ago to list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity. The Canadian government did so in June, following months of mounting political pressure.

Cotler said he’s “noticed a pattern” of increased alleged assassination plots against Iranian dissidents and western political critics of the regime on foreign soil, alongside a crackdown on dissent at home, including executions and abductions of dual nationals back to Iran.

“You have really a confluence of intensified domestic repression, intensified transnational repression, the phenomenon of assassinations as part of that transnational repression and the compelling and urgent need for the community of democracies to hold the Iranian regime to account,” he said.

“At the same time, as we express our support and solidarity with the Iranian people that are under increased assault.”

U.S. intelligence agencies saw increased Iranian death threats against U.S. president-elect Donald Trump during his campaign this year, and the U.S. Justice Department has indicted multiple alleged hired assassins who prosecutors say were tasked to carry out Iranian plots to kill Trump.

Earlier this month, an unsealed U.S. indictment revealed two men were allegedly recruited by an IRGC contact to follow and kill prominent Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, who has endured multiple Iranian murder-for-hire plots foiled by law enforcement. The indictment alleged that same IRGC contact had been tasked with planning an assassination plot against Trump ahead of the U.S. election.

Cotler said the alleged plots against Alinejad, who he called a friend and colleague, and himself are part of the increasing pattern of repression against critics of Iran.

Trump has taken a hardline stance against Iran and earned the regime’s ire after his first administration carried out a strike that killed IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani in early 2020.

Cotler said he expects Trump to continue that approach when he returns to the White House next year, though he noted the incoming president is “unpredictable.”

“If the past is prologue, we might see intensified sanctions again the Iranian regime, and I think we’ll find an intensified response to hold the Iranian regime accountable,” he said.

He hopes Canada and other countries follow suit and make transnational repression and assassinations a top priority at next year’s G7 summit, which Canada is hosting.

Canada has been facing growing allegations of foreign interference from not just Iran but also China, Russia and India. The government has been vocal about alleged ties between New Delhi and Indian consular officials in Canada and recent murder-for-hire plots against Sikh nationalists on Canadian soil, including the assassination last year of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.

Iran has been accused of hiring Hells Angels members in Canada to carry out killings, and immigration officials have found 16 senior Iranian regime members illegally living in Canada to date.

Cotler called for a separate independent government agency to combat cases of foreign interference and repression abroad.

“I see this as a phenomenon not related to me personally, but to the larger threatening concern of transnational repression and assassination,” he said.

“This has to be seen as a wake-up call for the community of democracies because this is a direct threat to our security, to our democracy and to our human rights.”