RCMP thwarts Iran plot to kill Irwin Kotler

Last month, Canadian security forces thwarted an Iranian plot to assassinate Irwin Kotler, a former Jewish politician and human rights activist. Globe and mail reported on Monday.

A source told the daily that the former Liberal Party justice minister had been warned by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on October 26 that he was the target of an “imminent assassination threat within 48 hours from Iranian agents”.

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The source said authorities were aware of two suspects in the plot, but it was not known whether they had been arrested or fled the country. RCMP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The source claimed Globe and mail that Kotler was told last week that the threat level against him had been significantly downgraded.

Kotler, 84, is reportedly under 24-hour RCMP guard following the Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre led by Hamas in Israel’s northwestern Negev. Canada’s security services told him he was a high-profile target of Tehran, a longtime sponsor of the terror group.

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The protection provided to Kotler by Canadian authorities reportedly included bulletproof cars, armed guards and other measures.

“After October 7, my wife and I attended the March for Israel in Washington, DC. When we got back to Montreal, security asked us not to leave the airport. Security officials spoke to me and reported what were described as imminent and deadly threats without going into further detail,” Kotler said in interview with JNS earlier this year.

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The international jurist then noted that “the community of democratic countries, including Canada, does not understand the threat from Iran.”

Kotler, who served as Canada’s justice minister and attorney general between 2003 and 2006, was on the Islamic Republic’s radar because of his calls to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps terrorist organization.

The Jewish lawyer has also represented Iranian political prisoners and is a strong supporter of Israel. From 2020 to 2023, he was Canada’s Special Envoy for Holocaust Remembrance and Anti-Semitism.

Kotler is currently the international chair of the Canadian Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, which he founded in 2015.

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