“It’s not only an assault on the democratic order but on the national security and the sovereignty of the democracies in which the assassination attempts take place,” Irwin Cotler, a Canadian human-rights advocate and former politician who was the target of an Iranian assassination plot last month, told JNS on Thursday. 

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned the former Liberal Party justice minister on Oct. 26 that he was the target of an “imminent threat of assassination within 48 hours from Iranian agents.”

Canadian security forces foiled the attempt, the details of which were largely covered by the country’s Globe and Mail newspaper on Monday.

“It was the 60th anniversary of my McGill [University] law class on Oct. 26. I was told to skip the reunion and my security was enhanced at that point,” Cotler, 84, recounted by phone from Montreal.

“I read thereafter in a very well-sourced report by the Canadian Globe and Mail, the same media that broke the story on Monday, that it may well have been that two suspects were apprehended. That’s how I found out about events surrounding the threat,” he continued.

“I didn’t go public about it back on Oct. 26, but when the story broke, I was asked by the media if I could confirm it, and I did,” he said. 

On Tuesday, the House of Commons unanimously condemned the assassination attempt and recommended that initiatives be taken to combat it. 

“All parties in the Canadian Parliament condemned it, and it’s important because the threat isn’t only to me personally,” Cotler said. 

“We are witnessing a larger phenomenon of transnational repression and assassination. It includes interference in foreign elections, massive disinformation, cybersecurity warfare, and the targeting of Iranian Diaspora dissidents, journalists and leaders,” he added. 

Notable targets of Iranian threats, Cotler said, include Iranian human rights advocate Masih Alinejad in the U.S. and President-elect Donald Trump. 

“Iran engages in the repression of the Iranian people at the same time that it conducts its transnational repression and assassination campaign,” Cotler said.

“We need a concerted effort by the community of democracies to hold the Iranian regime to account and show solidarity and support for the Iranian people,” he added.

Cotler was first advised of an imminent and lethal threat to his life in November 2023, when arrived at the airport in Montreal after attending the March for Israel in Washington. Some months later, he learned that the source of that threat was Iran, and for the past year, he has been under 24/7 protection. Armored cars are parked outside his home in the Canadian city.

“The restrictions are evident. If I have to get a haircut, law enforcement accompanies me to the barbershop. I am currently undergoing dialysis treatment and they come to that as well,” he said.

“Every aspect of my life is governed by this 24/7 protection. There may be occasions where I am told not to attend a public event due to an increased security risk, even though there may not have been a direct threat until a month ago when I was told not to go to my McGill school reunion,” he continued.

“That was when I had the highest level of protection, which has since decreased, somehow probably in relation to reports that two suspects have been apprehended,” he said.

Cotler told JNS that he will not be silenced.

“I think the whole strategy of transnational repression and assassination is not only to harass but also to intimidate so that myself, being a target, will no longer speak up and advocate,” he said.

“I believe if we do that and allow ourselves to be silenced and intimidated, the Iranian regime will have succeeded. I just go about my work as I always did. I engage in public advocacy which includes combating the Iranian regime’s culture of impunity and holding them to account,” he added.

Cotler said he was pleased when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was finally added to the Canadian terror list, something he had been advocating for for years.

“Canada will be chair of the G7 this year. We need the community of democracies to put the transnational repression and assassination campaign of Iran as a priority on the agenda. Iran has enjoyed a culture of impunity and we must enhance our support to the Iranian people,” he said.

“I wish the Iranian regime would realize they are acting contrary to the best interests of their people and of the great Iranian civilization, and that this regime would cease and desist from its repression and assassination campaign at an international level and from their massive repression of the Iranian people,” he continued.

“If that occurs, the whole international order will be beneficiaries and the Iranian people will begin to enjoy the freedom that was taken away from them under this continuous assault,” Cotler said. 

Cotler said Tehran’s internal repression has recently intensified with the targeting of 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), tortured in Iranian prison.

“Rather than celebrating the fact that one of its citizens was the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize, Iran punishes them. It shows the cruelty of the regime in the way that they act out against their own people, by subjecting them to assault and repression,” Cotler said.