Beryl Wajsman – The Suburban LJI Reporter

Former Federal Justice Minister and Mount Royal MP Irwin Cotler is under 24-hour RCMP protection because of a threat to his life, two sources informed Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper. The paper broke the story when Mr. Cotler failed to show up for an event at the newspaper’s offices where the son of jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai was presenting the screening of a documentary about his father.

Cotler is one of the world’s leading human rights and Israel advocates. He has represented political prisoners and activists under persecution in countries around the world. The Globe and Mail was not able to learn who or what organization or country threatened Cotler. The Globe is not identifying its sources because, “they were not authorized to speak on the matter.” It reached out to the RCMP which did not respond to questions about the threat. The Suburban attempted to reach Mr. Cotler directly several times but his phone went right to voicemail.The Suburban also contacted the SPVM who said it had no details because as a former federal minister it was the RCMP who had jurisdiction. The RCMP has not yet returned an answer to our inquiry.

In his work he has criticized many foreign governments, including Iran for its conduct in the 2020 shooting-down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, which left about 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents dead, as well as Tehran’s funding of Hamas. Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the Canadian government, carried out the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel that left some 1,400 Israelis dead, with hundreds taken hostage. Several weeks ago he gave a rousing speech at a Montreal rally condemning Hamas and demanding the freeing of the hostages.

Mr. Cotler served as Canada’s special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism from 2020 to 2023, and had regularly warned of a massive rise in antisemitism. Last month he wrote a column in The Globe attacking “Russia, China, Iran and its terrorist proxies – Hamas and Hezbollah – and North Korea which comprise a new authoritarian “axis of evil.”

In 2015, Mr. Cotler founded the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, a Montreal-based organization dedicated to promoting human rights, advocating for political prisoners and combatting injustice around the world. The group works in the memory of Mr. Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved 100,000 Jews during the Second World War by issuing them diplomatic passports and sheltering them in safe houses. n