OTTAWA, Canada – Although Iran’s military responses against Israel have concluded, Canada’s governmental body tasked with national security is keeping a close watch on “the ongoing effects of the dynamic situation in the Middle East,” according to a spokesperson from Public Safety Canada.
“Canadian law enforcement continues to remain vigilant,” Noémie Allard stated in a message shared with Fox News Digital. She noted that the national terrorism threat level in Canada is currently “medium, suggesting that a violent extremist attack is a realistic possibility at present.”
In the meantime, Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian justice minister and attorney general, as well as a human-rights advocate who has faced threats from the Iranian regime, mentioned to Fox News Digital in an interview that the Islamic Republic is increasing its campaign of “intense domestic oppression” against dissidents locally and might pursue “international suppression” against its adversaries globally.
Fox News Digital was unable to reach Shahrooz for further comment.
Canada should also follow the lead of the U.S. Justice Department and prosecute those who collaborate with Iranian-led sleeper cells, said Cotler, who in 2008 called for the IRGC to be listed as a terrorist entity – a designation that Canada finally adopted in 2024.
Last October, the Justice Department formally accused Ruhollah Bazghandi, a senior IRGC official, of involvement in a 2022 plot to kill Iranian American dissident Masih Alinejad – a friend of Cotler’s – in New York City.
A sign marking the international border between the United States and Canada is pictured at Peace Arch Historical State Park in Blaine, Washington, on March 5, 2025. (Photo by Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)
During a virtual news conference from the NATO summit at The Hague on Tuesday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said that her government is “very concerned about [both] foreign interference, including the types that were highlighted by” Cotler and “about the Iranian regime,” which is why she said that Canada declared it to be a “terrorist entity” in 2022 and has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 2012.
Anand also said that she had a call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi last Saturday before the U.S. airstrikes against Iran, during which she reaffirmed Canada’s continuing desire to seek accountability from the Islamic Republic for the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 in 2020, which resulted in the deaths of 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
Cotler said that the victims’ families in both Iran and Canada have been “harassed and threatened” since the air tragedy.
On Wednesday, The Globe and Mail reported that the Canada Border Services Agency had identified 20 people deemed inadmissible because they are believed to be senior Iranian officials.
