The 'Unnoticed' Presence of Islamist Terror Groups in Canada

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre

"Those allegations [accusations of paramilitary group Kata'ib Hezbollah linked to the IRGC] include two attacks here in Canada; the March 10 shooting at the United States consulate in Toronto and an attack against a Canadian synagogue."

"He [Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi] also allegedly said he was running multiple teams and sought help carrying out further attacks against Jewish and other targets in Canada and the United States." 

"There is no justification for the delay [in placing the group with Canada's terrorist list]."

"Jewish Canadians have watched their synagogues, schools and businesses targeted by shootings, vandalism, firebombings and threats."

"Iranian Canadians who escaped the brutality of the Islamic Republic have faced surveillance, harassment and intimidation from the same regime on Canadian soil." 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, Parliamentary opposition

Counter-rally against the Al-Quds day event in Toronto  The Hub

 

The Liberal government of Canada -- under both prime ministers Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney -- has failed to stem the duress under which Canadian Jews have found themselves over the past three years, assailed verbally and physically, threatened and slandered by 'pro-Palestinian' groups in Canadian society led by Palestinian student groups supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran and funded by Qatar. Led by the fundamentalist Islamist focus on jihad. This is a jihad that penetrates Western society through sanctimoniously disingenuous diplomacy that government cannot see through, and the violent jihad of the terrorist battlefield. 

 

While moderate Islamic governments in the Middle East recognize the Muslim Brotherhood and its many offshoots and associates for the threat they represent not only to the West but to their own governance and security, and have taken steps to outlaw it, the West is amenable to its presence, its infiltration through ingratiating itself as a reasonable, moderate representative of Islam to be respected and heeded as a portal to understanding and welcoming the presence of inordinate numbers of Muslims through immigration, refugee intake and migrant presence. 

 

The little-recognized presence of terrorist groups within Western society working to undermine democracy and to silence critics and opponents present the other side of penetrative jihad. These groups, like the members of the Islamic Republican Guard Corps whose presence in Canada affront and concern Canadian Iranians who fled their brutal dictatorial rule in Iran, operate with impunity, with little-to-no 'notice' taken of the menace they represent, by Canada's Liberal government.

 

Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pointed out to Canada's Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree through a letter, that American authorities arrested Mohammad Baqer Saad Daewood Al-Saadi, senior commander of Kata'ib Hezbollah, accused of coordinating dozens of attempted and completed terrorist attacks in Europe and North America. 

 

Founded in 2007, Kata'ib Hezbollah, according to the office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, has some 7,000 to 10,000 members. They operate primarily in Iraq with a purported presence in Bahrain, Iran, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. They were listed in 2009 as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Mr. Poilievre asked the Minister of Safety to investigate whether operatives for the group have established networks in Canada. To further investigate linkages between Iranian terrorist proxies and organized crime. 

 

Further, that it be disclosed the number of operatives connected to the Iranian regime and its proxies that have been identified, denied entry, investigated, detained or removed from Canada. Previously Minister Anandasangaree, pressed by the opposition why the government had deported only one Iranian official from among the dozens known to be present in Canada, the minister cited a requirement to follow due process, to explain the delay. The reality is that of 24 individuals identified as former IRGC officials, one only has been deported.

 

Iran-Inspired Al-Quds Day rally in Toronto    The Hub

 

The Liberals have failed to enforce Canada’s terrorist laws with the urgency and strength Canadians expect. Parliament did not list terrorist entities merely to put their names on a government website. Canadians expect their laws to be enforced to the fullest extent: terrorist assets frozen and seized, financing networks dismantled, and operatives stopped at the border or removed from the country. Yet Canadians have seen little evidence of serious enforcement against the IRGC and other listed terrorist groups threatening our people, our communities and our national interests. A terrorist listing is only as strong as the action that follows it.

Jewish Canadians have watched their synagogues, schools and businesses targeted by shootings, vandalism, firebombings and threats. Iranian Canadians who escaped the brutality of the Islamic Republic have faced surveillance, harassment and intimidation from the same regime on Canadian soil.

A year-long Global News investigation reported that upwards of 700 Iranian regime-linked associates were operating in Canada and threatening the lives of Canadians. The RCMP subsequently acknowledged receiving reports of foreign interference committed by, or at the direction of, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Canadians deserve to know who these individuals are, how they entered Canada and what your government is doing to remove those who pose a threat.

The IRGC was finally listed as a terrorist entity only after years of pressure from Conservatives. Even now, your government has been unable to tell Canadians how many IRGC operatives have been identified, denied entry or removed from the country.

Listing the parent organization means little if its commanders, proxies, financiers and hired criminals remain free to operate here.

You must therefore:

• Immediately list Kata’ib Hezbollah as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code;
• Investigate whether its members, operatives, facilitators or financial networks are operating in Canada;
• Disclose how many individuals connected to the Iranian regime and its proxies have been identified, denied entry, investigated, detained or removed;
• Investigate and disclose any known links between Iranian terrorist proxies and organized crime in Canada; and
• Explain what action Canadian authorities are taking in response to the alleged Kata’ib Hezbollah-directed attacks in Toronto.

Canada must be a safe haven for Canadians, not for the terrorists, agents and proxies sent to silence the victims of the Iranian regime.

Canadians must be free to worship without fear of gunfire. Iranian Canadians must be free to oppose the regime without facing its enforcers here at home. All Canadians deserve a government that stops terrorists before they attack rather than making excuses after the damage is done.

Conservative Party of Canada  

Protesters and counter-protesters demonstrate by the U.S. Consulate during a rally for Al-Quds Day in Toronto, on Saturday, March 14, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan

 

Terrorist Group and Don't Know Where to Peddle Your Wares? Try Canada!

"Enough is enough. Samidoun's ties to the PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] terrorist entity are self-proclaimed and explicit. The group does not even attempt to hide them."

"What is unclear is why the [Liberal] government has yet to take action to outlaw the group's activities in Canada."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, (CIJA) Canada 

 

"We have long alerted the government to Samidoun's incitement to hatred against Canada's Jewish community and affiliation with the PFLP."

"Emboldened by impunity and inaction, Samidoun is now hosting its first major North American demonstration, here in the capital [Ottawa] of our country."

Shimon Koffler Fogel, president, CIJA 

"This conference is not organized by Samidoun."

"Throughout my years here, and I've been here for almost a decade, any kind of Palestinian-themed event here meets some sort of resistance, from either B'nai Brith or other organizations, so we've come to hear all kinds of complaints."

"We work with all kinds of progressive movements here in the city."

Jason St-Laurent, SAW curator

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is honoured to join with the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, in calling all activists, organizers and supporters of Palestine in North America to join us in Ottawa on Algonquin Anishinaabe Land, April 28-30, 2023, for the Liberation Conference. Samidoun Website

The tip-off is the 'progressive' designation and affiliation. The PFLP is a recognized terrorist organization, infamous for its plane highjackings and other high-profile stunts to draw attention to the existence of a 'Palestinian' extremist group whose purpose is the destruction of the State of Israel. As a terrorist entity Canada, among other democratic nations of the world have placed the group on a terrorist list forbidden entry to those countries.

 

Jewish groups, in view of the NGO group calling itself Samidoun, heavily affiliated with the PFLP which purportedly defends the human rights of Palestinians in Israeli prisons (where conditions are such that prisoners may pursue academic upgrades among other 'progressive'-welfare conditions of their imprisonment for major terrorism events) and for whom propaganda slandering Israel and Jews is a major activity -- call on the government to investigate it under Section 83.05(1)(b) of the Criminal Code for acting on behalf of and/or associating with a listed terrorist entity, the PFLP.

The SAW Centre is an avant-garde Ottawa arts centre, preparing to play host to an international conference organized by a shadowy terror-affiliated network whose purpose is defaming Israel preparatory to its destruction. It has wide appeal among 'progressives' and those for whom antisemitism is a natural reaction to the presence of Jews. Yet Public Safety Canada is disinterested in acting in any capacity, whether it be an investigation of the presence of these outlawed terror groups or their purpose harmful to the Canadian-Jewish community in inciting against Jews and Israel.

According to the SAW Centre, the Jewish Federation of Ottawa is busy spreading a "fallacy" about the central role that Samidoun has taken in the conference organization. The Ontario Public Interest Research Group at Carleton University booked the SAW venue, Samidoun simply an endorser of the conference among about 30 "antiwar" and "anti-imperialist" groups organizing and attending the conference whose focus is the victimhood of Palestinians.

 

From its inception in 1973, the artist-run centre SAW has supported politically and socially engaged art, focusing on the performance and media arts.  SAW Website

 

The website for the conference is festooned with Samidoun flags; its European coordinator announced the plans for the event months earlier, the first such conference in North America of "the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement". A fairly new group of Palestinian militants, Masar Badil, who reject Palestinian Authority legitimacy, oppose peace talks with Israel and call for a resumption of the intifada of 1987. After the intifadeh that saw the deaths of both Israelis and Palestinians, 822 Palestinians were executed by their leaders, who charged them with collaborating with Israel.

The co-founder of the group is Khaled Barakat, key in the rejectionist militant movement, who has been resident in Canada off and on for several decades; a ubiquitous figure at Samidoun events globally. According to Israeli intelligence, Barakat is a high-ranking PFLP member, and Samidoun the PFLP's overseas fund-raising and recruitment proxy. Fund raising is vital to Samidoun and they've run into constraints since Visa and MasterCard cut the group off.

Three days before Samidoun was registered as a charitable group with Corporations Canada as a non-profit corporation, Israeli authorities listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity, given its PFLP connections. The event taking place at the SAW Centre this weekend describes itself as focusing on "building the liberation struggle in North America", linking with Indigenous and Black "liberation movements". 

Sessions at the conference include: Anti-Imperialism and the International People's tribunal on U.S. Imperialism; Palestinian Prisoners and the Resistance; Organizing for Return to Palestine; Building the Boycott Movement; and Anti-Zionism: An Anti-Colonial Struggle.

Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stand guard during an Al-Quds Day parade in Beirut on April 14. Photo by Mohamed Azakir/Reuters