INTERNACIONAL
Iranian sleeper cells may be targeting opponents on Canadian soil
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OTTAWA, Canada – While Iran’s retaliatory military attacks against Israel have ended, the Canadian government department responsible for national security is monitoring «the residual impact of the evolving situation in the Middle East,» according to a spokesperson for Public Safety Canada.
«Canada’s law enforcement agencies remain on alert,» Noémie Allard said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital in which she indicated that the current national terrorism threat level in Canada is «medium, meaning that a violent extremist attack is a realistic possibility at this time.»
Meanwhile, Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian justice minister and attorney general and human-rights advocate who has been targeted by the Iranian regime told Fox News Digital in an interview that the Islamic Republic is intensifying its campaign of «massive domestic oppression» against its opponents at home and could embark on «transnational repression» against its opponents abroad.
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Iranian regime opponents in Toronto, Canada held a pro-Israel rally following the terror group Hamas attacking the Jewish state. (Courtesy of Emily Schafer)
A longtime critic of the Iranian clerical regime, Cotler has been under round-the-clock Royal Canadian Mounted Police protection since 2023 when Canadian intelligence officials identified a death threat against him from Iran.
«Iranian diaspora groups, human rights defenders, journalists, Jews and Israelis have all become potential targets,» Cotler told Fox News Digital in an interview. «This is a moment in which we need to be on alert.»
He noted that this week, three political prisoners were executed in Iran over charges of espionage for Israel, and during the 12-day war with Israel, another 700 Iranians were arrested under allegations that they collaborated with Israel.
Montreal-born Cotler, an 85-year-old international human rights lawyer who established the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights 10 years ago, is trying to secure the release of Ahmadreza Djalali – a Swedish Iranian physician accused of being an Israeli spy, who had been imprisoned for nine years at Iran’s notorious Evin Prison in Tehran until this week when he was moved to an undisclosed location. He is facing what Cotler described as «an imminent threat of execution.»
FILE- Members of the Iranian revolutionary guard march during a parade. The IRGC is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department. A large part of its work is to covertly operate outside of Iran. (Reuters.) (Reuters)
He fears that sleeper cells have been activated in Canada to target those who oppose the Iranian regime and is urging the Canadian government to prioritize the establishment of an independent agency to address external threats of repression and assassination from such rogue countries as Iran, China and Russia.
Cotler also noted that Iranian-born Canadian human rights lawyer Kaveh Shahrooz, who he said has also been targeted by the Iranian regime, believes the number of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) agents operating in Canada are «underrepresented» and «that the threat is greater than we appreciate.»
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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.
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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.
INTERNACIONAL
DOJ silent on whether NYC politician who allegedly assaulted ICE officer will face charges
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As the New York City mayoral results roll in, the Department of Justice is remaining silent on whether it will press charges against city comptroller and former Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander, who allegedly assaulted a federal immigration officer inside a courthouse.
A spokesperson for the DOJ replied to Fox News Digital’s inquiry in an emailed statement, simply saying, «Unfortunately, we are not able to provide any additional information.»
Video footage taken of Lander’s arrest, which was on June 17, shows a chaotic scene in which Lander is hanging onto Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as they escorted a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza. He repeatedly asked officials if they had a judicial warrant.
«I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant!» Lander said in the video. «Where is it?! Where is the warrant?!»
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New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested by DHS agents on June 17, 2025. (Brad Lander/X)
The video shows federal officials eventually separate Lander from the immigrant whom the officials were targeting, and they proceed to handcuff Lander. He can be heard repeatedly insisting they do not have the authority to arrest him. One agent seemed to say that he was obstructing an arrest, to which he replied, «I’m not obstructing. I’m standing right here in the hallway. I asked to see the judicial warrant.»
Hours later, Lander walked out of the federal courthouse where he was being held alongside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. During a news conference outside the courthouse, Hochul said that charges against Lander had been dropped, though the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said it was «continuing to investigate» Lander’s actions.
«The safety and security of official proceedings, government officials, law enforcement officers, and all members of the public who participate in them is a core focus of our Office,» said Nick Biase, chief of public affairs for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. «The Department of Justice will prosecute violations of federal law.»
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New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander, the latest politician to be swept up in President Donald Trump’s immigration raids, is arrested at an immigration court, in New York City, June 17, 2025 in this screen grab from a video obtained from social media. (New York City Comptroller’s Office/via REUTERS)
At the time of the incident, Lander was running for the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, a race in which he ended up placing third. Though he was hailed as a hero by progressives, some accused him of purposely getting himself arrested for political clout.
Joe Borelli, a former New York City councilman and GOP political operative, told Fox News Digital that he believes Lander’s arrest was a «staged event.»
«Election day is a week from today, and early voting has begun. Make no mistake, the purpose was to get the headlines that he’s getting,» said Borelli. «It’s instant name recognition and establishing even stronger liberal bona fides.»
Speaking with Fox News after the incident, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused Democrat politicians, including Lander, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, of being purposely disruptive to «get their 15 minutes of fame… off the backs of our ICE law enforcement officers.»
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Then New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander and the now-Democratic mayoral nominee Zorhan Mamdani appeared on «The Late Show» on the eve of the Democratic rank-choice primary. (Screenshot/CBS)
«We won’t stand for it in this administration,» said McLaughlin. «If you lay hands on an officer or impede their enforcement action, you will be arrested as just as we saw here.»
Weeks later, as New York City released its ranked choice election results, representatives for the Department of Justice declined to say whether the agency was still investigating the incident or whether it was considering charges against Lander.
The DOJ has similarly declined to comment on whether it will file charges against Padilla, who was temporarily detained after interrupting a press conference held by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles on June 12.
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Sen. Alex Padilla is pushed out of the room as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem holds a news conference regarding the recent protests in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
Padilla was pushed out of the room by the Secret Service and briefly arrested after trying to ask the secretary a question in the middle of her remarks.
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A DOJ spokesperson replied via email to Fox News Digital’s inquiry about Padilla, saying, «No comment here.»
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
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A Siberian cult leader who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ was sentenced to 12 years in a Russian prison camp after his conviction for physically and financially harming his followers.
Sergei Torop, a former traffic policeman known to his followers as «Vissarion,» meaning «he who gives new life,» and two aides used psychological pressure to extract money from his followers and cause serious harm to their mental and physical health, Reuters reported.
Torop, 64, set up the Church of the Last Testament in a remote part of Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region in 1991, the year the Soviet Union broke up.
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Vissarion, who has proclaimed himself a new Christ, conducts a service during the Holiday of Good Fruit feast in the village of Obitel Rassveta, southeast of Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. (Reuters/Ilya Naymushin)
He was one of three men convicted Monday in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. Torop and Vladimir Vedernikov were sentenced to 12 years, and Vadim Redkin was sentenced to 11 years in a maximum-security prison camp.
All three men were arrested in 2020 in a helicopter raid that involved the FSB security service, the successor agency to the Soviet KGB.
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Members of the religious sect led by Vissarion, who has proclaimed himself a new Christ, take part in a procession on the eve of the Holiday of Good Fruit celebration in the Russian village of Petropavlovka. (Reuters/Ilya Naymushin )
A bearded self-styled mystic with long hair, Torop claimed to have been «reborn» to convey the word of God. He attracted thousands of followers, some of whom flocked to live in a settlement known as the «Abode of Dawn» or «Sun City» at a time when Russia was battling poverty and lawlessness, according to Reuters.
He told his followers not to eat meat, smoke, drink alcohol or swear and to stop using money.
Investigators said the men brought «moral harm» to 16 people, damage to the physical health of six people and moderate damage to another person’s health.
Members of the religious sect of Vissarion, who has proclaimed himself a new Christ, take part in the Holiday of Good Fruit feast in Siberia. (Reuters/Ilya Naymushin )
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Vedernikov had also been accused of committing fraud, the RIA state news agency reported.
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