Juno News - June 25, 2025


Former Liberal minister warns of Iranian sleeper cells


Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

179.09125

Word count

2,223

Sentence count

93

Harmful content

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

A former Liberal attorney general is raising the alarm that Iranian sleeper cells in Canada may target regime dissidents. The United Conservative Party held on to Old Stidsbury Three Hills in a recent by-election in Alberta. The Oshawa City Council killed a motion which would have formally requested prosecutors and police enforce existing drug laws.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 A former Liberal Attorney General is raising the alarm that Iranian sleeper cells in Canada
00:00:09.180 may target regime dissidents. The United Conservative Party held on to Old Stidsbury
00:00:14.000 Three Hills in a recent by-election in Alberta. The Oshawa City Council killed a motion which
00:00:18.940 would have formally requested prosecutors and police enforce existing drug laws.
00:00:23.540 Hello Canada, it's Wednesday June 25th and this is the True North Daily Brief.
00:00:27.200 I'm Isaac Lamoureux. And I am Alex Zoltan. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.
00:00:32.600 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:00:39.420 Former Attorney General and Liberal Justice Minister Erwin Kotler is raising alarms about the presence
00:00:44.660 of Iranian sleeper cells residing in Canada as tensions rise in the Middle East. Kotler said
00:00:49.720 these covert agents could be activated to target critics of Tehran within Canada. Kotler has been
00:00:55.120 an outspoken critic of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and was allegedly the target of an
00:00:59.900 assassination plot last year. He told the Globe and Mail on Tuesday, quote,
00:01:04.200 Right now, their policy is to target Jews and others abroad. We also know that they activate 0.98
00:01:09.140 sleeper cells that are already present in the country. Israeli media reports also allege that
00:01:14.160 senior Iranian regime officials were attempting to seek asylum in Canada following the Israeli military
00:01:19.100 strikes on Iran earlier this month. Kotler also stressed the need for the Canadian Security
00:01:23.940 intelligence service to collaborate with all levels of law enforcement in the coming weeks
00:01:27.760 to avoid, quote, any untoward Iranian penetration at this time. CSIS said in a report last week that
00:01:33.600 the agency, quote, continues to investigate threats to life emanating from the Islamic Republic of Iran
00:01:39.160 based on credible intelligence. The spy agency noted how Iran predominantly uses proxies to target
00:01:44.920 its enemies in Canada, including criminal networks and, quote, may increase depending on developments in
00:01:50.340 the Middle East and the Iranian regime's own threat perceptions. According to former RCMP Commissioner
00:01:56.360 Bob Paulson, police and CSIS will be lit up in their search for activated sleeper cells in other
00:02:02.320 illicit networks with ties to Iran, as well as lone wolf attacks. So, Alex, with mass immigration, 0.95
00:02:08.120 there is a large Iranian diaspora. But how many of those are connected with the IGRC or the Islamic
00:02:13.820 Republic in Iran government? Well, CBSA told us that as of June 6, 2025, under the designation of
00:02:20.820 the Iranian regime, approximately 17,800 applicants were reviewed for potential inadmissibility. The 131
00:02:28.480 visas also being canceled by the IRCC. 115 investigations have been opened by the CBSA, and additional
00:02:35.940 investigations will be opened as new information becomes available. 49 investigations have been concluded
00:02:41.140 by the CBSA, which means that the individuals in question were either not in Canada, or determined to be a
00:02:47.000 senior official in the Iranian regime, and therefore not inadmissible for this reason. The remaining cases are
00:02:52.720 subject to ongoing investigations or enforcement action. 20 persons have been reported inadmissible by the CBSA for
00:02:58.400 being a senior official in the Iranian regime, with 19 cases involving individuals in Canada that have been or will be
00:03:05.900 sent to the immigration division of the IRB for inadmissibility hearings. Three referrals were
00:03:10.760 drawn by the CBSA before the case could proceed any further. The CBSA has requested the scheduling of
00:03:16.200 12 of these cases, while the rest continue to undergo preparations prior to being sent for scheduling. Of
00:03:21.400 these 12 cases, five inadmissibility hearings have been concluded, resulting in decisions by the ID. Three
00:03:27.720 individuals were found inadmissible for being prescribed senior officials and issued deportation orders. One has been
00:03:33.720 removed from Canada. Two individuals were found not admissible by the immigration department, and CBSA has
00:03:39.160 filed their appeal to the immigration appeal division in both cases. One case has subsequently been withdrawn by the
00:03:45.160 CBSA, and six cases are ongoing. For further information on the implementation of the designation and
00:03:51.160 actions taken to date, you can consult the website of the CBSA as well as border measures to keep war criminals out of Canada.
00:03:57.720 The United Conservative Party has held on to Old Stitsbury Three Hills, fending off a challenge from the newly 1.00
00:04:06.120 formed Republican Party of Alberta by a large margin. The RPA, Republican Party of Alberta, ran its leader Cam Davies
00:04:13.080 against UCP candidate Tara Sawyer, who ultimately secured a decisive victory. Some residents told True
00:04:18.680 North they thought that prior to the Republican Party of Alberta popping up, the Alberta UCP would garner 80% of
00:04:24.600 the vote. With all of the new polls now reporting, and a total of 15,318 votes cast in the riding,
00:04:31.240 Sawyer received 9,363 votes, or 61.12%, while Davies of the RPA earned 2,705 votes, or 15.6% of the vote,
00:04:42.280 falling well behind the NDP candidate. Alberta NDP candidate Beverly Taves finished second with 3,061 votes,
00:04:49.400 or just under 20%, while the Wild Rose Loyalty Coalition's Bill Tufts came in with just
00:04:54.360 189 votes, or 1.23%. The race marked the Republican Party's first electoral test,
00:05:00.040 its formation, earlier this year. Speaking to Juneau News earlier in the campaign,
00:05:04.120 Sawyer warned that splitting the vote on the right could inadvertently hand the riding to the Alberta
00:05:08.680 NDP. Davies' campaign focused on taking a strong stance against Ottawa and Prime Minister Mark Carney.
00:05:14.440 He said, quote, Mark Carney wrote the book on how to be a socialist. Trudeau might have just read a
00:05:19.640 couple pages. This man is dangerous, and he's focused on a mission to fundamentally alter Canada
00:05:24.840 in a way that isn't helpful to Alberta. So Isaac, do the results in Old Stitsbury 3 Hells raise
00:05:30.040 concerns about splitting the right-wing vote? Well, Alex, I actually think the right answer is yes
00:05:34.760 and no. Obviously, splitting the vote did not alter the results of any of the three Alberta ridings,
00:05:41.000 meaning if every single vote for the Republican Party of Alberta were for the UCP in all three of the
00:05:45.320 by-elections, the results would be the same, with the Alberta NDP still winning Edmonton Ellerslie
00:05:50.360 and Edmonton Strathcona and, of course, the UCP still winning Old Stitsbury 3 Hills.
00:05:54.840 So vote splitting was not concerning this time around from a results perspective. However,
00:05:59.880 I was watching the results come in live in Olds at the UCP watch party, and interestingly,
00:06:05.160 former MLA Nathan Cooper, who resigned the seat in Olds after he was promoted to be Alberta's
00:06:09.640 representative in Washington, was delivering the results as they came in and discussing them.
00:06:13.560 And at one point, with only a few polling stations reporting,
00:06:16.600 it did look like vote splitting could have been concerning in Edmonton Ellerslie,
00:06:20.440 as at the time, the UCP and RPA totals were higher than the NDP, but the NDP had a higher
00:06:26.120 total than the UCP. Obviously, that didn't end up being the case, but for future provincial
00:06:30.280 by-elections and the provincial election, this could be a different story in tight ridings.
00:06:35.000 Isaac, should the Alberta NDP be happy about the election results of these three by-elections?
00:06:40.440 Yeah, Alex, I think these by-elections went about as good as the Alberta NDP could have expected.
00:06:45.720 They certainly expected to win Edmonton Strathcona, despite UCP candidate Darby Crouch's optimism,
00:06:51.720 especially considering the Conservatives have not won that riding in over four decades.
00:06:56.280 I was less confident the NDP would win Edmonton Ellerslie, as it appeared UCP candidate Naresh
00:07:01.320 Bardwaj had a lot of support, and I don't think the NDP think they had a chance in Olds,
00:07:05.800 given projections expected around 80% of the vote for right-wing parties, so even splitting the vote
00:07:10.840 would not have resulted in an NDP victory, and this was the case. Also, the NDP, as you said,
00:07:15.640 narrowly got more votes than the RPA in that riding.
00:07:18.440 On that note, Isaac, how did the Republican Party of Alberta react to the result?
00:07:22.360 Yeah, so I obviously interviewed RPA leader Cam Davies right after the results came in,
00:07:28.040 and he framed the results as a significant win for his brand-new party and emphasized
00:07:33.240 his long-term momentum. He was surprisingly upbeat, though, I found, about the outcome
00:07:37.720 in Olds, Didsbury, Three Hills. He said, quote,
00:07:40.040 We're super stoked to see that a large number of Albertans chose to mark Republican for the
00:07:44.280 first time in their life. The first voters for a Republican Party in Canada, in fact,
00:07:49.000 were cast tonight. He also stressed that the campaign's timeline was short,
00:07:53.080 and that the party is just beginning. He said, quote,
00:07:55.800 Two months ago, we were just barely getting started. This is the start line, not the finish
00:07:59.880 line. We are just rolling up our sleeves, just getting started.
00:08:02.920 He also said the UCP lost some support to his party, which he suggested will continue to grow.
00:08:07.720 Still, when I was talking to residents in Olds on Monday, I think there was an expectation that
00:08:12.280 the RPA would perform better than they did, so we'll have to see how Albertans react and whether
00:08:17.000 support will continue to grow for the party, or if it can win a future by-election, or result in
00:08:21.960 splitting the vote, where without them, a left-wing party that wins would not have been victorious.
00:08:29.480 Oshawa City Council was poised to vote on a motion that would formally request the Federal
00:08:33.800 Prosecution Service to enforce drug crimes within the city. This move came after years of vandalism,
00:08:39.400 attacks, and other related criminal activity. However, a procedural issue raised by a councillor
00:08:44.680 ultimately led to the motion being defeated before it could be voted upon. The motion, titled
00:08:50.040 Controlled Substances Within the City of Oshawa, would have applied citywide but primarily targeted
00:08:55.240 the downtown core. It also asked the Durham Regional Police Service to follow the efforts of
00:09:00.280 Edmonton and Peterborough's policies in arresting and seizing drugs to deter flagrant drug use.
00:09:05.320 Before reaching a vote, one councillor, Derek Guyberson, raised a point of order, stating that the
00:09:10.120 motion breached Supreme Court case law. Due to the point of order, the decision was handed to the chair,
00:09:15.400 in this case, Mayor Dan Carter, who agreed. Guyberson told True North he argued that the
00:09:19.880 motion was illegal, as it was a quote, attempt to direct both prosecutors and law enforcement,
00:09:25.240 and that it violated long-held separations of politics, the judiciary, law enforcement,
00:09:30.040 and prosecutors. The motion, however, was checked and approved by the city solicitor,
00:09:34.200 who found the motion to be legal. When asked what procedural law was violated,
00:09:38.200 Guyberson said his challenge wasn't specific to any procedure by law, but that the motion was quote,
00:09:43.560 contrary to Canada's system of laws. Carter did not respond when asked if it was common
00:09:48.360 to rule a point of order based on the legal opinion of a member of council who is not a lawyer
00:09:53.320 over the opinion of the city solicitor. So Alex, the motion was killed before it could be voted on,
00:09:57.960 but what were advocates of the motion saying, and what issues did they hope it would address?
00:10:02.200 Yeah, so one of the things that we have reported on at True North is the fact that prosecution services
00:10:08.440 of Canada have actually been dropping cases against folks suspected and alleged of drug trafficking,
00:10:15.160 particularly in Ontario. So I think that the purpose of the motion, had it been successful,
00:10:20.440 would have been to enforce action on behalf of those prosecution services. They, in an email
00:10:26.520 exclusively to True North, said that it was due to their requirement to be stewards of public funds.
00:10:32.280 Folks who have been paying close attention to court cases in Ontario might find that explanation
00:10:37.560 troubling, nebulous, and confusing given the very expensive trials that have been conducted in
00:10:43.720 Ontario against protesters, particularly those involved in the anti-Trudeau or anti-mandate protests
00:10:50.520 of 2022. So I think that the motion was well-intentioned and it's unfortunate to see that it didn't pass.
00:10:57.240 In an article that True North published in January of this year, Hamilton Ontario Police Chief Frank
00:11:03.080 Bergen voiced his frustration and disappointment at the Police Services Board meeting after learning
00:11:07.720 that the Public Prosecution Services of Canada dropped 19 drug trafficking charges laid by Hamilton
00:11:13.800 officers earlier in the year. The Public Prosecution Services of Canada handles prosecutions for federal
00:11:20.200 statutes, such as charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, including trafficking. Bergen said
00:11:26.040 many serious cases, notably those involving the trafficking of highly deadly fentanyl, had been stayed or
00:11:32.200 withdrawn without reasonable explanation. When we reached out for comment, the Public Prosecution
00:11:37.880 Services of Canada said, as with all public agencies, we are managing our operations within our allocated
00:11:43.800 budget. This is one of our key responsibilities and is tied to the sound stewardship of public funds.
00:11:49.400 And so the budget cuts are prompting concerns among Ontario Police Services, including in Oshawa,
00:11:55.640 obviously, about why certain drug cases have been stayed or withdrawn since the start of the year,
00:12:00.280 including charges against a Hamilton man who is amongst one of Canada's most wanted.
00:12:08.520 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by
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