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Terry Newman: As Iran's backed into a corner, Canadian Jews and anti-regime activists face growing threat of violence

A spate of Jewish- and Iranian-owned businesses and houses of worship have been hit by gunfire in recent days

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There appears to be a dark storm gathering over not only Jewish communities in Canada, but Iranian-Canadians who oppose the Islamic regime.

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Late Monday night, gunfire struck the Temple Emanu‑El synagogue in Toronto, leaving several bullet holes in its windows. This followed a shooting on Sunday morning, in which multiple rounds were fired into an undisclosed business in Markham, Ont., just north of Toronto. Police have advised the community that they are aware of concerns that these violent incidents may be linked to what’s happening in the Middle East.

Terry Newman: As Iran's backed into a corner, Canadian Jews and anti-regime activists face growing threat of violence Back to video

These incidents in the Toronto area are not isolated. They are part of a pattern of violence, which appears to be escalating due to events in the Mideast. It also shows that law enforcement and governments are in over their heads.

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While no one was injured in these two recent events, that doesn’t mean the only damage is broken glass. Intimidation and terror appears to be the aim of these attacks and previous ones like them — at least up until now — but they seem to be getting more violent and aggressive.

And it isn’t only the Jewish community that appears to be affected. The Saliwan Boxing gym in Thornhill, Ont., which is owned by an Iranian-Canadian, was also hit by gunfire early Sunday morning. While York Regional Police believe the shooting was targeted, they haven’t yet confirmed a motive for the attack, which left the gym’s entrance riddled with bullet holes and broken glass.

But the gym’s owner, Salar Gholami, believes his business was targeted because he is an anti-Iranian regime activist and that agents of the Islamic Republic carried out the attack.

“​​According to the supreme leader’s (ruling), they had said this themselves before, that we will punish those who organize rallies and demonstrations abroad, and this is part of the IRGC’s policies,” said Gholami, who helped organize two recent protests against the Iranian regime that were attended by hundreds of thousands of people.

In a video posted to Facebook, Gholami is seen standing in front of his gym’s boarded up windows, saying, “This is so serious, a clear message for the Government of Canada. When they open the door for Islamic Republic, they come inside, and you can see they are gangsters, they come in and support the terrorists.

“Here is the school. We have a lot of teenager and a lot of kids.… Seventeen bullets means 17 bodies.… You must protect your citizens. I’m Iranian. A world without Islamic Republic is better place for everyone. Not Just for Iranian.”

Gholami’s concerns about the Iranian regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are justified. Although Iran and its leadership have been designated as state sponsors of terror for years, and the IRGC was put on the terrorist watch list in 2024, Global News reported last spring that immigration officials had identified 20 suspected senior Iranian officials living in the country. And now that the regime is collapsing, there are concerns that more will attempt to flee to Canada.

But it wasn’t as if this couldn’t have been predicted. Iranian-Canadians have been sounding the alarm about people with links to the regime entering Canada for years. Mojdeh Shahriari, a human rights lawyer in Vancouver whose organization, StopIRGC, has received more than 200 reports about regime members and affiliates in this country, was interviewed by the CBC back in 2023 and did not mince words: “They’re terrorists.… Do you want these people to roam around in Canada unchecked? Are you OK with that? I don’t think so.”

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The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs notes that the Jewish and Iranian communities share common bonds, as both have been terrorized by Iran and its proxies. The group also pointed out that there is a stark contrast between rallies held by anti-regime activists and those held by anti-Israel activists.

Having gone to both types of protests, I agree. Even Toronto police have remarked that the anti-Islamic regime protests held in February were “safe” and incident-free, despite their large numbers. The same cannot be said of many pro-Palestinian rallies. According to a January report in the Grind, citing data from the Legal Support Committee, since October 2023, 170 people in Toronto have been arrested “as a result of Palestine solidarity actions.”

After attending the “No War in Iran” protest held by the Palestinian Youth Movement in Montreal last weekend, which took place alongside a much larger protest held by Iranians celebrating the killing of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, I can tell you that many of the people I’ve see taking to the streets of Montreal on a weekly basis and accusing Israel of “genocide” also came out to support the Islamic regime last weekend, with “Hands Off Iran” posters.

While I assume our governments and law-enforcement agencies are not actually OK with regime members operating on Canadian soil, or possible related attacks on Iranian and Jewish businesses, it’s not clear that they understand the magnitude of the problem in front of them and the inter-connectedness of the concerns of both communities. Nor is it clear that they have a plan to deal with our country’s growing threat of Islamic terror.

The common bonds shared by Jews and Iranians in Canada are the same bonds shared by every Canadian who believes in democracy and fundamental human rights. As Gholami said, a “world without the Islamic Republic is better place for everyone — not Just for Iranian people, for everyone.”

National Posttnewman@postmedia.comTwitter.com/TLNewmanMTL

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