Jewish groups want Ottawa to ban militia allegedly tied to Toronto shootings

U.S. prosecutors say a member of Kata’ib Hezbollah told an undercover officer that his people were behind recent shootings at a Toronto synagogue and the U.S. consulate. The pro-Iran Shia militia based in Iraq is not on Canada’s list of terrorist entities.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Canadian Families of Victims of October 7 want it added, along with Palestine Action Canada and Masar Badil, in a campaign launching Friday on the International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism.

None of the three is on the list, which Public Safety Canada last updated July 28.

One of the requests is already before the public safety minister after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wrote to Gary Anandasangaree on Aug. 2 asking him to recommend that Kata’ib Hezbollah be listed immediately. “Yet it is still not listed as a terrorist entity in Canada,” Poilievre wrote.

Listing is a Governor in Council decision, made on the public safety minister’s recommendation. Once a group is on the list, banks must freeze its money and it becomes a crime to knowingly handle its property, fund it, recruit for it or travel to join it.

Jacqui Rivers Vital, whose daughter Adi was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, said that Canadians need to realize that eight of their fellow citizens were among the dead.

“Terrorism doesn’t end when an attack is over,” she said in a news release. “It leaves families forever changed and ripples through entire communities long after the headlines have disappeared.”

Noah Shack, chief executive of CIJA, said in an interview that the campaign is meant to galvanize Canadians and press Ottawa to ensure terrorists and their proxies “find no safe haven here in Canada.”

“We’re seeing a convergence of terrorism, criminal actors here in Canada, a rise of hate-motivated attacks, foreign entities contracting out shootings and potentially arson attacks as well,” he said. “It’s not only individuals who are targeted in acts of terror, it’s our way of life as Canadians that’s under threat.”

The campaign describes Kata’ib Hezbollah as having claimed responsibility for attacks in Canada. It cites a Global News report that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, arrested in May for allegedly directing attacks in Europe, told an undercover officer that his people were behind the Toronto synagogue and consulate shootings earlier this year.

A federal threat assessment obtained by Global News under the Access to Information Act said a group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya had claimed responsibility for attacks in Europe, including an arson at a London synagogue. U.S. prosecutors allege that group is a front for Kata’ib Hezbollah.

Canadian authorities have not publicly linked the Toronto shootings to Iran, Global News reported.

CIJA and the Canadian Families of Victims of October 7 say Palestine Action Canada has targeted strategic industries and that its counterpart in the United Kingdom was designated a terrorist organization there. Britain proscribed Palestine Action in July 2025 and a London court ruled that ban unlawful in February.

They describe the third target of their campaign, Masar Badil, as acting on behalf of Samidoun, which Canada listed as a terrorist entity in October 2024.

The campaign also asks Ottawa to criminalize the wilful promotion of terrorism and to make membership in a listed entity an offence, following the U.K. framework. It asks for more resources for police and intelligence agencies, and for enforcement of existing listings, including the deportation of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials living in Canada. Canada listed the IRGC in June 2024.

The Integrated Threat Assessment Centre warned in March that a violent extremist attack on Canada’s Jewish community was a “realistic possibility” over the following six months, according to a report obtained by The Globe and Mail . A second assessment, dated April 2, said it was a realistic possibility that Iran had directed or enabled criminal violence in Canada, Global News reported.

Toronto police charged a man last month with participating in or contributing to the activities of a terrorist group. Ahmad Hassan Hajahmad, 33, is alleged to have used amplification devices at two demonstrations in 2024 to make public statements that “advocated for the detestation and harm against” members of the Israeli and Jewish communities, police said.

A joint investigation with the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team gathered evidence supporting an allegation that Hajahmad acted for the benefit of and in association with Hamas. He was arrested July 21 and a publication ban limits further detail.

Shack said anti-Israel demonstrations in Canada have featured calls for Jews to be deported and shouts of support for banned terrorist organizations.

“These are not just protests, this is open-air radicalization, and we need to take it very seriously,” he said.

“Canadians have been targeted all around the world by terror and their memories demand action.”

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