David #ArmsEmbargoNOW Heap

We have written to the CBC requesting a change to the misleading title of their article "Why a spate of gun-for-hire shootings in Toronto were likely paid for by Iran." What the investigation in the article confirms is that the shootings are linked by a multi-layered gun-for-hire network. What is not established through the facts in the article is any concrete link to Iran. Instead, this appears to be entirely in reference to intelligence reports from Canada (CSIS), the FBI, and the UK, which have raised concerns regarding alleged Iranian-linked plots against Jewish-Canadians. These reports themselves originate from an American federal court complaint which alleges that two attacks in Canada were ordered by an Iraqi national named Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi with potential links to Iran, who had been arrested in Turkey and extradited to the United States. The complaint cites multiple conversations between al-Saadi and an undercover FBI agent. These are allegations based on undercover FBI operations, not criminal findings. Given the fact that the courts have not decided on a verdict, there is still no conclusive evidence connecting Iran to the shootings in Canada. Unfortunately, the article does not discuss the unconfirmed status of these allegations, but appears to treat them as sufficient evidence to support the article’s thesis, as reflected in the article’s title. Reporting this as “likely” based on the evidence to date unfortunately adds fuel to rising Islamophobia in Canada, whose proponents use these anti-Iran conspiracies to normalize and justify anti-Muslim hate.