Michael Higgins: Did ignoring warnings about terrorism lead to police officer’s death?

The shooting death of Toronto Const. Marc Pinizzotto during the "high-risk" execution of a search warrant on Thursday has been linked to a shooting at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto in March and an FBI terrorism investigation. Photo by Photo via Toronto Police

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The shooting death of Toronto police officer Marc Pinizzotto is another tragic sign that what Prime Minister Mark Carney called the “civic compact” has badly fractured in Canada.

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There are indications that the death of the veteran officer of 18 years service is linked to the unprecedented levels of antisemitism in this country and the extremists behind it who care nothing for Canadian values.

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For years, the Jewish community has been warning about the dangers of radicalized youth and that antisemitism in this country would eventually affect other Canadians.

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Sadly, they have been proved right.

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Pinizzotto, a member of Toronto’s Emergency Task Force, was part of a team carrying out a “high-risk” search warrant early Thursday morning at a Toronto apartment complex.

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During an exchange of gunfire, Pinizzotto was fatally injured.

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The police raid was in connection with a shooting at Toronto’s U.S. Consulate in March when two men fired their guns at the building. Police called it a “national security incident.”

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It now appears that the consulate shooting may have ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a terror group operating in Canada. For years, the Liberals were pressured to list the IRGC as a terror group, but did so only in 2024.

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The designation came six years after the House of Commons, including the Liberals, supported a motion to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity, and four years after the IRGC shot down Ukraine International Airlines’ Flight 752, killing all 176 people onboard, including 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents.

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Appallingly, in March of this year, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree admitted there were at least 24 IRGC members in Canada but only one had been deported.

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And Canada’s report on foreign interference noted that Iran relies on “criminal groups to carry out its activities.”

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Canada has a problem with terrorists and the Liberal government needs to urgently address it.

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U.S. prosecutors believe the consulate shooting was orchestrated by Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a commander of an Iraqi militia called Kataib Hezbollah, which itself is a proxy for the IRGC.

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According to a criminal complaint filed in New York, al-Saadi was “running multiple teams” targeting Jewish sites in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

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“As alleged, for years, al-Saadi committed himself to furthering the terrorist goals of Kata’ib Hizballah and the IRGC, two terrorist organizations dedicated to harming the United States and its allies.

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“As alleged in the complaint, al-Saadi directed and urged others to attack U.S. and Israeli interests and to kill Americans and Jews in the U.S. and abroad, and in doing so advance the terrorist goals of Kata’ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”