‘The whole ring is unwinding’: Gunmen-for-hire who targeted U.S. Consulate linked to earlier shootings, source says

Article content

Shots were fired at the U.S. consulate in Toronto in March, but no one was injured, police said. Photo by COLE BURSTON /AFP via Getty Images

Article content

Article content

“We know that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has been using proxies, i.e. cut-outs or guns for hire, right across Western Europe,” said Phil Gurski, a former senior strategic analyst with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) from 2001-2013, specializing in Al Qaeda and Islamic State-inspired violent extremism and radicalization.

Article content

“They can use these wankers, pay them not very much money and say we want you to do X, Y, or Z. These guys they’re hiring have no ideology. They have no skin in the game.”

Article content

The consulate shooting, “at first blush,” appears to be tied to “an actual state sponsor, that is the IRGC in Iran,” Gurski said. “We’ve never really seen that before, not to the best of my knowledge, and I worked on Iran at CSIS. I worked on jihadis at CSIS. I don’t recall a single event where we can definitively say Iran paid this guy X amount of money to do this.”

Article content

Hiring shooters is cheap and gives those doing the hiring “a level of plausible deniability,” Gurski said.

Article content

That allows the Iranians to say “he’s not ours. He’s just some guy that’s mad about Palestine or mad at (U.S. President Donald) Trump or mad at Jews and he carried this out independently.”

Article content

Article content

Proving an Iranian link could be very difficult, he said.

Article content

If the IRGC did order the consulate shooting, “it’s a brilliant plan by the Iranians to make their presence known,” Gurski said.

Article content

“If there’s something there, then I think it does point to a significant scale-up in Canada as to Iranian state activity on our soil.”

Article content

But Daniel Stanton, who served for 32 years with CSIS, including a dozen years as an executive manager in operations, cautioned Friday that the consulate shooting could have been organized by someone who’s upset over the U.S. war with Iran, versus the “probably less likely” option that the attacks are being organized by Iran.

Article content

“What would the state of Iran get by expending resources and time to do these types of activities in Toronto?” said Stanton, now the director of the National Security Program at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute.

Article content

“What’s the impact versus going to the United States and making trouble for Donald Trump if they had a real terrorist incident?”

Article content

The March 10 early morning attack on Toronto’s U.S. Consulate wasn’t “exactly Jason Bourne activity,” Stanton said. “It does sound a little amateurish,” he said. “We need a little bit more data before we pin this on Iran.”

Article content

Article content

Councillor Mike Colle, who represents Eglinton-Lawrence, said Friday that a link to Iran is plausible in the consulate shootings, as well as shootings that targeted Jewish establishments in Toronto.

Article content

“They find these guys that will do anything for a few bucks,” said Colle, the deputy mayor for North York.

Article content

“They say here’s the address: go shoot this place up. There are all kinds of desperate people out there with guns and they basically make their money by intimidating people or shooting up people.”

Article content

He’s calling for more help to deal with the problem.

Article content

“This is way beyond just the Toronto Police, who have been stretched to the limit,” Colle said.

Article content

“If we really want to be serious about this, we need a boots-on-the-ground visible task force with the RCMP, OPP and Toronto Police all working together on a daily basis,” he said.

Article content

“It would also send a signal to these petty criminals and the agents that are here from Iran that Canada is taking this very, very seriously.”

Article content

Article content