Top of Iran International’s article released on August 2, 2024, titled "Iran masterminded anti-Israel protest in Canadian university”.

Written by: Aidan Jonah

An allegedly Saudi-funded media organization has put a target on the heads of McGill University Palestine encampment protesters. Iran International, which UK outlet The Guardian said was funded by the Saudi monarchy via a proxy back in 2018, made the claim that “Iran masterminded anti-Israel protest in Canadian university”.

But Iran International’s headline claim is quickly collapsed by their own article. They quickly admit that a report from the cyber security company, XPOZ, is their main source for the ‘Iran masterminded’ claim. The company’s analysis is based not on any of the McGill University encampment’s actions or funding, only on the question of ‘authentic’ and ‘inauthentic’ social media users who supported the McGill encampment. A ‘high percentage’ of ‘inauthentic’ social media users in favour of the encampment would allegedly write primarily in Farsi, and be “coming from Iranians inside Iran linked to the regime and IRGC”, and this supposedly fueled the McGill encampment.

The analysis argues that since alleged social media activity at McGill is supposedly made up of 60 per cent ‘inauthentic’ social media users, somehow 60 per cent of “Pro-Palestine campus protestors were not authentic online users”.

An anonymous XPOZ analyst claimed that “users were not Iranians living in Canada and not regular citizens in Iran but rather tied to the Islamic Republic.”

So apparently, Iranians in Iran who are in the IRGC were somehow fuelling the McGill encampment and simultaneously 60 per cent of the encampment protesters in Montreal, Canada.

This ridiculous analysis from Iran International, mostly sourced from one cyber security company’s claim, simply doesn’t hold water.

Even the right-wing Canadian newspaper, the National Post, had a less hysterical analysis of the XPOZ report, only speaking about it in the context of supposed Iranian ‘foreign interference’.

But that doesn’t mean Iran International’s report is without risk to McGill students. Zionist reactions included in an article by Iran International, indicate how the article can be used by supporters of Zionism.

Zionist journalist Emily Schrader linked the article on X, and said: “I wonder how many more campus protests have been staged by IRI”. A Canadian ‘human rights activist’, Yasmine Mohammed, said:

“As we all suspected, the truth is being exposed: the Islamic Regime of Iran has been funding student protests in Canada and the US”

Iran International’s article was endorsed by independent Zionist, anti-communist MP Kevin Vuong and by Conservative Senator, Leo Housakos – known to The Canada Files readers for working with Cuban dissidents to call for Cuba regime change and a shift of diplomatic recognition from the government to dissidents - who inferred that McGill encampment members should have their bank accounts frozen and have the Emergency Act imposed upon them, just as it happened to the 2022 truckers encampments in Ottawa.

With Bill C-70, the anti-foreign interference act, having been passed by parliament, the risk of spurious charges comes into play. Canadian lawyer Dimitri Lascaris warned about the bill, noting that among many other concerns, it amends Section 20 of Canada’s Security of Information Act to punish with life imprisonment, undefined ‘intimidation’ of Canadians “for the benefit of or in association with a foreign entity or terrorist group”. Zionists claim to be intimidated by pro-Palestine protests, which call for Palestinian liberation. Lascaris notes, around pro-Palestine protests on Canadian campuses, that:

“Some pro-Israel students have reacted to those non-violent protests by claiming that the protests make them feel ‘unsafe’. Zionist students assert that the mere fact that the protesters wear keffiyehs, condemn Zionism or chant ‘intifada’ (which simply means “shaking off“) is ‘intimidating’.”

And while the encampment was crushed by McGill University-hired security forces with the assistance of Québec provincial and Montréal city police – regardless of a Québec Superior Court ruling that rejected an injunction request against the encampment - the encampment protesters aren’t safe from reprisals.

This comes because of the Iran International report. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was recently listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government. Via its report, intentionally or not, Iran International is setting the groundwork for future charges – made possible by Bill C-70 - against McGill University Palestine encampment protesters under the Security of Information Act, which prosecutors could lay by claiming they took their encampment actions for the IRGC’s benefit.

As Canada blocks Iranian, Venezuelan and Syrian Canadians from voting in their home nations, the ‘democratic’ and ‘free speech’ facades in Canada continue to unravel.

Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news outlet founded in 2019. Jonah wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.

Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.

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