Goldie Ghamari is concerned for her life after the Iranian-linked hacker group Handala placed a $250,000 bounty for her beheading, the former Ontario Progressive Conservative MP told The Jerusalem Post.
She has since filed a police report and was reassured that law enforcement was taking the incident “very seriously.”
The incident highlights that the Islamic regime is continuing to target the lives of Iranians both inside and outside of Iran, Ghamari told the Post.
Ghamari was not the only one Handala targeted – it placed the bounty for the beheading of Iranian-American lawyer and activist Elica Le Bon as well. The group claimed to have leaked their Los Angeles and Ottawa-based home addresses to its CJNG partners.
CJNG refers to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which, according to Reuters, has maintained operations in the US despite the US and Mexico targeting its senior members. Experts previously told Iran International that CJNG was among the many Iran-linked groups spreading insecurity across Latin America.
Ghamari’s family fled to Canada when she was only a year old, in 1986, after an assassination attempt on her father. Despite fleeing the regime, the family returned to Iran for a short time when she was still a child, and she attended an Iranian school where unsuccessful attempts were made to radicalize her against Israel and the United States.
She has been targeted by the regime before for using her platform to expose the atrocities committed against the Iranian people. “The Handala group has been known to target Iranians in the past. So this is something that is being taken very seriously,” she said.
In the past week, Ghamari recounted how the Iranian diaspora has been targeted by those working for or who are aligned with the regime. Over the weekend, a gym owned by an Iranian-Canadian activist that was displaying the Lion and Sun flag was shot at with multiple rounds, causing significant damage to the building’s exterior.
“York Regional Police are aware of concerns within the community that this incident may be linked to broader geopolitical tensions in the Middle East,” the department confirmed after releasing footage of the black SUV believed to have been involved in the attack.
More deadly, Ghamari pointed to the shooting attack in Austin, Texas, where three people were killed and more than a dozen wounded by a gunman wearing a regime flag shirt and the wording “Property of Allah” printed on his hooded sweatshirt.
“So this is a threat that we all have to take very seriously. We’re in a very dangerous time period right now,” Ghamari said.
“The Islamic regime is collapsing. They’re in their final death throes. And as you can tell, not only have they been attacking countries all around the Persian Gulf and in the Middle East, but it seems as if their sleeper cells around the world have also been activated.”
Asked about her sense of security and how she feels the Canadian government has handled the risks associated with the Islamic Regime, Ghamari said the issue has been significantly under-addressed, to the point that it now poses an active threat.
“There’s absolutely an active threat. Canada has become a haven for the Islamic regime. At least 700 people in Canada are known to be affiliated with it. Canada is basically one of the destinations for people who are affiliated with the Islamic regime,” she said.
“The government has not done much. They haven’t taken it very seriously. I hope that with these incidents, they wake up. But even just a few days ago, [the Prime Minister of Canada], Mark Carney, said that he does not think there are any imminent terrorist threats to Canadians in Canada. Now, within the span of 24 hours, there have been at least two known terror incidents: the shooting [at the gym] and then the death threat against me.”
The Post was unable to locate the statements allegedly made by the Canadian prime minister. However, Carney confirmed his stance on the Islamic Republic ahead of his trip to India last week.
'Iran is the principal source of instability and terror in the Middle East'
“Canada’s position remains clear: the Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East, has one of the world’s worst human rights records, and must never be allowed to obtain or develop nuclear weapons,” he wrote in a statement.
“Canada reaffirms Israel’s right to defend itself and to ensure the security of its people. Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security,” the Canadian president continued.
The Post found that ahead of speaking with Ghamari, her Wikipedia page was edited, though no recent information was added. The Anti-Defamation League released a report in March claiming that a coordinated effort by a number of editors on the popular information website introduces bias, a claim mirrored by Ghamari.
“Wikipedia is basically controlled by a lot of antisemites, and there’s a lot of propaganda about me. This is just an attempt to defame me, it’s character defamation,” she said, adding that regime-aligned actors have frequently created information campaigns against her and suppressed information regarding the atrocities experienced by Iranian civilians.
“These are the same people who are also erasing the atrocities that the Islamic regime has committed against the Iranian people; these are the same people who are also putting out blood libel against Israel and the IDF. It’s all part of the same terror group.”
Iran spends upwards of a billion dollars on its Ministry of Cyber Warfare, so it has a lot of people who do these sorts of things,” she added. “Wikipedia is not a reliable source. It’s just another method that’s used by the Islamic regime to try and attack the character of people who are speaking out against it.”
Ghamari said that she has tuned out much of the online rhetoric against her, focusing instead on “being a voice for people in occupied Iran.”
“I have a very successful YouTube channel. I livestream every day in English, and the purpose of the channel is to raise awareness about what’s happening in occupied Iran [and] this is obviously a threat to the Islamic regime. It does not like the fact that people are learning the truth, and so it is trying to attack me,” she said.
“That’s irrelevant to me. I’ve been speaking out against the Islamic regime for several years now, and my reputation is very well known by Iranians, Canadians, and Jews. So I have little interest in what a bunch of Islamic terrorists have to say about me. Their demise is almost near. [Supreme leader ayatollah Ali] Khamenei is dead, and so these people are now desperately trying to lash out in any way, shape, or form.”
Ghamari said she wished to convey her thanks to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the IDF, and the Israeli people for “their unwavering support of the Iranian people.”
“I just want to say that we cannot wait until Iran is free and we can go back to being the allies and friends that we used to be before 1979... Am Yisrael Chai.”