Former Liberal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler is throwing his support behind Bloc Québécois candidate Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, saying his candidacy deserves support regardless of party affiliation.
Cotler endorsed Brunelle-Duceppe in a recent social media post, saying the 45-year-old MP for the riding of Lac-Saint-Jean should be re-elected for a third term.
“Alexis has been an outstanding member of Parliament, a leading voice for the struggle for human rights domestically and internationally, and one who works across party lines in search of the common good,” Cotler wrote in his April 4 post. “His candidacy warrants support.”
Brunelle-Duceppe, the son of former party leader Gilles Duceppe, also took to social media April 4 to thank Colter, saying the support “warms my heart.”
Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet called Cotler’s endorsement “an honour” that reflects on the entire party.
“Cotler is an exceptional person who has done more for human rights than most heads of state,” he wrote in French on the social platform X. “His appreciation of [Brunelle-Duceppe] is a great moment for my longtime friend at the Bloc. A man of heart recognized by a man of heart.”
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Cotler, an international human rights lawyer, was an MP for Mount Royal, Que., from 1999 to 2015 and served as justice minister under former prime minister Paul Martin. He was named as Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating anti-Semitism in 2020, and is the International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
Brunelle-Duceppe was first elected in the riding of Lac-Saint-Jean in 2019 and won a second race in 2021. He served as the Bloc’s citizenship and immigration critic before Parliament was dissolved in March.
Brunelle-Duceppe previously supported Cotler in November 2024, when media reports surfaced that an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Cotler had been thwarted by the RCMP. In response, Brunelle-Duceppe presented a motion in the House of Commons that both denounced the attack and recognized Cotler’s work to promote human rights.
“We will never stand by while people of whatever political stripe are threatened with death because of their opinions,” Brunelle-Duceppe said Nov. 18 in the House of Commons.
“We unreservedly condemn the death threats against Mr. Cotler and we condemn the growing temptation of foreign powers to commit political assassinations on Canadian and Quebec soil. Mr. Cotler, you are not alone.”
The motion was unanimously approved by Parliament. It came after The Globe and Mail reported the RCMP warned Cotler a few weeks earlier that he was facing an “imminent threat of assassination” from Iranian agents.
The report, which cited an anonymous source, said legal authorities were aware of two suspects connected to the conspiracy, but their whereabouts were not known. The RCMP would not confirm any details of the alleged plot to the media, but Cotler later said the rumours were true.
Cotler has been an unwavering supporter of Israel and had pushed for the designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.
Ottawa listed the IRGC as a terrorist entity in June 2024.
