Federal minister lauds close ties between Canada, U.S. police in terror guilty plea

Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree speaks with Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Michael Duheme as they shake hands before appearing at the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security in Ottawa, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

MONTREAL — Canada’s public safety minister is lauding the close relationship between police forces in the country and the United States, after a man pleaded guilty in a planned mass shooting that was foiled in 2024.

Gary Anandasangaree’s comments are in reaction to the plea entered on Wednesday in New York City by Muhammad Shahzeb Khan.

The 21-year-old had been arrested in 2024 in Quebec near the U.S. border for planning a mass shooting of Jewish people at a Brooklyn centre to coincide with the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel.

U.S. officials say Khan had the explicit goal of killing as many Jews as possible.

RCMP in Quebec arrested Khan on Sept. 4, 2024, after their Ontario counterparts notified U.S. officials that he was planning to cross the border with the help of a human smuggler.

Anandasangaree says there is great collaboration between law enforcement in both countries, adding that the border is secured by Canadians but also by support from the Five Eyes alliance, which shares signals intelligence among its members, including Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States.

Khan, a Pakistani national who had been living in Ontario, pleaded guilty to a single charge of trying to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries.

He told Judge Paul G. Gardephe he was motivated to provide material support to the Islamic State group in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza. He said he now regrets his plan, which included renting a space next to the Jewish centre.

“I was not raised this way,” Khan said, adding that what he planned to do was wrong.

Khan said plotting to kill Jewish people was a “terrible, extremely dangerous and morally reprehensible idea.”

Gardephe set sentencing for Aug. 12, when Khan could face up to life in prison.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2026.

— With files from The Associated Press.

The Canadian Press