Photo credit: AL-Monitor
Demonstrations were held in several Canadian cities on Saturday to voice support for the Iranian people as a popular uprising sweeping across \iran neared the two-week mark.
City News reports that protesters in Toronto and Montreal demanded the fall of the Islamic regime and the return of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah of Iran, who has been in exile in the United States of America for 47 years.
Iran’s theocracy cut internet and telephone service on Thursday, severely limiting information about countrywide protests over Iran’s faltering economy that began on December 28 and have evolved into the biggest challenge for the government in years.
But the death toll in the protests has grown to at least 72 people killed and over 2,300 others detained, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Protesters marching in downtown Montreal toward the US consulate on Saturday welcomed American government support for the protests, but they also want Canada’s government to step up.
On Friday, the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada and the European Union issued a joint statement condemning the violence against the Iranian people.
Prime Minister Mark Carney also reacted to the reports of violence, arbitrary arrests and intimidation tactics by the Iranian regime, urging it to guarantee freedom of expression and peaceful assembly without fear of reprisal.
