Iranians in Toronto holding mass protests on October 1, 2022. Photo: Rudaw
TORONTO, Canada - As growing protests over the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini entered the third week, the Iranian diaspora poured into the streets of Toronto in large numbers on Saturday and urged the Canadian government to impose harsh sanctions on the Iranian regime.
The protesters, estimated to be around 50,000 according to the York Regional Police, condemned the death of Amini in Tehran police custody, while carrying banners that read 'women, life, freedom' and chanting slogans against the Iranian regime.
"The state of Canada has very frankly expressed its stance against the Iranian regime, closing down their embassy office here. But the issue is much bigger than that,” Siyawaysh Owaysi, a protesters, told Rudaw’s Roj Eli Zalla on Saturday. He added that the number of those participating in protests around the world is bigger than ever, saying that “this is the most important thing which shows that the regime of Iran is near collapse."
Iranian-Canadians for Justice and Human Rights, an organization of rights activists staged the protests to support growing demonstrations at home in Iran.
The protest started on Saturday afternoon in the area of Yonge St. and 16th Avenue and concluded with a rally outside the Richmond Hill Central Library.
Toronto's demonstration was the biggest of its kind so far held across North America.
Iranians inside the country and across the world have staged protests calling for the overthrowal of the regime in Tehran.
A large group of Kurds from the Kurdish regions of Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey assembled in the US capital of Washington on Sunday expressing solidarity for the ongoing protests in Iran’s western Kurdish regions (Rojhelat) and to voice their opposition to the Iranian bombardment of Kurdish opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday showered with ballistic missiles and suicide drones bases of Kurdish opposition groups in the Kurdistan Region under the pretext of fueling protests across the country. The attacks killed at least 14 people and wounded over 50 others, according to the Kurdish health ministry.
The attacks were in response to Iranian claims that the opposition parties are involved in mass country-wide protests in Iran following the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in police custody with the Iranian regime unable to suppress the demonstrations. The protests are currently in their third week.
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