On February 14, a rally in Toronto drew an estimated 350,000 people. The demonstrators called on the Canadian government to recognize Iran’s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi as the leader of Iran’s democratic transition after anti-government protests erupted in Iran at the end of last year.
Organizers urge Canadian involvement in ‘ongoing national crisis’
People marched down Yonge Street to the beat of drums and chants of “King Reza Pahlavi.” Protesters held aloft and draped themselves in red, white and green flags emblazoned with a golden lion — the flag Iran used before the Islamic Republic came to power in 1979, toppling the previous monarchy.
Demonstrators called for an end to government repression in Iran as widespread protests inside the country have been met with violent crackdowns.
Organizers urge Canadian involvement in ‘ongoing national crisis’
People marched down Yonge Street to the beat of drums and chants of “King Reza Pahlavi.” Protesters held aloft and draped themselves in red, white and green flags emblazoned with a golden lion — the flag Iran used before the Islamic Republic came to power in 1979, toppling the previous monarchy.
How many people have been killed and injured by the security forces?
On January 17, in a public address, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stated that “thousands of people” had been killed. On January 21, 2026, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council issued a statement saying that 3,117 people had lost their lives during the uprising. However, on January 16, UN Special Rapporteur on Iran Mai Sato indicated in a media interview that the death toll was at least 5,000, adding that, according to information from medical sources, it could be as high as 20,000. Given the ongoing internet blackout, the scale of the killings, and the Iranian authorities’ long-standing practice of retaliating against victims’ families who speak out, the true number is almost certainly higher.
The ongoing internet blackout is preventing Iranian citizens from communicating with the outside world. This makes gathering and verifying information difficult. Videos and verified testimonies that Amnesty International has been able to obtain and review reveal that security forces have committed unlawful mass killings on an unprecedented scale, against the backdrop of the internet blackout.
Following the massacres of January 8 and 9, medical facilities were overwhelmed with the wounded, while distraught families gathered in overcrowded hospitals and morgues searching for their missing loved ones.
Demonstrators in Toronto called for an end to government repression in Iran as widespread protests inside the country have been met with violent crackdowns.
Iranians in Canada
As of 2016 a total of 97,110 Iranians reside in the Greater Toronto Area, 46,255 in the Greater Vancouver Area,[ and 23,410 in the Greater Montreal Area,[8]with the remainder spread out in the other major cities of Canada, based on the 2016 Canadian Census. These numbers represent the people who stated “Iranian” as their single or joint ethnic origin in the census survey.
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Source: CBC, wikipedia, Amnesty International