Thousands or protesters line Lions Gate Bridge to vent anger at Iran

Article content material

Protests had been held throughout Canada on Saturday because the households of the victims of Ukraine Worldwide Airways Flight 752 lent their voices to the worldwide requires revolution in Iran.

Article content material

In Vancouver, a number of thousand protesters lined the Lions Gate Bridge, chanting the title of Mahsa Amini, whose demise after being detained by Iran’s morality police in September sparked worldwide demonstrations.

Article content material

“Girl, life, freedom” grew to become the rallying cry that marked their indicators and clothes. They known as for the downfall of the Islamic Republic, which, based in 1979, enforces strict gown codes on Iranian ladies.

Some had been moms, fathers and siblings of those that had been killed when Flight 752 was shot down by the Iranian regime shortly after takeoff greater than two years in the past.

Toggle full display mode Earlier Gallery Picture

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

11. 

12. 

13. 

14. 

15. 

16. 

17. 

18. 

19. 

20. 

21. 

Subsequent Gallery Picture Toggle gallery captions

All 21 Photographs for Gallery

Operate Not Out there

Full Display screen shouldn’t be supported on this browser model.

You could use a special browser or machine to view this in full display.

OK

Article content material

Vahid Emami stood on the Downtown Vancouver entrance of the bridge, holding a number of the final pictures taken of his spouse, Sahand Sadeghi, 39, and five-year-old daughter, Sophie. Emami was on his solution to the Toronto airport to select up his household, together with two of his in-laws, when he heard the information of the aircraft’s destruction. All of them had been on Flight 752.

“All the things has been taken from me,” mentioned the 43-year-old who relocated to Vancouver final yr as a result of the ache of staying in his household house in Toronto grew to become too nice.

“I didn’t know whether or not to remain or go … commit suicide,” he advised Postmedia Information. “The one cause I stayed was due to them — to battle for change in Iran.”

Beheshteh Rezapour choked again tears whereas talking of her daughter, Bahareh, who was additionally on Flight 752. She proudly wore an image of the 33-year-old Toronto resident round her neck.

Article content material

“They killed my stunning daughter. I’m alive only for my son.” mentioned the mom, who migrated to Canada final yr together with her household. For them, Toronto held too many recollections of Bahareh. They selected to dwell in Vancouver.

“It was arduous for us to dwell within the nation that killed my sister. She was visiting us on Christmas holidays,” mentioned Ali, 35. “The one objective we have now now’s to battle for justice.”

In Iran, no less than 270 individuals have been killed within the newest protests over Amini’s demise which have swept over 125 Iranian cities, in keeping with Human Rights Activists. Canada has moved to bar 1000’s of members of the Iranian regime and Islamic Revolutionary Guard from coming into the nation, imposing sanctions on 89 people and 177 entities together with the regime’s safety, intelligence and financial equipment.

Article content material

Nevertheless, Canada’s authorities hasn’t designated the guard as terrorists.

Soushiant Zanganehpour, an organizer of the Vancouver protest, is looking on Ottawa to do extra to forestall extra of the guard’s officers and their associates from coming into the nation and threatening Iranians who’re protesting inside.

“There are lots of regime officers and their households who systematically come right here, some are even residents,” mentioned Zanganehpour. “We face threats towards our households, our lives, with those that drive by our homes at nighttime. I’m calling for stricter immigration insurance policies, not simply sanctions, however extra investigations into who’s right here and why.”

Liberal MP Joyce Murray, who attended Saturday’s demonstration, mentioned Canada presently has one of many “strongest sanctions” on this planet towards the Iranian regime.

“We’re going to proceed to evaluation what can we do and what can we do extra of as time flows,” she mentioned.

In the meantime, Emami and Rezapour are dedicated to persevering with to talk publicly concerning the struggling their households have endured by the hands of Iran’s present regime.

“We have now misplaced every part and don’t have anything else to lose,” mentioned Ali, emboldened by grief attributable to his sister’s killing. “We don’t care about what occurs to us. Proper now, the regime is killing extra Iranians and individuals are listening to us.”

Article content material

Article content material

Article content material

Article content material