An estimated 1,000 people rallied in Toronto to support a free Iran on Sunday.
Amir Epstein, one of the organizers of the event, said the aim was to show solidarity against those who support Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who leads the Iranian regime.
“We were witnessing the lowest form of moral depravity we’ve ever seen when people on the streets are defending an Islamic regime” that tortures, rapes and murders women “simply for not dressing as they are told to,” Epstein told JNS.
It is “shocking, appalling and vile to hear people, who call themselves progressive and liberal, defend evil serpents,” he added.
Goldie Ghamari, a former Ontario parliamentarian who was the first female Iranian politician elected in the country, also addressed the crowd.
“It was important to show unity, because this war is Khamenei’s war with Israel,” she told JNS. “Iranians and Jews are united, and we are fighting to overthrow the terrorist Islamic Republic, to free Iran and bring peace to the Middle East.”
Chants from the crowd included “make Iran great again,” “we reject the 1979 revolt” and “freedom for Iranians.”
Melissa Lantsman, a member of the Canadian Parliament and deputy leader of the Conservative Party who is Jewish, and Conservative parliamentarians Anna Roberts, Costas Menegakis and Roman Baber delivered speeches at the rally, as did Toronto municipal councilor Brad Bradford. (Baber is Jewish.)
Daniel Bordman, a Canadian journalist who gave a keynote address, told JNS the rally was important because “with all the media bias against Israel and Jews and anti-regime Iranians, it was important to show that unity between us is possible on a large scale.”
“When over 1,000 people can mix and sing ‘Ey Iran’ and ‘Hatikvah’ together, it sends a clear message about a new Middle East that can be without the Islamic Republic,” added Bordman, executive director of the Global Cyrus Initiative.
Salman Sima, one of the organizers and a former Iranian prisoner who escaped to Canada, told JNS that “when my fellow Iranians need my support, this is the least thing I can do.”
Epstein noted that the event involved an Iranian Muslim, Sima, “working alongside Canadian Jews, and it’s so easy to see which side is good and which is evil.”
“We did it because we just couldn’t believe that people were defending the ayatollah, pretending to be progressive, when really they are in the same pool as Nazi white supremacists,” he said.
Lantsman told JNS she attended to show Iranian Canadians that “we understand that the tyrannical regime in Tehran has made its intentions clear—regional domination, terror sponsorship and genocidal threats to wipe nations off the map.”
“We stand with them for a safer world where the Iranian people can once again have freedom in their homeland,” she said.
The Jewish lawmaker also wanted to “say loudly and clearly that we must ensure that violence does not spill into our communities at home” and “that those who want to live free of terror must be protected from both the antisemitic hate and pro-regime intimidation that too often accompanies these global tensions,” she told JNS.
“We must support the fight against tyranny abroad and guard against hatred and violence here,” she said.
Ali Siadatan, educational director at Tafsik and an Iranian Canadian, told JNS the rally “brought two ancient people with a common destiny together.”
“We were standing in solidarity against the forces of darkness in the Mideast, led by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and their ideological army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” he said.