Hundreds rally at Vancouver Art Gallery in support of Iran protests

Iranian-Canadians gather outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday, Jan. 10.

Hundreds of people marched through the streets and gathered in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery Saturday in one of many demonstrations held across Canada in solidarity with anti-government protests in Iran.

“The people are fighting for freedom in Iran, and they’ve been fighting for a very long time,” one demonstrator told CTV News.

“In the streets of Iran, millions and millions and millions of people are fighting for that freedom, and they want that freedom so bad, because we deserve it. We want to be able to live a regular life like everybody else in the world and not get murdered for protesting against a regime.”

He called on local supporters to be the voice for people in Iran who are protesting amid an ongoing internet blackout.

Vancouver protesters chanted “King Reza Pahlavi” and held up photos of the crown prince, the son of the last Shah of Iran who lives in exile in the United States. Many of the demonstrators carried the “lion and sun” flag used in the country before the 1979 revolution.

Protests over Iran’s struggling economy that began two weeks ago have spread nation-wide and have become the largest movement against the Islamic Republic in recent years.

The death toll in the demonstrations has grown to at least 72 people killed and over 2,300 others detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

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.

With files from The Canadian Press