Iranian Canadians call for crown prince's restoration at Parliament Hill rally

Hundreds of Iranian Canadians protested at Parliament Hill on Sunday, calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic and the restoration of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.

Amid chants of “This is the final battle, Pahlavi will return,” protesters waved the lion-and-sun flag of Iran, now banned in the Islamic Republic.

“We Iranian Canadians call upon our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miss Anita Anand, to take concrete and supportive steps toward the transformation of the inhuman Islamic Republic into a secular democratic government born of the people’s vote,” speaker Soorena Noori told the crowd.

For the past two weeks, Iran has been gripped by its largest protests since the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement, with demonstrations that were triggered by deteriorating economic conditions now calling for the overthrow of the clerical regime.

The son of the last shah of Iran, Pahlavi has emerged as a figurehead of opposition to the Islamic Republic.

He called for mass rallies around the world this weekend, asking supporters to wave the country's pre-revolutionary flag.

His father Mohammad Reza Pahlavi came to power in a 1953 CIA-backed coup to overthrow the democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

The shah’s autocratic and authoritarian rule proved unpopular with leftists and Islamists, however, and he himself was overthrown in a broad-based uprising in 1979 from which the Islamic Republic emerged.

But protesters in Ottawa on Sunday said the younger Pahlavi was their best option.

“He's the only hope of people inside Iran to be the light and to help them to reclaim their country,” said Noori.

Protester Noush Bagheri said any rule — whether monarchy or democratic republic — would be preferable to the current system.

“It doesn't matter if it's a king or it's a parliament,” she told CBC. “We need our rights.”

Authorities in Iran have violently suppressed protests inside the country, and since Thursday an internet blockade has limited the flow of information out of the country.

But on Sunday, U.S.-based rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 security personnel.

Fara, an Iranian PhD student at Carleton University, said she had been unable to reach friends or family in Iran for the past two days and was concerned for their safety.

“My parents, my brother, my extended family and some of my best friends are in Iran. And I know, I know for a fact that they've been protesting,” she said.

CBC has agreed to withhold her surname for fear of retribution against her family.

Approximately 1,000 people attended the protest, a spokesperson for the Ottawa Police Service said.