Canadian dead as Iran cracks down on anti-government protests: Foreign Affairs Minister

A Canadian citizen has died amid recent anti-government protests in Iran, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says.

“I have just learned that a Canadian citizen has died in Iran at the hands of the Iranian authorities. Our consular officials are in contact with the victim’s family in Canada, and my deepest condolences are with them at this time,” Anand wrote in a message on X Thursday morning.

“Peaceful protests by the Iranian people – asking that their voices be heard in the face of the Iranian regime’s repression and ongoing human rights violations – have led the regime to flagrantly disregard human life. This violence must end. Canada condemns and calls for an immediate end to the Iranian regime’s violence.”

The exact circumstances surrounding the death weren’t immediately clear as of Thursday morning.

Neither Anand nor Global Affairs Canada confirmed the citizen’s identity.

In a statement from Global Affairs Canada personnel Thursday morning, Canadians were urged to leave Iran “if they can do so safely.” Officials noted many airlines suspended service, but there are land border crossing options with Armenia and Türkiye.

For anyone needing immediate assistance, they were encouraged to contact the Canadian embassy in Ankara, Türkiye.

CityNews has been speaking with residents in the Greater Toronto Area recently to hear more about how they’ve been impacted by the protests. The demonstrations began in late December in anger over Iran’s ailing economy and soon targeted the theocracy, particularly 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Yasaman, an Iranian-Canadian resident who asked to only be identified by her first name, told CityNews on Wednesday she heard her aunt died in Tehran. She said she has barely been able to speak with family members over the past week.

“I have so many mixed feelings. I feel like I’m still in shock, to be honest,” she said.

“Yesterday, I got one message from my cousin. At first, he said, ‘We’re all fine, but there has been a crime committed as you’ve never seen before.’ I tried to reply, but none of my messages would go through. This morning I woke up to him being able to stay connected more, and today he told me, ‘OK, I need to inform you that our aunt has been killed.’”

Yasaman said she was told her aunt was shot in the leg. She said her aunt was taken to a hospital, but Iranian authorities were there and doctors weren’t allowed to operate. Yasaman said her aunt ended up bleeding to death.

CityNews hasn’t been able to independently verify the details surrounding the incident.

“I have not cried once yet because I don’t want to show fear … she showed us not to be fearful and go out,” Yasaman said.

“We’re begging the politicians at this point. We’re begging people to help us.”

Meanwhile, videos of demonstrations have broadly stopped coming out of Iran, likely signalling the slowdown of their pace under the heavy security force presence in major cities. But in the meantime, protests against Iran have been held around the world as global attention has focused on the crackdown.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Iran at the request of the United States on Thursday afternoon.

Activists warned that hangings of detainees could come soon. The security forces’ crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,615, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported, warning it likely would rise even higher. The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The U.S.-based agency, founded 20 years ago, has been accurate throughout multiple years of demonstrations, relying on a network of activists inside Iran that confirms all reported fatalities.

With communications greatly limited in Iran, the AP has been unable to independently confirm the group’s toll. The theocratic government of Iran has not provided overall casualty figures for the demonstrations.

With files from CityNews’ Afua Baah and The Associated Press