The shock waves of the current Israel-Iran war rippled into downtown Toronto on June 22.
A day after the United States sided with Israel by bombing the heavily fortified Fordow nuclear enrichment facility, Â upwards of 1,500 demonstrators gathered in front of the U.S. consulate on University Avenue to blast the U.S. and Israel during a “Hands Off Iran” rally.
They were met by a small group of Iranian Canadian protesters who detest Iran’s theocratic and autocratic regime and who appear to support Israel’s air campaign in Iran.
Police, standing impassively next to their bicycles, kept the two sides apart. There were no violent incidents.
One of the sponsors of the gathering, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), is the largest union in Canada. Its president, Fred Hahn, supported Hamas’ October 7 attack and has called for the “decolonization” of the Middle East and an arms embargo against Israel. Last August, CUPE’s national executive demanded his resignation, but he refused to abide by its decision.
Another sponsor, the Palestinian Youth Movement, has been at the forefront of anti-Israel demonstrations in Canada and the United States since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. That massive onslaught, resulting in the deaths of roughly 1,200 people and the abduction of 251 Israeli and foreigners, triggered Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip and the still ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The anti-American demonstrators fell into several categories. Ethnic Palestinians and their Canadian supporters who shouted, “Free, free Palestine.” Far-left activists who denounced “Zionist aggression” and “U.S. imperialism.” A handful of ultra-Orthodox Jews who carried placards condemning Israel. And a few Iranian women who held up photographs of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Judging by the signs they brandished and the slogans they chanted, their focus was as much on Israel and the U.S. as it was on Iran:
“Bombing children is a crime from Iran to Palestine.” “Five, 6, 7, 8, we won’t let them escalate.” “No war with Iran.” “Stop the U.S. war machine.” “Free the people, free the land.” “No peace on stolen land.” “Occupation is a crime, free, free Palestine.” “In my lifetime, I will see Palestine living free.”
One person bellowed, “We don’t want no Zionists here.”
Several people held aloft placards demanding an arms embargo on Israel.
A representative of the Canadian Peace Congress passed out a pink leaflet with the lurid headline, “Stop Zionist Attacks Against Iran.” Its purple prose left nothing to the imagination.
It lashed out at “the fascist war mongers in Tel Aviv” and branded Israel as a “naked aggressor.” It castigated U.S. “imperialism.” It claimed that Iran is not trying to develop a nuclear weapon program. It condemned Canada for its support of Israel and demanded that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney sever all economic and diplomatic relations with “Zionist Israel” and work “to enhance efforts of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” campaign directed at Israel. It accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and the West Bank.
A leaflet from The Writers Against The War On Gaza was equally fiery: “Israel is not a victim and is not acting in self-defence, but rather in defence of Jewish supremacy. Nearly two years of mass extermination in Gaza has opened many people’s eyes to the truth. The U.S.-Zionist alliance that is now engaged in unprovoked warfare on multiple fronts — Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Iran — is the real destabilizing force in the region, and it must be stopped now.
“The Zionist entity’s existence hinges on racist projection … Anti-imperialist resistance movements are fighting not only for the future of a liberated Palestine, but for the future of humanity.”
The Iranian expatriates were just as avidly committed to their cause. A woman held up a placard excoriating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a pillar of the Iranian regime. Another woman displayed the flag of Iran prior to the 1979 Islamic revolution.
A man brandished a photograph of Reza Pahlavi — the heir to the Iranian throne and the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Farah Diba — and his wife.
The rhetoric and noise from both camps was just as hot as the broiling summer sun beating down on the protesters. Having vented, they vacated the area after about two hours, leaving Toronto quiet once again.