Toronto/CMEDIA: Toronto police are reportedly expecting a gathering of over 200,000 people in a major rally set to march down Yonge Street in North York today in solidarity with anti-government protesters in Iran.
Roads including portions of Yonge Street and North York Boulevard were closed by the Police ahead of the protest, which they say will cause extreme traffic and transit delays.
One of many rallies happening worldwide today, this rally is set to be part of what Iran’s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi labelled a Global Day of Action.
Toronto, Munich and Los Angeles would be the main gathering points, said Pahlavi, for Iranians living abroad to protest and call for regime change in Iran.
Having been gripped by countrywide protests since late Dec, Iran sparked an ongoing economic crisis that has sent the country’s currency into freefall.
Initially focused on Iran’s economy, demonstrators pivoted to calling for an end to Iran’s Islamic Republic, with some supporting the return of the ousted monarchy to power.
Having cracked down, Iran’s government protests and implemented an internet blackout, said more than 3,000 people have been killed since protests broke out.
Being accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of unrest in Iran, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency put the death toll at over 7,000.
Two weeks after a major protest in Toronto’s Sankofa Square, today’s rally was attended by 150,000 people, Toronto police estimated .
Some protesters called for international intervention in Iran to put an end to government repression.
