Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 9.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Canada wants to see a regime change in Iran, where a recent crackdown on countrywide anti-government protests left thousands of people dead.
The minister made the comments to The Globe and Mail this weekend in Germany, where she attended the Munich Security Conference alongside two other federal ministers.
“We will not open diplomatic relationships with Iran unless there is a regime change. Period,” she said. Diplomatic relations between Canada and Iran were severed in 2012 by then-prime minister Stephen Harper who criticized Iran’s human-rights record.
Ms. Anand also announced further sanctions against seven individuals who are “linked to Iranian state bodies responsible for intimidation, violence and transnational repression targeting Iranian dissidents and human-rights defenders.”
“The repressive Iranian regime must curtail the consistent and illegal violation of Iranian human rights, including by respecting international law and international humanitarian law.”
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But Ms. Anand would not say whether Canada would support a U.S. military strike there.
Her comments came on the same day as large protests took place in Toronto and Vancouver, as well in major cities around the world, calling for an end to government repression in Iran.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched down Yonge Street in Toronto, where police estimated 350,000 took part. In Vancouver, the police chief said around 50,000 people marched there.
“It’s hard to see that our friends and families in Iran are being kept in prison for no reason, being shot in the head for [using] their democratic voice,” said Nima Najafi at the Toronto protest.
Since diplomatic relations between Canada and Iran ended, Canada has imposed a series of sanctions, maintained trade restrictions and taken legal action against Iran at an international court over the Islamic Republic’s shootdown of a passenger jet with dozens of Canadians on board.
Canada has the world’s second-biggest Iranian diaspora, made up of about 300,000 people.
Since the protests began in Iran in late December, Iranian-Canadians have been calling on Ottawa to push for regime change in Tehran.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency says at least 7,005 people were killed in the protest in Iran, including 214 government forces. One Canadian was among those killed at the hands of the regime.
Iran’s government offered its only death toll on Jan. 21, saying 3,117 people were killed. The government in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.
Recently, Iran sentenced Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to more than seven additional years in prison after she began a hunger strike.
A roadside billboard shows an illustration of destroyed U.S. and Israeli military aircrafts in downtown Tehran on Feb. 9.Vahid Salemi/The Associated Press
Ms. Anand said Canada’s focus in the region is on the repression of human rights.
In June, 2024, Canada listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity. The European Union followed suit last month, saying the move marked a “historic and long-overdue step.”
Ms. Anand said she signed off on the additional sanctions before arriving in Germany for the Munich Security Conference.
In January, Ms. Anand was one of several foreign ministers to sign off on a joint statement about Iran, released by the G7 countries.
“We strongly oppose the intensification of the Iranian authorities’ brutal repression of the Iranian people, who have been bravely voicing legitimate aspirations for a better life, dignity and freedom,” the statement read.
With reports from Reuters and The Canadian Press