WINNIPEG -- Winnipeggers gathered at the corner of Portage Avenue and Notre Dame Avenue Saturday, to protest the ongoing violence in Iran, saying they don’t want Canada to participate in any U.S. led war.
“Get out of Iran, get out of Iraq, hands off the Middle East,” said rally organizer Esther Wolfe.
Wolfe said the protest was called after the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. She believes the U.S. airstrike that killed Soleimani was an imperialist act of war.
Demonstrators say they are also upset about an ongoing pipeline dispute in Wet-suwet-en, B.C. “We wanted to link those two issues in conversation and hold a rally that would bring attention to all of them,” said Wolfe.
Andrew Loewen also attended the demonstration Saturday. “Imperialism abroad, and incursion on other people’s lives in society is similar to how Canada interacts in Wet-suwet-en with the imposition of pipelines on sovereign First Nations territory,” said Loewen.
Eght Edari is from Iran and attended the rally. He called the situation devastating and said he is hoping for more meaningful conversation to take place before tensions escalate further.
“We are here to just relay the message of no war anywhere in the world,” said Edari.“No one is going to win in this situation.”
Wolfe said the loss of life has been felt on all sides, and she doesn’t want the spike in violence to drum up support for a larger conflict.
“(It) shouldn’t be used to justify more war.”
