Winnipeg car rally joins calls for Western governments to label Iran regime as terrorist group

Manitoba's Iranian community held a car rally in Winnipeg on Saturday to show support for protesters in their home country and to call on Western governments to recognize Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group.

"We hope by calling them a terrorist organization, it would open up ways for Western governments to seize their assets, to seek safe havens here and to conduct a fair and just trial into any human rights violations," Sajjad Heydari, a PhD student at the University of Manitoba, told Radio-Canada.

The rally started at the IKEA parking lot and ended at Shaw Park. There were about 75 people in attendance, including around 30 vehicles.

The event comes after Iran said Saturday that it had executed a dual Iranian-British national, Ali Reza Akbari, who once held a high-ranking position in the country's Defence Ministry. The execution was carried outdespite international warnings to halt Akbari's death sentence.

Iran's most recent execution further escalates tensions with the West amid nationwide protests now shaking the Islamic Republic, which erupted last September following the death of Mahsa Amini.

Heydari said Akbari's execution is Iran's way of putting terror into the hearts of its people.

"It's a series of capital punishments from Iran. [Akbari] is not the only one," he said.

"They've been committing acts of terror all over the Middle East and in Iran as well."

Shahla Shojaei, who also attended Saturday's event, said the car rally was a way to make the event easier for people to attend in the cold.

The research associate at the University of Manitoba says Iran's terrorist activity is not only evident in their own country, but also through their support for Russia during the war in Ukraine, as well as in Yemen and Syria.

She said labelling Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group would "change a lot" for the regime.

"They will be limited. They will have no access to the financial source [to suppress] the people," she told Radio-Canada.

Rally organizers saidIranians plan to ask European Parliament on Monday to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization duringa gathering in Strasbourg, France.

The main concerns of those at theWinnipeg rallyare the political prisoners and protesters in Iran, said Shojaei.

"They arekilling their own people. They are kidnapping protesters from their work, from their home. They are torturing them in prisons, and they are pressuring them to make false confessions."

She says their biggest hope is to see freedom for Iran.

"I just wish that my home country and people had the same freedom, democracy and can enjoy their lives."