Liberal MP Majid Jowhari Heckled Out Of Rally By Thousands Of Iranian-Canadians

On Saturday, October 22, 2022, tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Toronto in solidarity with the people of Iran fighting to overthrow the regime. Similar massive rallies took place in Berlin, Washington DC and Los Angeles. 

The rally started at Queens Park and ended at City Hall, and that is where things got interesting. During the speeches at the end of the rally, the crowd noticed the presence of Liberal MP Majid Jowhari and got quite rowdy. Jowhari is widely perceived by the community to be an asset of the Islamic Republic, and for good reason outlined here. Jowhari has campaigned to reopen the Islamic Republic’s embassy, met with pro-regime hardliners, exchanged gifts with Islamic Republic MPs, and has never been seriously critical of the regime’s human rights abuses until now.

The anti-Jowhari chants were started by Salman Sima, a former political prisoner in Evin prison. Salman Sima saw that Jowhari and his handlers had made it to the front of the rally, and took exception to the fact that he was trying to tie himself to a movement he has spent his entire career undermining. 

Once the crowd became aware of the situation chants of “Shame on Jowhari!” and “Jowhari must go” broke out all throughout the crowd. This resulted in Jowhari leaving the front of the rally to a chorus of jeers to do an interview with foreign media. In the interview, he is asked about foreign money laundering, which he claims to oppose. He is then asked about the time he met with one of those same money launders to parliament and took a picture with him and he had trouble lying his way out of the question.