Human rights aren't conditional.

Freedom, dignity, and safety are not causes that can be selectively defended.

The Iranian administration has once again cut off communications to and from its people, shutting down internet and phone access, and violently suppressing any dissent.

This isn’t new. It’s a tactic the regime has repeatedly used when civilian unrest intensifies: to isolate protestors, prevent documentation, and carry out arrests and killings away from public scrutiny.

This time, however, the scale and intensity of the violence and repression appear more severe. We don’t yet know the full extent of what’s happening. But multiple media and human-rights reports already point to at least 2,000 people killed and more than 10,000 detained, and those numbers are almost certainly higher, and still rising.

For many Iranian Canadians, this is not distant news. It is fear for family, friends, and loved ones.

As an MP, I’ve spoken publicly to condemn the regime’s repression and to amplify voices calling for Iranian democracy. I also work alongside an Iranian-Canadian in my constituency office, Sara, and given what’s now at stake, I wanted to share her perspective directly.

Sara: We have seen waves of resistance to the Iranian regime before, from the Green Movement in 2009 to the protests following Mahsa Amini’s death in 2022. This pattern did not begin in 2009 or 2022. Since coming to power in 1979, the Islamic Republic has consistently responded to dissent with repression, through executions, the dismantling of opposition movements, and lethal crackdowns such as those seen during the November 2019 protests. Opposition has persisted, and so has the punishment of those who lead or join it.

What we are witnessing now, however, appears broader, more sustained, and more determined, driven by years of economic collapse, repression, and the absence of accountability.

While the Iranian regime claims solidarity with Palestinians, it simultaneously denies those same fundamental rights to Iranians at home. Freedom, dignity, and safety are not causes that can be selectively defended.

It’s also important to recognize that Iranians are not a monolith. Iran is an incredibly diverse society, and that diversity is reflected in the range of views about what change should look like and how it should happen.

In recent days, debates have intensified within the Iranian diaspora about leadership, opposition figures, and the role of outside powers. Some voices argue for international intervention; others warn, based on the experiences of Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere, that foreign military involvement often deepens civilian suffering rather than ending it.

These disagreements are real and deserve to be acknowledged, not flattened or dismissed.

What should not be debated is this:

Peaceful protestors should never be met with lethal force.

Information should never be treated as a weapon.

And human rights shouldn’t be applied selectively.

Canada’s role is not to dictate Iran’s future. That must be determined by Iranians themselves.

But we do have a responsibility to consistently defend civilian protection, access to information, and accountability, wherever those principles are violated. Silence only enables further harm.

We must continue working with like-minded countries to stand with and support the Iranian people.