Reaction is pouring in from the Iranian diaspora across the Greater Toronto Area after a sweeping U.S.-Israeli attack over the weekend killed the country’s supreme leader and pulled about a dozen other countries into the conflict.   

“It’s definitely a very bittersweet moment,” said Kimia Tehrani, an Iranian Canadian student and activist.

“I think I’m incredibly happy that a dictator that has taken over my life and my country over the past 46 years has finally died,” she said.

“[But] I’m obviously very upset at the civilian lives that are at danger right now, I’m upset because my family is back home and I don’t know what the future holds for them.” 

The initial attacks happened on Feb. 28. In the 48 hours since, Iran has retaliated with a barrage of strikes targeting American bases situated across the Middle East as well as Israel and other Gulf States like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, and Jordan, according to data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based institute.

At least 555 people in Iran are dead, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. At least 52 have been killed in Lebanon and 11 were killed in Israel, according to local officials in both countries. Six U.S. soldiers have died, a post by the U.S. Central Command said on X. 

Iranian community ‘restless,’ says imam

Iran is certainly in turmoil, said Maral Karimi, a lecturer in politics at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and author of Iranian Green Movement of 2009: Reverbrating Echoes of Resistance.’

“People are divided politically but at the same time, they’re united in that they’re now living, once again, under war conditions,” said Karimi. 

“The community is not a monolith.”

Over the weekend, Iranian Canadians gathered across the Greater Toronto Area calling for the end of the regime in Iran, with many voicing support for Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah, though support for the exiled crown prince is not universal.