Some Iranian Canadians are expressing their support for foreign intervention in Iran after the U.S. and Israel launched a major attack on the Middle Eastern country, sending missiles into Iran overnight.
Iranian Canadian filmmaker Ezra Soleh welcomed the attack, saying the people of Iran have had enough of “a regime that has been massacring people, killing people by the thousands.”
Iran’s recent violent crackdowns on anti-government protests resulted in more than 3,000 deaths according to the government, but U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of unrest in Iran, put the death toll at over 7,000.
Soleh said it’s been hard to contact people inside Iran since the government imposed an internet blackout, but he claimed people inside the country are welcoming the invasion.
“They know this surgery has to be done for the cancer to be removed,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened military action over the killing of peaceful demonstrators, but held off.
He justified the current military action by claiming that Iran has continued to develop its nuclear program and plans to develop missiles to reach the U.S.
Ardeshir Zarezadeh, a former Iranian political prisoner who fled the country for Canada, said the U.S.-Israel attack is a best-case scenario for both Iranians seeking an end to government repression, as well as Western powers aiming to halt Iran’s nuclear program.
“If there is a free country, if there is a democratic-established government in Iran, there will be no nuclear bomb,” he said. “There will be no threats coming out of Iran to Canada and United States … It will be beneficial for everyone in the Middle East and obviously for international peace.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada supports the U.S. action in Iran and called the Islamic Republic the “principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East” and said it must never be able to develop a nuclear weapon.
— with files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2026.
The Canadian Press
