Ontario minister says Iranian people want the death of their president

In comments that have sparked calls for his resignation, Ontario minister Reza Moridi has posted a video to his Facebook page that shows him quoting a protest slogan calling for the death of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani.

"[The people of Iran] have said, 'Marg bar Rouhani [death to Rouhani]" the minister can be heard saying in the video in Farsi, according to a Farsi-speaking Iranian-Canadian who attended the event on Sunday.

The crowd repeats after him, chanting: “Marg bar Rouhani.”

Ontario’s minister of research, innovation and science appeared to encourage the chant during a rally at Toronto’s North York Civic Centre during a speech expressing his “solidarity with the people of Iran.”

The minister’s office told VICE News on Monday that Moridi “called on the Iranian regime to listen to the millions of Iranians who have taken to the streets to call for change, asking them to resign and pave the way for a peaceful transition to a new government.”

“These comments have been taken out of context to imply that Minister Moridi was not advocating for peace,” a spokesperson for the minister wrote in a statement. "Reporting otherwise would be factually incorrect."

But some Iranian Canadians do not see his comments as peaceful at all, and say he should apologize for inciting violence.

'People don’t like this regime'

Protests have swept Iran in the last two weeks in reaction to its poor economic situation, high jobless rates, and anger over alleged government corruption. At least 21 people have been killed in the protests, according to multiple media outlets.

While speaking, Moridi held the flag used in the country prior to Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979. Some see the old flag as a symbol associated with the Shah of Iran, the country’s ousted monarch who “used corruption as a system of government to buy loyalty,” according to a 1978 dispatch from the Washington Post.

Behind the minister was a banner stating: “In solidarity with the people of Iran.”

“People of Iran don’t like this regime,” Moridi said, to cheers from the crowd. "They want this regime to be abolished!”

“They should resign, they should leave office,” he continued. “That’s what the people of Iran want.”

Moridi also gave a shout out to colleagues Conservative MP Peter Kent and Liberal MPP David Zimmer, Ontario minister of transportation Steven Del Duca, MP and chair of the subcommittee on international human rights Michael Levitt, MP Ali Ehsassi, MP Garnett Genius and former MP Peter MacKay, who he said attended the rally.

'Is this real life?'

VICE News confirmed the minister’s comments with Mori Abdolalian, an Iranian-Canadian board member of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, who was outside but heard Moridi’s speech.

“As a human rights activist, I couldn’t believe that he is calling for death [to Rouhani] because Canada as a country doesn’t believe in execution,” Abdolalian said over the phone Monday. He said the minister’s comments raised tensions in the room during his speech.

Pouyan Tabasinejad, policy chair at the Iranian Canadian Congress, posted a video on Facebook of the minister speaking amid the controversial chant.

"Is this real life?" he wrote.

Over the phone Monday, Tabasinejad told VICE News the minister’s comments require an apology, and said Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne should pressure him to address the concerns.

“No Canadian, I believe, or anyone really, should be calling for the death of any individual… It’s completely out of his jurisdiction. He’s a provincial member of Parliament. He shouldn’t be going around calling for the death of any foreign leader,” Tabasinejad said.

“On top of that he’s a minister. We’re not talking about a back bencher. We’re talking about a minister of the most populous province in Canada, so this is really unacceptable.”