Protestors outside Kingston City Hall chanted "Woman, Life, Freedom," and "Say Her Name: Mahsa Amini," as they formed a human chain in support of the people of Iran on Saturday afternoon. One of the protestors who asked to be identified as JF says the chain symbolizes the unity of Iranian people.
"They are all fighting for human rights, they are trying to show the world and specifically here to Canadians and people of Kingston that this is only to fight against any sort of violence and everyone, everywhere in the world has the right to have a good life," says JF.
The protests were sparked in September, after the death of 22 year old Mahsa Jina Amini while in morality police custody. JF says it's really important to say her full name.
"She was a Kurdish-Iranian woman. It's really important to always have Jina, her Kurdish name beside the other name Mahsa which is the formal name because so many ethnics in Iran including Kurds and Turks do not have the right to use their own language to name their children...So many times they are suppressed only because of a different name which is not the majority of Iran."
JF says it's no longer just a movement, it's a revolution.
"It's already a revolution for at least a few weeks now. People are fighting with their lives for really peaceful protests, they get shot by real gun shots to death...People of Iran are trying to say we don't want this regime, they have to be gone, these people are not representing our beautiful country...People with different ethnicities and different religions raise their voice for the first time because they were really suppressed."
A member of the Queen's University Iranian Association who asked to be identified as FM says,
"We want to put some pressure on the federal government to stop supporting our government...It's terrorist actually...how can they give VISAs? They are killer. We want to stop Canada giving VISAs to our government."
MP Mark Gerretsen was present at the protest and commented on the federal government's role:
Human Chains were formed all over the world on Saturday as part of a "Global Human Chain." Protests have been ongoing for over 40 days following Amini's death.
Listen to the full CFRC story below: