A 56-year-old man from Burlington, Ont. was arrested and charged with uttering threats that police say targeted hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Toronto who participated Saturday in a global protest against the Iranian government.
According to investigators, Michael David Holland made a threat to cause harm to rally participants on social media.
“The online threat stated intentions of attending the demonstration with a firearm to prevent the gathering,” Toronto police wrote in a press release issued Sunday.
Authorities said they conducted a search warrant on Holland’s residence in Burlington prior to the rally. He was subsequently arrested and charged with one count of uttering threats of death/bodily harm.
Hundreds of thousands marched in North York
Around 350,000 people marched down Yonge Street to the beat of drums and chants of “King Reza Pahlavi” at a rally in North York, as similar protests took place in major cities around the world.
Protesters held aloft and draped themselves in red, white and green flags emblazoned with a golden lion — the flag Iran used before the Islamic Republic came to power in 1979, toppling the previous monarchy.
Demonstrators called for an end to government repression in Iran as widespread protests inside the country have been met with violent crackdowns.
“It’s hard to see that our friends and families in Iran are being kept in prison for no reason, being shot in the head for (using) their democratic voice,” said Nima Najafi.
Najafi said he attended an earlier protest in solidarity with anti-government protesters in Iran that took place two weeks ago at Toronto’s Sankofa Square. He said Saturday’s protest is twice as large.
Toronto police said late Saturday they estimated the crowd at 350,000. A similar peaceful rally earlier this month in downtown Toronto drew 150,000 people.
With files from CityNews’ John Marchesan and The Canadian Press.
