For hours, protesters slowly marched shoulder to shoulder down Toronto’s Yonge Avenue in what appeared like an limitless throng. The dimensions of the rally may solely be really appreciated in photographs taken far above road degree, displaying a kilometre-long stretch of highway filled with folks.
Toronto police estimated that 350,000 demonstrators took over the streets within the metropolis’s north finish on Feb. 14. Salar Gholami, the lead organizer of Iran solidarity protests in Toronto, believes the gang was a lot greater than that.
In any case, the rally was one for the historical past books.
Toronto police say the protest was probably the most important single-day demonstration the town has ever seen.
On the identical day, Vancouver police estimated that fifty,000 folks gathered in a neighborhood park, answering the decision of Iran’s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi for mass demonstrations throughout the globe. Police in Montreal, Calgary and Ottawa say they’ve additionally seen well-attended rallies in current months as folks oppose Iran’s lethal crackdowns on anti-government protests contained in the nation.
These protests’ beautiful crowd sizes have captured headlines, however police in a few of Canada’s largest cities say the rallies are a part of a rising tide of demonstrations they’ve been managing for years.
Toronto police say protests occur weekly, generally day by day, pushed by an “more and more polarized world atmosphere.”
In a single day Saturday, the US and Israel launched an assault on Iran. One other Iran protest was deliberate for Richmond Hill on Saturday. Whereas it wasn’t anticipated to be as giant because the one on Feb. 14 in Toronto, it was deliberate earlier than the assault.
Roughly 4,000 demonstrations have taken place in Toronto since Oct. 7, 2023 – greater than 850 of which had been associated to the battle in Gaza, police say.
Calgary police Employees Sgt. Rod MacNeil, who manages main occasions within the metropolis, stated the regular enhance in protests – 300 per cent over 4 years in Calgary’s case – has been the norm throughout Canada because the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pattern is following proper throughout the nation, from Nova Scotia to British Columbia,” he stated, noting that police time beyond regulation prices rise alongside protest exercise.
“We’re attempting to stability the protection of on a regular basis Calgarians and nonetheless answering the conventional requires service we go to, however then attempting to maintain the general public secure at these protests,” he stated. “It does trigger a little bit of a pressure.”
In Vancouver, the variety of protests elevated by 75 per cent between January 2025 and January 2026, inflicting monetary pressure for the police division, media relations officer Const. Darren Wong stated.
“When it comes to time beyond regulation prices and officers coming in on their days off, that’s an enormous departure from our common pattern,” Wong stated. “With protests, loads of them occur as a mirror to what’s truly occurring within the geopolitical panorama throughout the globe.”
The Canadian Affiliation of Police Chiefs stated in 2024 that elevated protest exercise throughout the nation had led to an “unsustainable demand” on police sources.
From the Black Lives Matter motion to the Freedom Convoy within the early 2020s, to newer pro-Palestine and anti-tariff protests, specialists say Canadians are taking to the streets in rising numbers.
Ronald Stagg, who has been learning protests for greater than 30 years, stated the current 350,000-strong rally in Toronto could have been the largest Canada has ever seen.
“I can’t keep in mind any protest with that many individuals turning out,” the Toronto Metropolitan College professor emeritus stated. “This appears to be distinctive.”
Crowd dimension apart, Stagg stated intervals of intense protest exercise are nothing new. Protests ebb and circulation with political cycles and Canada has been on this place earlier than, he stated, most famously throughout the Vietnam Struggle.
Howard Ramos, a Western College professor learning social change, stated protests have a tendency to extend with political participation. He takes the current spike in protest exercise as an indication that Canadians are “extra politically engaged and more and more pissed off with mainstream political establishments.”
This enhance in protests is being seen worldwide, Ramos stated, pointing to rising demonstrations in the US in opposition to immigration enforcement raids and anti-corruption actions led by Gen Z protesters that toppled governments in Nepal and Madagascar.
What’s distinctive in Canada is the “unprecedented” rise of diaspora-led protests, aimed much less on the Canadian authorities and extra towards calling for change in homelands abroad, Ramos stated.
Earlier than the current Iran rallies, Canada noticed protests led by Tamil-Canadians calling for an finish to the Sri Lankan civil battle in 2009. Police estimated some 30,000 Tamil supporters rallied at Parliament Hill that yr, in line with media studies on the time, and a separate protest in Toronto shut down the busy Gardiner Expressway.
These protests had been a lot smaller as compared, however organizers in 2009 didn’t get pleasure from social media at their fingertips.
“What’s very completely different within the final 15 years is social media has been a recreation changer in mobilizing folks,” Ramos stated. “It’s doable to in a short time get folks into the road for a rally.”
Gholami, the organizer of Iran protests in Toronto, stated Instagram was the principle software he used to unfold the phrase.
“We posted it on Instagram and immediately they share it,” he stated.
Ramos and Stagg each stated that as protests get bigger, so too do the dangers related to controlling crowds – however that doesn’t essentially imply police ought to get extra concerned.
Police interference in protests can result in elevated violence and authorized penalties for officers, Stagg stated, as seen throughout the chaotic G20 riots in Toronto in 2010, which resulted in some Toronto officers being charged for assaulting protesters and thousands and thousands of {dollars} paid out to protesters who had been wrongfully detained.
Stagg stated it’s greatest for police to look at from the sidelines and permit protesters to train their Constitution rights, solely stepping in when mandatory. The nationwide police chiefs’ affiliation, nevertheless, has stated that protests throughout Canada are “more and more escalating from peaceable demonstrations to extra high-risk conditions.”
Within the case of current Toronto rallies in solidarity with Iran protests, nevertheless, police have not often needed to step in. An indication that noticed 150,000 collect within the downtown Sankofa Sq. resulted in “zero incidents,” police stated. One man was arrested for assault on the bigger rally of 350,000 folks.
Gholami stated extra protests are on the horizon as supporters proceed to name for the top of the Islamic Republic rule in Iran.
One other rally is ready to happen Saturday north of Toronto in Richmond Hill, Ont.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Feb. 28, 2026.
Kathryn Mannie, The Canadian Press