Shahram Yazdanmehr was watching the news Friday night from his home in Parkland County, Alta., when there was a flash about the United States-Israel attack on Iran.

Yazdanmehr, who came to Canada as a refugee in the 1980s, called it a “rough night” as he followed the news. He lived in Yellowknife for more than 30 years and recently moved to Alberta.

Just hours earlier he had exchanged a text with one of his nieces in Tehran. She told her uncle she was going to call him soon. 

“She was busy, but it was early in the morning. And that was it,” he said. 

“That was the last time I heard from her. And then, you know, within an hour the bombardment started.”

He said he thinks there is an internet blackout, phone lines are disconnected and so all communication in and out of Iran is dead. 

Iranian Canadians in the North have been following the joint military strikes on Iran closely, with many anxiously awaiting word from their families while cautiously hoping for a quick and peaceful end to the war.  

Yazdanmehr’s sister, who is about 70 years old, lives in Tehran with her children and extended family. 

He said it is scary thinking of what they must be going through.

“They have children in school. So I assume that they have to go and get the kids out of school and bring them home,” he said. 

“And hunker down and stay as safe as they can to just wait it out and see what happens over the next 24-to-48 hours or so. And then make a decision about their lives.”

He said he is keeping his family in Tehran in his thoughts and prayers and hoping they are safe.

‘All I have is her voice’

Pedram Moradi, who has been in Yukon for three years, said he has “mixed emotions” about the strikes and is hopeful about a possible Iranian regime change.

He spoke with his family at 9:47 p.m. on Friday, but hasn’t been in touch with them since. 

“We’re just a little bit worried about the family living there because we know that any war brings some casualties, which is a big concern  because we all have family back there,” he said. “I have my brother, my parents there … we hope that finally this dark night ends in a bright morning for us.”

There are about 40 Iranian Canadians in Yukon, and most of them plan to have a gathering Saturday night, he said.

Noushin Naziripour, who has been living in Yukon for about 30 years, said she got a message from her aunt just around the time the strikes were launched.

“She said, ‘We are OK. Just pray for us.’”

For Naziripour, the relief of her family’s safety is tempered by the anxiety of an uncertain future.

That same sense of shock gripped Behrokh Bolouhar, who has been in Yukon since 2011. 

Bolouhar said her brother in California called her after he saw the news about the strikes. That’s when she tried calling her family in Tehran, including her parents, brother, cousins and sister-in-law.

“But only my sister-in-law was able to send me a voice message and she was running from work,” she said.

“And all I have is her voice. And she was so worried because there was a big traffic jam everywhere. She was like, ‘Pray for me to get home safely.’ I was just crying and shaking. I have no clue about [how] my family, my dad, my mom and the rest are.”

‘It’s mixed emotions’

Yazdanmehr was awake until around 3:30 a.m. watching the news, and said he was up again early to see if there were any new developments.

“It’s mixed emotions,” he said, referring to the uprising in January that saw Iran crackdown on protesters, and the strikes on the country now.

“It’s been rough navigating through all of those emotions.”

The difference he said he sees between the 12-day war in June 2025 and the current attacks is that last year’s war was targeted in scope and what’s happening now is more widespread.

“What Israel is doing, it looks like it’s a massive, massive attack,” Yazdanmehr said, adding he worries for the innocent people who will suffer in this conflict.

As a member of the Baha’i faith, a religious minority in Iran, Yazdanmehr pointed to sacred writings which say Iran will be the envy of the world.

“But when that future will come, we don’t know it. You know, it may be now, it may be 10 years or it may be hundreds of years, but the future of Iran will be magnificent,” he said. “Inshallah.”