Members of the Iranian diaspora living in Winnipeg celebrated in the aftermath of major attacks U.S. President Donald Trump says will topple the Iranian government.

The U.S. and Israel launched the attacks earlier on Saturday. Iranian state media said more than 200 people had been killed.

In Winnipeg, Iranians rallying in the parking lot at Polo Park shopping centre on Saturday said they hope this is the beginning of the end for the Islamic republic.

“I don’t think anyone in the Iranian diaspora has slept yet,” said Shervin Shahidian.

“Are we in a war and people are feeling afraid of the war? No. Actually, people are thinking that this is the way of the liberation that is happening for Iranian people.”

More than a dozen people showed up for Saturday’s rally, the latest in a series of weekly gatherings held in the city since late December, when the Iranian government began a crackdown on widespread protests that activist groups say killed thousands.

“I think most of the Iranian people back home and in diaspora that you have seen from Munich to Toronto to L.A. … were asking for Trump’s support,” Shahidian said.

“This is a surgical attack that is happening, but of course there are innocent lives that will be lost, too. And of course, that’s unavoidable.”

The first apparent strike Saturday hit near the offices of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He has not spoken publicly since the strike.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were growing signs Khamenei was killed in the strike, but Iranian officials have insisted the Ayatollah is safe.

However, Trump has also now claimed Khamenei is dead. In a Saturday afternoon post to Truth Social, he called Iran’s supreme leader “one of the most evil people in History.” 

Shahidian said he hopes the attack will lead to the establishment of a democracy with a transition period steered by Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah. The shah was deposed in the Islamic revolution in 1979.

‘Killing people in the streets is war’

Nafiseh Kiamanesh said the country “absolutely needed” foreign help to be freed.

“We are so thankful to President Trump and Bibi Netanyahu,” she said at Saturday’s rally, referring to Israel’s prime minister.

“We were under this regime for 47 years, and literally all this time we have tried all the ways that were possible, and every time the regime killed our people, there were protests.”

Kiamanesh said a war to topple the Iranian regime will lead to fewer deaths than if the government remains in power.

“Killing people in the streets is war,” Kiamanesh said.

She hasn’t been able to check in with family in Iran because of a complete internet blackout in the country, but said they were happy when she last spoke with them.

Alireza Niazi, another Winnipegger from Iran, said the protesters killed by the regime didn’t have any guns.

He compared U.S. and Israel actions on Saturday to the liberation of France during the Second World War.

“Deep down in my heart I’m sad because of the many people who are not [alive] to see this footage,” he said. “They were trying to … liberate their country from this ayatollah. But they were killed. They were slaughtered.”

Niazi said he’s happy the countries are bombing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and “those who killed our friends, our families, our compatriots.”

“I just woke up and said, ‘Yeah, it finally happened,'” Niazi said.

Canada designated the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization in 2024.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a speech during a visit to India on Saturday that Canada supported U.S. actions to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, which he said would stop Iran’s government from “threatening international peace and security.”