Police say person arrested following anti-regime protest at Iran’s empty embassy

OTTAWA — One person was arrested on trespassing-related charges after Iran’s shuttered embassy was defaced during an anti-regime protest Monday that saw the country’s national emblem torn from the entrance.

Ottawa police said they were called to the embassy around 5:50 a.m. on Jan. 12, after someone reported a person had jumped a fence at the embassy in the city’s downtown.

The building has been vacant since Canada cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012.

A video posted to social media shows a protester behind a security fence removing Iran’s national emblem from above a set of exterior doors and prodding around a gated window.

The removed emblem is the seal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which also appears on the country’s flag. The video shows the emblem being replaced by a sign and a flag featuring a lion and a sun, which were Iran’s national emblems before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Police say they are aware of the video circulating on social media and are investigating it for “other possible offences.”

The Canadian Press has not verified the video, which reportedly was recorded early Monday morning, but it has confirmed that the national emblem was no longer above the exterior doors as of Monday afternoon.

The embassy vandalism comes as Iran is being rocked by large protests that started in Tehran but have now spread across the country.

The impact of the vandalism on the embassy is not yet clear. The Vienna Convention says a country must “respect and protect” the premises of diplomatic properties, even when diplomatic relations have been broken off.

Global Affairs Canada said in an email statement that as host country, Canada has obligations related to diplomatic properties of foreign states. It said the department is unable to comment on specific cases.

The statement said Canada maintains a “controlled engagement policy” with Iran, which “limits contact to issues related to Iran’s nuclear program, regional security, human rights and consular matters.”

In Canada, the Swiss Embassy is Iran’s “protecting power” — a neutral country placed in charge of another country’s diplomatic properties and some consular services inside a state where that country no longer has an official presence.

Italy plays the same role on Canada’s behalf in Tehran.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations acknowledged a query from The Canadian Press but has not yet provided a statement. The Swiss Embassy in Ottawa says its foreign ministry “does not comment on activities carried out under its protecting power mandate.”

Someone splashed red paint at the embassy’s main door before this week, and the tattered Iranian flag hanging outside the building has faded to white.

The embassy had protest posters fixed to its fence Tuesday — something protesters also did in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died in police custody in Tehran after being arrested for not wearing her head scarf properly.

The latest protests started with Iranians expressing anger over the rising cost of living, as well as water and electricity shortages, but have since escalated into public calls for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s resignation.

The Iranian government has responded with force and has temporarily severed communications in the country. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the number of protesters killed has surpassed 2,000.

“Things are just getting worse and worse for the Islamic Republic,” said University of Ottawa professor Thomas Juneau, who studies Iran.

He said anti-regime protests have escalated four times in severity since 2009.

“The protests this time are different. They are broader, they are deeper, they are wider than they have been in the past,” he said, adding the protests could escalate further.

The protests come as Iran’s influence through its proxies has waned in the Middle East, due to Israel’s attacks on Hamas and Hezbollah and the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria.

“My view remains that the fall of the regime is not imminent, simply because by all indications, the regime still retains control of more than enough repressive capacity to fight its way out of this again,” said Juneau.

“That being said, I don’t view that as a certainty — whereas until past rounds of protests, I did view it as a certainty that the regime would survive.”

Global Affairs Canada, which has advised against travel to Iran for more than a decade, amended its warning on Tuesday to note the “ongoing nationwide demonstrations” and to suggest Canadians in Iran leave immediately.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 13, 2026.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press