Iran’s embassy in Ottawa, closed since 2012, defaced by anti-regime protest

By Canadian Press on January 13, 2026.

OTTAWA — Iran’s embassy in Ottawa has been defaced, and the national emblem removed from it’s entrance in what appears to be an act of protest against the Iranian regime.

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 of the building and prodding around a gated window.

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

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, when footsteps in the snow were visible behind the embassy’s gate.

The video was posted as Iran has been rocked by large protests over the past two weeks. They 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 impact of the vandalism to 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 are broken off.

Global Affairs Canada says it will provide a comment on its understanding of these obligations.

In Canada, the Swiss embassy is Iran’s “protecting power” — a neutral nation 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.”

Ottawa Police have not responded to a request for comment, while RCMP spokesman Andrew DiRienzo wrote that “this incident is outside of the RCMP’s jurisdiction/mandate.”

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

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 currently has protest posters fixed to its fence — 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 have erupted throughout the country, including in deeply conservative areas, and the government has cut off internet access.

“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.”

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

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press