Dr. Arsalan Kahnemuyipour, Professor of Linguistics and Chair of the Department of Language Studies at UofT, speaks about Iran, the scale of the massacre committed by the Islamic regime against the people of Iran, and the critical importance of accurate media narratives—not allowing the regime’s propaganda to shape the story.
About 20 years ago, I knew Dr. Kahnemuyipour, his wife, and their children.
I have nothing but trust and appreciation for Arsalan, who was patient with my dumbest questions when I knew bupkis about Iran and even less about Linguistics.
David Cochrane's apology (in this video) to Iranian-Canadians for failing to push back on regime propaganda is prety good, and I would like to see more in the news media own their f*ckups like that.
And good on the CBC for bringing Arsalan on to correct the record.
Excerpt:
...it might have started because of economic crisis...but we have had protests in Iran a chain of protests...going back to 2009 even before that. So this is a continuation of those protests and it has come to the point that the strong majority of the population felt that they could go on the streets and in millions and demand this end to the Islamic Republic. And to suggest that this was instigated by Israel or foreign forces is obviously offensive to the Iranian Canadian community.
Iranian state TV issued the first official death toll from recent protests, saying 3,117 people were killed. State television stated that 2,
