The controversial film Iranium will be shown at Library and Archives Canada next month.
The screening has been rescheduled for Feb. 6 after being cancelled because of threats on Tuesday.
“We are committed to ensuring this film is shown in the capital of Canada,” said Fred Litwin, president of the Free Thinking Film Society which arranged the screening.
Library and Archives spokeswoman Pauline Portelance told the Ottawa Citizen the Iranian embassy sent a letter to the library over the weekend requesting that the first screening be cancelled, a request she said was denied.
Litwin said he received a call on Monday from Library and Archives staff saying that the screening was cancelled because of complaints. Staff then offered to move the screening to the Canadian Museum of Nature, according to Litwin.
A spokeswoman at the Canadian Museum of Nature confirmed that staff at the Library and Archives called to check the availability of its theatre for Tuesday evening.
The screening was back on that evening after Litwin contacted the Minister of National Heritage James Moore for assistance, but at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, a senior manager called Litwin and informed him there were protestors inside and outside the building and that the screening was cancelled.
A hazardous materials team and emergency crews responded to the threat of protests and the two suspicious envelopes in the building were later deemed not dangerous. Litwin said he saw no protestors when he arrived at 4:50 p.m.
The website for the Free Thinking Film Society says Iranium documents “the regime’s abusive treatment of their once proud citizenry, and will chronicle the regime’s use of terror proxies abroad to inflict deadly messages on their self-described enemies.”