Aid workers, doctors, students
18 Canadians died on Flight 302. Here’s the latest on what we know about them
What we know about the Canadians who perished,
á The Dixit family, Brampton Ashka Dixit, 14, and her sister, Anushka Dixit, 13, were on the flight along with their parents, Prerit Dixit, 45, and Kosha Vaidya, 37, and grandparents Pannagesh, 73, and Hansini
Vaidya, 67. Manant Vaidya — who lost his parents, sister, brother-in-law and two nieces — told the Star in an interview that the family was travelling to Kenya for March break.
“The news came at night,” he said from his Brampton home. “Our phone rang like 15, 20 times.”
Manant Vaidya said his sister was thrilled to bring her two daughters back to her place of birth. It was also a much-anticipated trip for the grandparents who hadn’t been to Kenya in more than 30 years.
Ashka was a student at Chinguacousy Secondary School in Brampton and Anushka went to Centennial Sr. Public School.
Stéphanie Lacroix, 25, Timmins, Ont.
Lacroix was passionate about youth education and life-skills development in both Canada and southern Africa. Her mother, Sylvie Lamarche Lacroix of Timmins, Ont., confirmed her death in a Facebook message.
She was working with the United Nations Association in Canada to help engage young Canadians in the UN’s work to grow global citizens as a project officer with the association’s Canada Service Corps, her LinkedIn profile says.
She graduated in 2015 with an honours degree in international development and globalization from the University of Ottawa. She was a board member of the African Community Fund for Education Canada and previously volunteered with Free the Children.
“My beautiful niece Stéphanie, a young beautiful servant leader, employed by the United Nations and living her dream of helping people ... perished on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302,” Gilles Lamarche wrote on Facebook. “You are loved and will always be. You leave an exceptional legacy of love and service, and will be missed by thousands. You left your mark without a doubt and made a BIG difference.”
In an interview, Jasveen Brar said she met Lacroix at the COP24 climate-change summit in Poland. “She was a mentor to me and the two other guys that were selected for the conference. Since the COP, we kept in touch over email, where she offered me lots of advice about my career and life. She really was a star,” Brar said.
Darcy Belanger, 46, Edmonton
Belanger was on his way to the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi. Originally from Edmonton, he was a fierce advocate for the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS) — a treaty that aims to declare the Arctic Ocean an international peace park — and posted excitedly while on a layover in Washington, D.C., about plans to discuss the proposal.
He was attending the UN assembly as part of his volunteer work with Parvati.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the environmental and social welfare of the planet. He was a founding member of the organization in 2014 and served as its director of strategic initiatives.
Parvati Devi, the primary founder, said Belanger volunteered on top of working fulltime at PCL as director of professional development, first in Edmonton and more recently in Denver.
Devi said Belanger’s work has always been integral to the non-profit.
“We called him our quarterback,” Devi said.
A statement released by Parvati.org hailed Belanger as a hero who personally brought the MAPS treaty to four different UN Climate Change conferences, starting in 2015 in Paris, and who fiercely promoted its role in preserving the planet’s resources.
“He was passionately devoted to the protection of all life through the realization of MAPS,” the statement read. “On March 10, 2019, he literally gave it his life.”
Angela Rehhorn
A recent graduate of Dalhousie University and member of the Canadian Conservation Corps, Rehhorn was on her way to Nairobi to participate in the United Nations Environmental Assembly on Monday.
The Canadian Wildlife Federation, which oversees the Canadian Conservation Corps, confirmed she’d been on the flight in a post to its Facebook account Monday afternoon.
“Angela shared the excitement and optimism of volunteering and working to improve our world,” said Rick Bates, the federation’s CEO, in the Facebook post. “Her life is an inspiration to us all.”
Rehhorn had a keen interest in the natural world. She’d gone to Kananaskis, Alta., and B.C.’s Pacific Rim National Park as part of the Canadian Conservation Corps and was working on a citizen science project on bat conservation, according to the federation’s post.
She had a bachelor of science from Dalhousie, graduating with a double major in marine biology and sustainability.
Jasspreet Sahib, a science writer based in Victoria, B.C., went to school with Rehhorn and remembers going to marine-biology class together.
“I remember her as cheerful, kind, encouraging and intelligent,” she recalled.
Sahib remembers their combined love for studying marine animals.
“I fondly remember looking at brittle stars, polychaete worms, sea stars and lobsters together and being ever so fascinated by them all. We also loved drawing them together,” she said.
Micah Messent, Courtenay, B.C.
Messent, a Métis environmentalist who grew up in Courtenay, B.C., was working in Indigenous relations at BC Parks when he was selected as a delegate for the United Nations Assembly of the Environment in Kenya. He wrote about the assignment in a “surprise” Facebook post — his last before he died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash. “I’ll have the chance to meet with other passionate youth and leaders from around the world and explore how we can tackle the biggest challenges that are facing our generation,” he wrote on March 8. “I’m so grateful for this opportunity and want to thank all of the people in my life who have helped me get this far.”
On Monday, the post was accompanied by hundreds of messages of condolence from friends and acquaintances, referencing his leadership, “infectious” smile and generosity.
Messent worked in BC Parks’ Indigenous relations department for nearly two years — initially as part of the Indigenous Youth Internship Program and then as a full-time analyst in the employ of B.C.’s Public Service.
On Monday, the First Nations Leadership Council released a statement calling Messent a “well liked member” of his internship cohort. The council said the “avid sailor” had ambitions to go to law school.
A member of Messent’s family told the Star they wouldn’t issue a statement at this time, asking for privacy.
Peter deMarsh, New Brunswick
DeMarsh is being remembered as “one of the great New Brunswickers,” a man who “fought for the little guy” whether he was in his home province or thousands of miles away. He hailed from Taymouth, just north of the provincial capital of Fredericton.
Genevieve MacRae recalled how deMarsh and his wife Jean Burgess helped establish the Taymouth Community Association more than a decade ago.
“Peter and his wife Jean made a pretty powerful team,” said MacRae, a friend of deMarsh’s since her childhood. “They were always looking for how to improve the lives of the people around them.”
MacRae said deMarsh was a pillar of the Taymouth community.
“He was warm, funny, passionate — you always felt listenedto with Peter,” MacRae said. “He was an intense person, except that doesn’t signify the warmth that was behind it all ... It’s a monumental loss for our community.”
DeMarsh was en route to a conference on financing for small farms as chairman of the International Family Forestry Alliance, an international group based in Luxembourg that represents more than 25 million forest owners worldwide.
“The forestry community lost an incredible man this weekend,” said Derek Nighbor, CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada. “He was a true champion of forestry on the global stage.”
Jessica Hyba, 43, Ottawa
Hyba, who recently moved from Geneva for her latest assignment with the UN Refugee Agency in Somalia in February, is being remembered as a “dedicated humanitarian and cherished mother.”
The 43-year-old Ottawa woman attended Confederation High School in Welland and graduated from SOAS University of London — a leading institution for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East — before joining CARE Canada in the capital in 2001. She worked in Indonesia on the tsunami response in Aceh from 2006 to 2008.
Hyba, mother of two daughters, 9 and 12, joined the UN Refugee Agency in Iraq in 2013 and also worked at its headquarters in Geneva before taking up the job as Senior External Relations Officer in Mogadishu in February.
“We’ve been struck by sudden and terrible loss,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, whose agency also lost two other staff to the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday. “UNHCR has lost dedicated humanitarians who tirelessly worked for the millions worldwide forced to flee wars and persecution.”
Calling Hyba a “dedicated humanitarian and cherished mother,” Gillian Barth, president and CEO of CARE Canada, said she had known Hyba since 2001 when she was hired as a program officer and later promoted to be a manager. The two stayed in touch even after she left for the UN Refugee Agency.
“We are devastated. It’s the worst nightmare for those of us who travel a lot and have young children.”
Danielle Moore, 24, Toronto
Moore, who lived in Winnipeg, was on her way to the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi as part of a delegation with the United Nations Association in Canada. Moore posted about her upcoming trip on Facebook, saying, “I feel beyond privileged to be receiving this opportunity.”
In Winnipeg, Moore worked with Canada Learning Code for almost a year, where she taught coding and promoted digital literacy to youth throughout Manitoba, northwestern Ontario and Nunavut.
Melissa Sariffodeen, the organization’s CEO, remembered Moore fondly, and said her work has touched the lives of thousands.
“Danielle was a smart, passionate, and a friendly woman who dedicated her life to helping others,” Sariffodeen said in a written statement. “So much so that she would often take her vacation days to volunteer for various causes that were dear to her heart.”
She was also remembered by Pinnguaq, a non-profit group in Iqaluit that runs a Makerspace where Moore visited and taught in December.
“The kids knew her, affectionately, as ‘the girl with the robots,’ ” a statement from the group said.
“Ever wonder if an eight-yearold with a robot could improve the world? You just had to watch Danielle teach, and her students would show you how,” the statement read.
Moore attended Francis Libermann Catholic High School in Scarborough, where she was valedictorian of her 2012 graduating class and a member of the school’s eco team. Paul Wilson, a music teacher at the school who taught Moore for six years, said her goal was always to change the world in some way, “and she was actually doing it.”
“She was one of the smartest, brightest students to walk through those doors,” Wilson said.
Derick Lwugi, Calgary
Lwugi, an accountant with the City of Calgary, was on his way to Kenya to visit both his and his wife’s parents, who live in the west of the country.
“His mom was not feeling well,” Lwugi’s wife, Gladys Kivia, said in a brief interview from Calgary.
The couple have three children, ages 17, 19 and 20, all of whom live at home. The family has lived in Calgary for 12 years.
Lwugi was an important figure in the Calgary Kenyan community. He founded the Kenyan Community in Calgary group and served as its president until 2012. He was also on the board of the non-profit Abeingo Association of Canada.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he was “absolutely crushed” to learn one of his colleagues had died in the crash, calling it a loss for the city’s broader African community. Nenshi said he’d spoken with Gladys Kivia on Monday and offered the city’s support should her family require it.
A Nigerian professor with Carleton University in Ottawa, Adesanmi was on his way to a meeting of the African Union’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council in Nairobi, said John O. Oba, Nigeria’s representative to the panel. The author of Naija No Dey
Carry Last, a collection of satirical essays, Adesanmi had degrees from Ilorin and Ibadan universities in Nigeria, and the University of British Columbia. He was director of Carleton’s Institute of African Studies, according to the university’s website. He was also a former assistant professor of comparative literature at Pennsylvania State University.
“Pius was a towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship and his sudden loss is a tragedy,” said Benoit-Antoine Bacon, Carleton’s president and vice-chancellor.
Adesanmi was the winner of the inaugural Penguin Prize for African non-fiction writing in 2010.
Amina Ibrahim Odowa, 33, and Safiya Faisal Abdulkadir Egal, 5, Edmonton
Odowa had lived in Edmonton since 2006 but had been raised in Kenya. According to a family friend, she left Canada on Saturday for Nairobi to visit relatives and show her daughter the country where she grew up.
Her brother, Mohamed Hassan Ali, described her as a very outgoing woman who contributed greatly to Edmonton’s Somali community. She was always at one event or another, he said, and had a very wide circle of friends. Since her death, he’s been inundated with callers from across the country and Africa expressing their condolences.
“She was family for everyone, to some extent,” Ali said Monday.
Her two surviving daughters, ages 7 and 3, are still in Edmonton with Odowa’s mother.
Safiya, who also died on the flight, was also very extroverted and talkative in a manner closer to that of a 10-year-old, according to Ali.
“She’s the one who took after her mom in every step,” he said.