THE CANADIAN VICTIMS

Seventeen of the 18 Canadians aboard the doomed jetliner have been publicly identified.

Dixits and Vaidyas

Among the 157 victims were six members of an Ontario family: Prerit Dixit, 45, his wife Kosha, 37, their daughters Ashka, 14, and Anushka, 13, and Kosha’s parents, Pannagesh Vaidya, 71, and Hansini Vaidya, 63.

Prerit, who was originally from Surat. India, was a biotechnologist. He, his wife and their girls were Canadian citizens living in the Toronto suburb of Brampton.

Manant Vaidya said the family was planning a safari in Kenya and a visit to his sister’s birthplace of Mombasa in Kenya.

He said his parents were from Gujarat, India, but they lived in Kenya for three or four years. The family later returned to India. Kosha moved to Ontario in 2004 after marrying her husband, who already lived in Canada.

The girls were strong students and enrolled in specialized science and technology courses, Manant said.

Angela Rehhorn

The Canadian Wildlife Federation says Angela Rehhorn was on her way to participate in the United Nations Environmental Assembly in Nairobi when the plane went down.

The federation says Rehhorn, a recent graduate of Dalhousie University in Halifax, participated in its Canadian Conservation Corps, a volunteer program for Canadians ages 18 to 30.

Stephanie Lacroix

Lacroix was working with the United Nations Association in Canada. Her Linkedin profile says she graduated in 2015 with an honours degree in International Development and Globalization from the University of Ottawa.

Sylvie Lamarche Lacroix, confirmed from her home in Timmins, Ont., that her daughter died in the crash.

Darcy Belanger

A former Edmonton resident, Belanger was travelling to Nairobi to attend the UN Environment Assembly. He was the founding member and director of strategic initiatives for the conservation non-profit Parvati.org.

His Linkedin profile says he was also working as a U.S. director of professional development with PCL Construction in Denver, Colo.

Pius Adesanmi

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.

Adesanmi is the author of Naija No Dey Carry Last, a collection of satirical essays.

“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.

Amina Ibrahim Odowaa and Sofia Faisal Abdulkadir

The 33-year-old Edmonton woman and her fiveyear-old daughter were travelling to Kenya to visit relatives.

Her brother, Mohamed Hassan Ali of Toronto, said he had planned to travel with them but had to cancel last week.

“(She was) a very nice person, very outgoing, very friendly — had a lot of friends,” he said.

A family friend said Odowaa had lived in Edmonton since 2006.

Derick Lwugi

An accountant with the City of Calgary, Lwugi was on his way to Kenya to visit both his and his wife’s parents.

“His mom was not feeling well,” Lwugi’s wife, Gladys Kivia, said in a brief interview from Calgary.

The couple have three children, aged 17, 19 and 20, all of whom live at home.

Jessica Hyba

Hyba, 43, had worked as a senior external relations officer with the UN refugee agency in Mogadishu, Somalia, since February. She joined the agency in 2013 in Iraq, and before that worked for Care Canada, Care International and UNICEF.

CARE Canada said Hyba had worked in Indonesia as part of the emergency response to the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

The Ottawa-born Hyba leaves behind a family including two daughters, aged 9 and 12.

Micah Messent

Messent was an environmentalist from British Columbia who expressed his joy on social media at being able to attend the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi.

In an Instagram post, he said he had been selected by the United Nations Association of Canada to attend the assembly and was travelling to Kenya on Sunday where he would “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.”

Peter demarsh

Described by a longtime family friend in New Brunswick as a dedicated community activist, demarsh also travelled the world as chairman of the International Family Forestry Alliance.

Genevieve Macrae recalled how demarsh and his wife Jean Burgess helped establish the Taymouth Community Association in central New Brunswick 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.”

Danielle Moore

A 24-year-old marine biology student from Winnipeg, Moore graduated from Dalhousie University in Halifax in 2017.

She posted on Facebook on Saturday morning that she would be travelling to Nairobi, Kenya, for the United Nations Environment Assembly.

“Over the next week, I’ll have the opportunity to discuss global environmental issues, share stories, and connect with other youth and leaders from all over the world,” she wrote.

“I feel beyond privileged to be receiving this opportunity.”