Families urge Ottawa to hold Iran accountable for crash
Canada must boost its efforts to hold Iran to account after the regime’s forces shot down a passenger jet two years ago, family members of the victims said Saturday.
At a memorial for those who died on board the Ukrainian International Airlines flight on Jan. 8, 2020, a group representing their loved ones expressed anger and exasperation at Iran’s intransigence and the “glacial” pace of accountability.
“Our patience is exhausted. Today is the day when diplomacy ends and justice begins,” said Hamed Esmaeilion, who heads the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims.
The group is demanding that the case go before the International Civil Aviation Organization — a United Nations agency based in Montreal — and that the RCMP launch a criminal investigation.
It is also calling for arrest warrants and government sanctions against senior Iranian political and military leaders, and for the designation of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.
The regime snubbed another deadline earlier this week set by Canada and its allies to negotiate a settlement for the families.
Nearly 140 of the 176 people killed in the plane crash had ties to Canada, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
“We keep writing polite letters, one after another,” Esmaeilion said of the federal government. “We will not relent with an empty, shallow apology and political gamesmanship … We shall never forget, nor shall we ever forgive.”
At the partly virtual commemoration in Toronto’s north end, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada “will not rest” until Iran is held accountable.
“I promise you we will always continue fighting for the accountability, transparency and justice you deserve,” he said.
Speaking by video, Trudeau attributed the disaster to “recklessness and complete disregard for human life of Iranian officials — we cannot allow that to stand.”
The words came as cold comfort to some.
Kourosh Doustshenas, whose 39-year-old fiancée, Forough Khadem, was among the victims, said the ongoing battle to hold Iran responsible “leaves no time to heal.”
“Every morning I wake up and the last thing I think of is Forough, in my mind, in front of my eyes,” he said from his home in Winnipeg.
The Saturday ceremony included speeches by three federal cabinet ministers as well as Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor John Tory. The two leaders called the downing a “most heinous act” and “deliberate act of terrorism,” respectively.
Mothers recited victims’ names, at times tearfully, between video montages that featured loved ones.
On Monday an Ontario court awarded more than $107 million to families of six of the victims, though it remains unclear how the money might be collected from Iran.
The Jan. 8, 2020, tragedy unfolded against a backdrop of escalating violence in the region. Days earlier, a U.S. drone strike killed Iran’s top military commander in Iraq.
Iran then retaliated by launching missile attacks on bases in Iraq where American troops were stationed.
Then came the shootdown of PS752 just under seven minutes after takeoff from Tehran’s main airport. Iran initially denied responsibility but admitted three days later that its Revolutionary Guard mistakenly hit the Ukrainian jetliner with two surface-to-air missiles.
Iran has blamed human error, but Canada and its allies have dismissed the explanation.