Memorial companies are being held Friday for victims of a passenger jet the Iranian military shot down one 12 months in the past.
The ceremonies are a part of a world effort that started with a livestream on Thursday at 9:42 p.m. ET.
That’s the precise second Ukrainian Worldwide Airways Flight PS752 left Tehran’s worldwide airport.
Greater than 100 of the 176 victims had ties to Canada, and at the least 55 have been Canadian residents.
In a press release, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau honoured the victims and expressed solidarity with their family members.
A global group advocating for the victims issued a name Friday for Iran to come back clear on what led to the downing of the aircraft.
That assertion, put out by International Affairs Canada, additionally known as on Iran to compensate victims’ households correctly.
“We urgently name on Iran to offer an entire and thorough rationalization of the occasions and choices that led to this appalling aircraft crash,” the Worldwide Coordination and Response Group for the victims of Flight PS752 stated within the assertion.
“Our nations will maintain Iran to account to ship justice and ensure Iran makes full reparations to the households of the victims and affected nations.”
Outside rallies have been scheduled for numerous cities throughout Canada on Friday, together with Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton.
Daniel Ghods-Esfahani, a medical pupil on the College of Alberta in Edmonton, stated the final 12 months has been tough. His girlfriend, Saba Saadat, her sister Sara and their mom, Dr. Shekoufeh Choupannejad, have been on the flight.
Ghods-Esfahani stated he solely lately began processing {that a} pandemic was taking place on the earth.
“We get up. We have now a routine. We do sure issues all through our day now. However the feeling, like bodily and mentally, is similar to the primary few days after we discovered concerning the downing of the flight,” he stated.
In his assertion, Trudeau stated Canada desires the transparency, accountability and justice that the victims and their households deserve.
“We have now been unrelenting in pursuit of the reality, and Canada is not going to settle for something lower than a complete and trustworthy rationalization from the Iranian regime of what precisely occurred that day,” Trudeau stated.
The prime minister additionally stated Canada would offer a pathway to everlasting residence for some members of the family, and people already right here quickly can apply to increase their keep if wanted.
The federal government, he stated, was additionally designating Jan. eight because the Nationwide Day of Remembrance for Victims of Air Disasters.
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The memorial ceremonies, organized by the Affiliation of Households of Flight PS752 Victims, heard the voices of family members talking Farsi over movies and photographs of faces younger and outdated. Some wished to speak to those that died, others wished to know their final ideas.
Biographies of the 176 victims have been learn all through the evening.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards shot down the aircraft certain for Kyiv shortly after its takeoff from Imam Khomeini Worldwide Airport.
On the time, pressure between Iran and the US had been brewing. A couple of days earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump had ordered a strike on the Baghdad airport, killing a high Iranian basic, Qassem Soleimani. In retaliation, Iran’s army had fired missiles at American forces in Iraq.
Iran initially denied any involvement in downing the airliner, then stated it was shot down by accident after mistaking it for a missile.
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The Iranian authorities lately pledged to pay $150,000 to every of the victims’ households. However members of the family in Canada say they don’t care about compensation, they only need solutions.
Trudeau additionally stated scholarships could be arrange in reminiscence of the victims.
On Friday, Western College introduced an annual $3,000 scholarship within the identify of chemistry PhD pupil Hadis Hayatdavoudi — one among 4 college students on the college in London, Ont., killed on the flight.
© 2021 The Canadian Press
