Families of victims seek justice

While many Canadians long to fly once again to distant and foreign lands, the Iranian-Canadians who lost their loved ones to the crash of flight PS752, have no interest in flying ever again. It has almost been four months since the Ukrainian commercial airplane was shot down in Iran just minutes after take-off, and no black box has been received by international authorities yet. The pain and horror of this event was shortly over-killed by the deadly global virus which put Canadians on a “stay home” order. With this “order”, international flights were cancelled and international relationships modified or cut completely.

Amidst all this chaos, the Canadian government asked Iranian officials to postpone the investigation to after the pandemic had ended and ordered the Canadian investigators back home. Although it is understandable that the lives of all Canadians abroad would be of concern, especially those staying in countries like Iran where the virus really took its toll, one cannot expect the mourning families of this tragedy to accept having to wait any longer for the truth they are searching for. At the time the airplane was shot down, there was talk of war and the region was volatile. This flight was mistakenly shot down like many others in the past, also during hostile times, and it is another tragic story that will live on forever.

Perhaps if this was proven to be true, the mistake about shooting down the airplane, there could be international justice done for the innocent lives which were lost. Although, I’m not sure to what extent the government of Iran is willing to cooperate or even repay for this human error. What do they have to lose here? The Islamic Republic of Iran is used to international sanctions, having no western allies, and poor international reputation. One may ask for what incentive would they even try to prove anything at this point, it couldn’t get any worse. These are difficult times and having to experience a tragedy at this time is like no other.

Iranians continue to post pictures, poems and memories of the lives of those lost around their birthdays, anniversaries, or trips which were booked and cancelled.