TORONTO —
A Ukrainian Boeing-737 jet carrying 176 people, including 63 Canadians, has crashed in Iran.
There were no survivors, according to officials.
Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 to Kyiv went down minutes after taking off from Tehran’s main international airport on Wednesday morning. The plane crashed into farmland outside of the capital, scattering debris across the area.
The cause of the crash remains unknown, however, Iranian authorities said they suspect a mechanical error was to blame.
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Here’s what we know so far about the Canadian victims:
MOUSAVI FAMILY
Four members of the Mousavi family from Edmonton were on the flight. They were: Pedram Mousavi (father), Mojgan Daneshmand (mother), Darya Mousavi (daughter) and Darina Mousavi (daughter).
Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand were engineering professors at the University of Alberta. The flight’s manifest lists the daughters’ birth years as 2010 for Darina and 2005 for Darina.
Payman Parseyan, a member of Edmonton’s Iranian community, says many Iranians fly back to the country over the holidays to visit family. “As soon as we heard about the plane going down, I immediately thought that this is a flight that’s leaving the country,” he told CTV News Edmonton.
GHANIMAT AZHDARI
Azhdari was born in 1983 and was a PhD student at the University of Guelph. A statement from the university said she was on her way back to Guelph after visiting her family in Iran over the December break. “In addition to her scholarly work, Ghanimat was a proud member of the Qashaqi tribe in Iran and a powerful and passionate young leader, at the international level, in advancing the rights of Indigenous Peoples,” reads the statement from the university’s department of geography, environment and geomatics.
She was also a member of the ICAA Consortium, a global organization promoting recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Areas and Territories.
MILAD GHASEMI ARIANI
Ariani was a PhD student at the University of Guelph’s department of marketing and consumer studies. In a statement, the university said Ariani was returning to Guelph from visiting Iran.
“We are deeply saddened to hear of the tragic loss of two of our students,” said University of Guelph president Franco Vaccarino. “Our thoughts go out to the families of these two students and to anyone else affected by this tragedy.”
BEHNAZ KHOEI EBRAHIMI & RAHMTIN AHMADI
Behnaz Khoei Ebrahimi worked for the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation in Toronto. Her son, Rahmtin Ahmadi, was also on the flight. Ahmadi’s birth year is listed on the manifest as 2010.
NASER POURSHABANOSHIBI & FIROUZEH MADANI
Both medical doctors, this couple from North Vancouver was in Iran for the holidays, visiting Naser’s family. They’re survived by their 20-year-old daughter, Kimia, who returned from Iran earlier this week to prepare for classes.
SHEKOUFEH CHOUPANNEJAD
Choupannejad was an obstetrician-gynecologist in Edmonton. Staff at the north end clinic she worked at confirmed her identity to CTV News.
FOROUGH KHADEM
Khadem worked at research organization Mitacs, in Winnipeg. Mitacs confirmed in a statement that she has been working as a business development specialist since 2016, “and had been a passionate supporter of innovation in Manitoba ever since.”
Mitacs’ Chief Business Development Officer Eric Bosco added: “We will remember Forough’s passion for Mitacs, enthusiasm for innovation in Manitoba, and her positive outlook on life. We will miss her humour, her kindness, and her warm spirit.”
ALINA TARBHAI
Tarbhai was an administrative clerk for the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation. “She was respected and well-liked by all. Her passing represents a profound loss for all of us who worked with her,” reads a statement by the federation.
HAMIDI FAMILY
This family of 3 from Metro Vancouver was among the victims, a friend of the family confirmed with CTV News. They were: Ardalan Ebnoddin Hamidi (father), Niloufar Ebrahim (mother) and Kamyar Ebnoddin Hamidi (son).
SIAVASH GHAFOURI-AZAR & SARA MAMANI
A couple from Montreal, Ghafouri-Azar and Mamani were both former engineering students at Concordia University.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
