The end of winter break for schools and limited travel options between Iran and Canada contributed to the loss of Canadian lives on board a flight bound for Kyiv that crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran, according to a spokesperson for the Iranian Canadian Congress.
All 176 people aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 were killed early Wednesday morning, including 138 passengers travelling to Canada, many of whom were students, researchers or lecturers with ties to schools across the country.
“Unfortunately, because of sanctions, there are not many options available to the Iranian-Canadian community to travel to Iran, and the ones that are available are not very affordable,” said Younes Zangiabadi, research director and board member of the ICC. Sixty-three of the dead were Canadian citizens.
Canada broke off diplomatic relations with Iran in 2012. There are no direct flights between Canada and Iran, which means passengers have to use connecting flights. They would have had no choice but to take the longer but most affordable route through Kyiv, Zangiabadi said.
“We hear that most of the people, especially the students, had gone to Iran for winter holidays and were just coming back now as school is starting,” said Zangiabadi. Iranian Canadians frequently choose this time of year to visit relatives in Iran while children are out of school, he said.
“I personally know nine people who were on the flight, and they all went to Iran for holidays and they were just getting back — which unfortunately never happened.”
Delaram Dadashnejad, 26, was studying nutrition at Langara College. (Ksenia Ivanova)
On the 2016 census, 210,405 Canadians list Iran as their ethnic origin, but Zangiabadi pegs the number at closer to 300,000 now, a little less than one per cent of the population of Canada.
“Our Iranian Canadian community have long requested the Canadian government to establish a direct flight between Canada and Iran,” he said.
The ICC discussed this with federal Transportation Minister Marc Garneau but never reached a conclusion, he said.
U.S. travel ban also limits options
Travelling via U.S. flight hubs is not an option because Iran is one of the countries subject to a travel ban issued by U.S. President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2017.
Although the ban faced several court challenges, it came into full effect in December 2017.
Reuters is reporting that Edmonton’s tight-knit Iranian Canadian community lost 30 people in the crash.
A close friend confirmed this to be University of Toronto student Mojtaba Abbasnezhad, a victim of Wednesday’s crash. (Mojtaba Abbasnezhad/Facebook)
“There’s no real words for it. It’s devastating. We lost about one per cent of our entire community on that flight,” said Payman Parseyan, who knew many people from the city’s Iranian community who perished in the crash. “Every one of our community members was touched in one way or another when that plane went down.”
“Many gave up a life that they had in Iran, the people that they knew, they worked tirelessly to get to the place where they were, and to lose it like this, it’s terrible.”
WATCH | Payman Parseyan talks about the loss to the Iranian community in Edmonton
Edmonton’s Payman Parseyan reflects on the ‘devastation’ after learning people he knew were killed in the Iran plane crash 7:08
Among the numerous members of the academic community who died in the crash are 10 University of Alberta students, faculty members or alumni, said David Turpin, president of the university in Edmonton.
“Everyone on campus today is mourning the incredible loss of talent. These are wonderful people who have already contributed so much to our institution and had such bright futures ahead of them,” said Turpin.
The university has close to 500 Iranian students on campus at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
“We are in mourning and offer our complete support and condolences to the family, friends and all of those affected.”
Canada a popular destination for Iranian students
Data compiled by the Canadian Bureau for International Education, a non-profit group of Canadian educational institutions, found that students from Iran comprise two per cent of Canada’s international student population, numbering around 11,000 as of 2018.
Samira Bashiri, left, was a researcher at the University of Windsor, where her husband, Hamid Setareh Kokab, right, was a PhD student in mechanical engineering. (Submitted by Sahar Nikoo)
It also said that in 2017-2018 Iranian students were the second-fastest growing group of international students in Canada.
In addition to the University of Alberta, the institutions that have confirmed that their students, faculty or recent grads were on board are:
University of Manitoba.
University of Waterloo.
University of Windsor.
University of British Columbia.
Western University.
University of Guelph.
University of Toronto.
McGill University.
Aviron Technical Institute.
Concordia University.
Dalhousie University.
St. Mary’s University.
Langara College.
The University of Windsor said Wednesday that at least five individuals who appear on the passenger list are members of its student and research community.
“The entire University of Windsor is heartbroken by this news and we extend our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of everyone impacted by this terrible tragedy,” said president Robert Gordon in a written statement.
Four University of Toronto students have been identified as victims of the crash.
“On behalf of the entire University of Toronto community, I want to say how deeply saddened we are, and how concerned we are for the families and friends of those who lost their lives,” Meric Gertler, president of the university, said in a statement.
Likewise, Western University in London, Ont., confirmed it was aware of four students who perished in the crash, according to a statement from the president.
Saint Mary’s in Halifax said in a statement that two students in its Master of Finance program were on the flight manifest.
Also in Halifax, Dalhousie University confirmed in a statement that members of its community had also died in the crash but did not share names or numbers.
For Canada, the crash represents the largest loss of life involving an aircraft since the bombing of Air India Flight 182, which exploded over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland in 1985, killing all 329 on board, of which 268 were Canadian.
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.
