The Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800, which crashed Wednesday (January 8th) near Tehran a few minutes after takeoff, had 63 Canadians on board, the vast majority of whom were of Iranian origin. Canada is home to a large Iranian diaspora, estimated at over 210,000 people, according to the last census conducted by Statistics Canada in 2016. Many of these passengers took advantage of the Christmas holidays to visit their families in Iran. And took place aboard this plane chartered by the company UIA, which offers relatively economical flights between Toronto and Tehran with stopover in Kiev.
From coast to coast to coast, the nation has been hit by the deadliest air disaster for its citizens since the 1985 Air India Boeing 747 bombing of 268 Canadians. death. Manitoba, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Quebec are in mourning, but two provinces are paying a particularly heavy price: Alberta, with close to 30 victims living in Edmonton and Ontario, where the Toronto region welcomes most of this Iranian-Canadian community. Which sometimes earned the city the nickname "Tehranto".
The identities of most of these victims were confirmed and then shelled throughout the day. Among them, many families including a couple of professors from the University of Alberta who disappeared with his two young daughters or a couple of young engineers just graduated from Concordia University in Montreal, who had just obtained Canadian citizenship. and who returned from their marriage celebrated in Iran. Many students from the universities of Winnipeg, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal were among the passengers, with university vacations coming to an end in Canada. Meditation ceremonies were organized in these Canadian universities on Wednesday afternoon. The Canadian flag was flown at half-mast on the Peace Tower which overlooks Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
"Get all the answers"
A member of the Iranian community in Edmonton, Payman Paseyan, former president of the Iranian heritage society, testified on CBC television about the drama experienced by the Iranians of Canada: "These people come to Canada often wondering whether it is right to leave their loved ones behind. But they hope to provide a better life for their families. Their relatives, anxious to see tension mounting between the United States and Iran, impatiently awaited their return. " Many learned of the plane crash from a special flash as they watched the latest news on the Iranian strikes in Iraq on television.
