Thursday, January 09, 2020

Trudeau thanks Canadian allies for offering diplomatic support in Tehran in wake of Ukraine airliner crash
MICHELLE CARBERT AND BILL CURRY
OTTAWA
PUBLISHED JANUARY 8, 2020

Trudeau, seen here holding a news conference in Ottawa
on Jan. 8, 2020, said he could not categorically rule out
the possibility that the plane was shot down.
SEAN KILPATRICK/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Italy and other Canadian allies with a diplomatic presence in Iran are helping to provide consular support for the friends and family of the dozens of Canadians killed aboard a Ukraine International Airlines flight that crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran.

All 176 people on board died, including at least 63 Canadians.

Canada suspended diplomatic relations with Iran in 2012 and the Italian embassy in Tehran has been representing Canadian interests in the country since then through an arrangement known as a protecting power.

At a news conference in Ottawa Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and thanked Canada’s allies for their immediate help.

“We’ve had many countries step up to offer their support and assistance as we move forward, whether it’s Ukraine or countries like Australia, Italy, France to assist us in our consular work on the ground," he said.

The Prime Minister was asked whether he could categorically rule out the possibility that the plane was shot down.

“I cannot," he said. "It is too early to speculate. I would encourage people not to speculate. We are certainly aware that this is a terrible, terrible tragedy. Our focus today is on the many, many families who are grieving and our focus in the days and weeks to come will be on answering the questions that they have and that indeed we all have as to how this happened.”

Canada is seeking Iran’s approval to send a team of diplomats to Tehran and for Iranian officials to include members of Canada’s Transportation Safety Board as part of the investigation into the crash, including analyzing the plane’s black box flight recorder.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau said satellite data showed the plane took off normally

“[It was a] very standard departure. However, we lost contact with it, suggesting something very unusual happened, but we cannot speculate at this point. There are a number of possibilities,” he said.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada, Andriy Shevchenko, said that while Iran will oversee the investigation into the crash, Kyiv will do whatever it can to ensure Canada can take part in the probe. He said Ukraine can also act as an on-the-ground connection for Canada in Iran, as it has an embassy in Tehran.

“We just want to make sure that Canada knows that it can count on us in this situation. We have our people on the ground and, if there is anything we can do to ease the pain and to help all of us get the answers to the questions, we would be happy to do that,” the ambassador said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

Younes Zangiabadi, a board member with the Iranian Canadian Congress, knew nine people killed in the crash. He called on the Canadian government to send its own team of investigators to Iran to look into the crash. He said the government should also consider establishing a direct flight between Toronto and Tehran, so Iranian-Canadians are not forced to take multiple, unreliable flights between the two countries.

Mr. Zangiabadi said emergencies such as Wednesday’s plane crash underline the need for Canada to reopen its embassy in Tehran, saying it is absurd that Canadians in Iran are being told to contact the embassy in Turkey if they need consular help.

“You have the families who have lost their loved ones and have been asked to contact the Canadian embassy in Turkey? Like, what is this? This is outrageous,” he said.

“I really hope this is a wake-up call for the Canadian government to not only think about the politics of diplomatic relations but actually the demands and the needs of Iranian-Canadians.”

Retired diplomat John Mundy was Canada's most recent ambassador to Iran before he was expelled from the country in 2007. He said the former Canadian embassy used to have two consular staff whose jobs were to help Canadians in distress in Iran, but Ottawa has lost that on-the-ground capability since cutting off diplomatic relations. That kind of emergency consular response is likely run out of Ottawa now, he said.

“Foreign Affairs would probably, given the size of the disaster, set up a pretty well-resourced team in Ottawa that would work full-time on this until they’ve provided whatever assistance they can to the families of the Canadians who have died in this accident. It would work with the Italian government and the Italian embassy on the ground in Tehran to do that,” Mr. Mundy said.

Students, doctors, children: Ukrainian airliner crash victims had roots across Canada

Bridal party, academics among Canadians killed in Ukrainian airliner crash

Trudeau says most Iran plane crash victims were connecting to Canada

Trudeau says Canada is pushing Iran for direct access to plane-crash investigation,
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Iran plane crash leaves families, communities across Canada grappling with ‘heartbreaking’ losses 
IT DID NOT CRASH IT WAS SHOT DOWN
JAMES KELLER
PUBLISHED JANUARY 8, 2020 UPDATED 12 HOURS AGO
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Mourners attend a vigil at Amir Bakery in North Vancouver. 
The bakery is owned by Amir Pasavand, who lost his wife
 and daughter in the crash
SHAGHAYEGH MORADIAN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

The crash of an airliner outside Tehran cut a deep wound across Canada’s Iranian community – ending promising academic careers, taking the lives of new immigrants, and ripping apart families who were already nervously watching a deepening conflict between their home country and the United States.

In Alberta, about 30 people were believed to be among the victims, including professors, students and staff at the University of Alberta. A community leader in Edmonton noted that about 1 in every 100 Iranians living in the city were on Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752, many returning home from visiting family for the holidays.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said 138 people with connections to Canada, including at least 63 citizens, were killed. It is the largest Canadian death toll in an air disaster since the 1985 Air India bombing, in which 280 citizens or permanent residents died.

Details about the victims painted portraits of talent and academic achievement. Canada has a reputation for welcoming Iranian immigrants and students without the hurdles and sanctions they might face in the United States. Those killed include a leading expert in wireless technology, and a researcher in artificial intelligence. Engineers and teachers. Dentists and doctors. A high-school student. A young family. Newlyweds.

Reza Akbari, the president of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton, said the impact will ripple far beyond the Iranian diaspora.

“It is heartbreaking,” he said. “The doctors, they have patients that can be anybody, regardless of their background or their culture. The university professor, he passed on education to anybody – students from all cultures and backgrounds.”
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Residents hug during a memorial service in Edmonton, Jan. 8, 2020.
TODD KOROL/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
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Mourners lay flowers and light candles at a memorial serice in Edmonton.
TODD KOROL/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Mr. Akbari said his group and others were scrambling to plan memorial events later in the week. A small vigil was held on Wednesday evening on the front steps of the Alberta legislature. With the temperature hovering around -20, people lit candles to remember the victims. Many of them knew at least one person who died in the crash. Some held each other, crying. Others, whose families are still in Iran, came to find support among the tight-knit community.

The worsening security situation in the region would have been top of mind for the passengers of the flight. Just hours earlier, Iran had fired 15 missiles at a pair of military bases in Iraq that housed U.S. forces – an attack that was retaliation for a U.S. drone strike that killed an Iranian military commander.

Payman Parseyan, a former president of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton, said Iranian-Canadians were following the situation closely, particularly those with family in the region. Mr. Parseyan said he was watching coverage of the conflict on Tuesday evening when news of the plane crash broke.

Ghanimat Azhdari, 36, a member of Iran’s nomadic Qashqai tribe who was a Phd student at the University of Guelph, also died. In an e-mail to her PhD supervisor, Faisal Moola, just before she left, she brought up the Middle East tensions.

“Everything in Iran is safe, secure and normal,” Ms. Azhdari wrote. “There is just news full of menace from both sides and we hope for peace in 2020 in the region as well as the world.” She told Dr. Moola she would be landing in Toronto on Wednesday afternoon. He was going to pick her up.

“See you soon,” Ms. Azhdari wrote.

Her research focused on supporting Indigenous people in protecting their traditional territories and the environment – work that Dr. Moola said made her a bridge-builder.

“[She] has this ability to move between two different worlds just absolutely seamlessly,” Dr. Moola said.

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Mourners sign books of condolence at a memorial service at Western University in London, Ont., for four of the school's graduate students who were killed in the plane crash.
GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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Attendees wipe away tears during a memorial service at Western University.
GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The impact on Canada’s university community was apparent immediately. Several schools confirmed faculty members or students were among the dead, and paid tribute to their achievements.

The University of Alberta’s president, David Turpin, was close to tears as he grappled with the scale of the loss, which he said would take years for the school to recover from. “Words simply cannot express the grief we are feeling on campus." The University of Toronto’s president said the campus is heartbroken. In Halifax, Dalhousie University’s provost, Teri Balser, said the school must come to terms with “a world that sometimes feels capricious and unsafe.”

The crash hit the academic community particularly hard because grad school is one of the main channels for Iranians coming to Canada, said Mohammad Keyhani, an associate professor at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary who is from Iran.

“Grad programs usually have funding,” said Dr. Keyhani, whose research focuses on entrepreneurship and strategy. “That’s often the only way they can afford to study in Canada.”

Trips back to Iran when school is out are common. Dr. Keyhani and his wife, Safaneh Neyshabouri, also a U of C instructor, nearly booked a trip back this year.

But they decided the long flight would be too difficult for their three-year-old son. “It’s horrifying,” said Dr. Neyshabouri, who teaches women’s and Muslim studies.

The passengers included at least one Canadian who was not supposed to be on Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752.

Asgar Dhirani, who was in Iran leading a religious tour of Shia Islamic shrines with his wife, Razia, was rerouted because his initial flight was full. His wife arrived in the Greater Toronto Area on Wednesday as scheduled, said daughter Rehana Dhirani.

Mr. Dhirani, a 74-year-old semi-retired accountant, was joined on the flight by two women who were part of his tour: Afifa and Alina Tarbhai, a mother and daughter from the GTA, according to Mr. Dhirani’s family.

The Tarbhai family was too distraught to speak about their deaths, said a man who answered the phone at the elder woman’s home in Aurora.

Hamed Esmaeilion, a dentist from Richmond Hill, Ont., lost his wife, Parisa Eghbalian, and their nine-year-old daughter.

The family, which immigrated to Canada in 2010, opened presents on Christmas Day before Dr. Eghbalian and their daughter, Reera flew out that evening. They were expected back on Wednesday.

He said they hadn’t been home to visit relatives in about two years and were excited to attend a family gathering. “In the last moment, I hugged my daughter and we cried a little bit,” Dr. Esmaeilion said.

He is now heading to Tehran with a hope of finding answers about what happened.

“I have friends here, but no relatives," he said. “I have to go. I’m alone here."

Open this photo in gallery 

Photos of plane-crash victims alongside flowers and candles 
during a memorial service in Edmonton.
TODD KOROL/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
With reports from Kelly Cryderman, Emma Graney, Carrie Tait, Kathryn Blaze Baum, Justin Giovannetti and Jill Mahoney
















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EZRA LEVANT ATTACKS HIS OLD EMPLOYER CBC OVER UKRAINIAN AIRLINER EXPLOSION

EZRA LIES DEPT.

From Twitter


Ezra Levant 🍁
ezralevant
CBC's website still has not reported the news that Iran shot down the plane, killing 63 Canadians. They're still treating it like an innocent crash. Maybe Trudeau's state broadcaster is waiting for the official Liberal talking points. They'll be waiting a while. https://t.co/gLGe2Y0QEL
Twitter


BUT IT IS NOT TRUE CAUSE HERE IS THE SCREEN SHOT FROM THE CBC WEBSITE EZRA TAGS. 
Joey Zanfino
@BoxofgradeAs 
29m
Replying to 
@ezralevant

It's actually right there on their website, but keep up your narrative.

Replying to
@ezralevant
But they did before your tweet Ezra. twitter.com/cbcalerts/stat
Quote Tweet
CBC News Alerts
@CBCAlerts
·
BREAKING: U.S. officials have shared intelligence with Canada to back up the view that Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 152 was brought down by an Iranian missile, sources tell CBC News.
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UKRAINIAN AIRLINE EXPLOSION WAS NOT AN ACCIDENT IT WAS A PREVENTABLE INCIDENT AND IT WAS TRACKED FROM SPACE SATELLITES INCLUDING TOP SECRET ONES 

 BREAKING NEWS
 IRAN SHOT DOWN UKRAINIAN AIRLINER, PROBABLY DUE TO ANTI AIRCRAFT FIRE OR RUSSIAN DEFENSE SYSTEM, HAVE SEIZED BLACK BOX (S) BUT RECENT REPORTING SAYS THEY MAY BE WILLING TO HAVE NTSB INVESTIGATE JOINTLY.

 I VIEWED THE EXPLOSION FROM ONLINE VIDEO AT THE TIME AND SEVERAL TIMES SINCE AND THAT IS NOT AN ENGINE EXPLOSION THAT IS A TOTAL PLANE EXPLOSION A MISSILE BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD CAUSE SUCH TOTAL DESTRUCTION INSTANTANEOUSLY.

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Alex Macheras
@AlexInAir
Latest: Ukraine says multiple possible theories are being discussed with Iranian investigators: including the 737 “being hit by an anti-aircraft missile, a collision, technical failure or a terrorist act” #PS752
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8:06 AM · Jan 9, 2020Twitter for iPhone
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