It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, January 09, 2020
Edmonton victims of Wednesday's Ukraine airliner crash in Iran
Edmonton victims of Wednesday's Ukraine jet crash in Iran, clockwise from left: University of Alberta professors Mojgan Daneshmand and Pedram Mousavi and their daughters Daria and Dorina Mousavi; Newlyweds Arash Pourzarabi, and Pouneh Gorji; U of A graduate student Amir Hossein Saeedinia; University of Alberta student Nasim Rahmanifar; Shekoufeh Choupannejad, an obstetrician, gynecologist at Northgate Mall. SUPPLIED PHOTOS
The city hasn’t seen a single event with this number of casualties since Black Friday, when a tornado ripped through the eastern end of Edmonton on July 31, 1987, killing 27 people.
Postmedia has confirmed the identities of 13 Edmontonians. The names of more Edmontonians who perished will be added as they are identified.
Victims of the Ukraine International Airlines crash in Iran, University of Alberta professors Mojgan Daneshmand, left, and Pedram Mousavi, pose in an undated family photo in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.HANDOUT / VIA REUTERS
Mojgan Daneshmand
Born in 1976, Daneshmand was a professor of engineering at the University of Alberta. In 2016, she received an award for her scientific contribution to the field of microwave engineering and for being a role model for women in engineering.
Pedram Mousavi
Mousavi was married to Daneshmand. Mousavi was born in 1972 and also worked at the University of Alberta as an engineering professor.
“He was the best boss I ever had in my life,” said Hossein Saghlatoon, who worked under the supervision of Mousavi. “To be honest, I’m still shaking since I got the confirmation.”
Saghlatoon said Mousavi and Daneshmand were world-renowned in their respective fields and their loss would be felt both at home and abroad.
“They were so full of energy to come back,” said Saghlatoon. “He wasn’t just a professor, he was actively working to do something different, he was hungry, he was hungry for bringing more.”
The family was described as “the happiest family you can ever imagine” with Saghlatoon saying he will always remember their laughing voices.
Victims of the Ukraine International Airlines crash in Iran, University of Alberta professors Mojgan Daneshmand and Pedram Mousavi, pose with their daughters Daria and Dorina Mousavi in an undated family photo.HANDOUT / VIA REUTERS
Daria and Dorina Mousavi
The 14-year-old and nine-year-old daughters of Mousavi and Daneshmand. They attended school in southwest Edmonton.
Newlyweds Arash Pourzarabi, 26, and Pouneh Gorji, 25, are among 30 Edmontonians killed after a plane crashed shortly after taking off from the Tehran International Airport in Iran.SUPPLIED
Arash Pourzarabi and Pouneh Gorji
Twenty-six-year-old Pourzarabi and 25-year-old Gorji were travelling back after getting married in Iran on Jan. 1. They were both graduate students at the U of A and were remembered as soulmates.
“If you met them, even once, you could tell these two belong together,” said Amir Forouzandeh, a friend of the newlyweds.
Forouzandeh said the pair were top students in their program with Pourzarabi previously taking part in an extremely competitive academic competition in Iran.
Amir Samani, another friend of the couple, said he was still in denial that the couple is gone just a week after their wedding.
“I can’t understand what’s going through my mind. I even check my phone to see if he will go back online again, to talk again,” said Samani.
University of Alberta student, Nasim Rahmanifar.EDMONTON
Nasim Rahmanifar
Rahmanifar was born in 1994 and two friends speaking at the Iranian Heritage Society’s headquarters in downtown Edmonton said she was studying for a master’s degree in mechanical engineering last year. She had flown home to Iran for the first time since she finished exams to surprise her family.
“We were always talking about what we should do next, what we should do after graduation,” said Ramin Fathian, holding back tears.
“She was planning to expand her master’s degree into a Ph.D. We just convinced her that she could do it,” added Sina Esfandiapour.
Esfandiapour said he had taken Rahmanifar coat shopping on a number of occasions as she was worried about facing her first Canadian winter. Before she travelled home they went souvenir shopping for her aunt’s baby daughter.
Amir Hossein Saeedinia, PhD student at the Center for Design of Advanced Materials at University of Alberta has been identified as another victim of the Ukraine International Airlines plane crash outside Tehran International Airport.EDMONTON
Amir Hossein Saeedinia
Born in 1994, Saeedinia was a graduate student at the University of Alberta. According to a biography on the U of A website, Saeedinia was a Ph.D. student at the Center for Design of Advanced Materials focused on “the science behind modelling material behaviour, and on using the developed model to design better coating materials in wear, fatigue, and tension environments.”
Elnaz Nabiyi
Nabiyi was a U of A graduate research assistant fellow with the Alberta School of Business.
Mohammad Mahdi Elyasi
Elyasi was a former Edmontonian who graduated from the U of A in 2017. Elyasi then moved to Toronto and worked as a mechanical designer.
Shekoufeh Choupannejad, an obstetrician, gynecologist at Northgate Mall, died along with her two daughters, Saba and Sara Saadat.SUPPLIED
Shekoufeh Choupannejad
Born in 1963, Choupannejad was an obstetrician and gynecologist who worked at Northgate Mall.
Sara Saadat
Born in 1996, Sara Saadat was one of the daughters of Choupannejad.
Saba Saadat
Born in 1998, Saba Saadat was one of the daughters of Choupannejad. She attended the University of Alberta as a medical student who spent the summer studying placental dysfunction, examining how the placenta is formed and the development of pregnancy complications.
Members of Edmonton's Iranian community held a candlelight vigil on the steps outside the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton on Wednesday January 8, 2020 in memory of the victims of the Ukraine International Airlines crash near Tehran, Iran. LARRY WONG / POSTMEDIA NETWORK
Canadians have learned to hold their breath for word of a loved one’s well-being whenever news breaks of a natural disaster or a calamitous accident in faraway parts of the world.
That’s because our citizens are fond of travel and are often to be found in far-flung places in disproportionate numbers when misfortune strikes. But it’s also because Canada is among the world’s most culturally diverse countries, with so many of us visiting our old homelands that Canada is too often touched by tragedy far beyond its borders.
So it was that a contingent of 63 Canadians happened to be on board a Ukraine International Airlines passenger jet that crashed shortly after take off from Tehran International Airport on Wednesday, killing all 167 passengers and nine crew members.
It didn’t take long for the catastrophe to hit home across Canada among the nation’s Iranian diaspora. Shortly after the crash, there was word that at least 12 B.C. residents were among the 63 Canadians killed. Eight victims were from Ontario, with casualties at both the University of Ottawa and Carleton University.
But no place has been more touched by this tragedy than Edmonton where at least 30 of the victims called home. Edmontonians will be hard pressed to remember another single calamity that has claimed the lives of so many of their own.
Most of those who perished appear to be part of the city’s small but proud Iranian-Canadian community of about 4,000 people — which was already dealing with troubling news from their homeland this week when an Iranian general was killed in a U.S. airstrike.
It’s clear that the aftermath of the accident reverberates well beyond the victims’ families, the Iranian-Canadian community and the university where many of the dead worked or studied. Our city has been robbed of some of its best and brightest citizens.
“We lost amazing, young, brilliant members of our community and this absolutely not just a shock to the Iranian community, it’s absolutely a shock to the whole of Canada,” said Reza Akbari, president of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton.
The names of the dead continue to trickle in but the early toll includes students, professors and doctors — among them Arash Pourzarabi and Pouneh Gorji, both graduate students in computer science at the University of Alberta. The two newlyweds were returning home from their nuptials along with their wedding party when the plane crashed.
A young family was wiped out when Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand — both professors of engineering at the U of A — perished along with their two young daughters, Daria, and Dorina. U of A grad students Nasim Rahmanifar and Amir Hossein Saeedinia were also killed. Shekoufeh Choupannejad, an obstetrician, gynaecologist at Northgate Mall, died along with her two daughters, Saba and Sara Saadat.
Other heartbreaking stories are sure to follow as the names of other victims come to light in the days ahead. All Edmontonians, and Canadians, join with the Iranian community in celebrating their lives and mourning their loss.
An Edmonton memorial for all victims is being planned for Friday. If the turnout for the city’s past communal tragedies are any indication, Edmontonians will turn out in force to show their support for the victims’ families, co-workers and friends.
As a shocked Mayor Don Iveson said Wednesday, “Edmonton is in mourning today, our community has suffered a terrible loss.”
Local editorials are the consensus opinion of the Journal’s editorial board, comprising Colin McGarrigle, Dave Breakenridge and Bill Mah.
A vigil was held Wednesday night for the Edmonton victims of the Iran plane crash. Jan. 8, 2020. (CTV News Edmonton)
EDMONTON -- Candles were lit, prayers were said and people held each other while weeping at the Alberta Legislature Wednesday night, as about 75 people gathered to mourn Edmonton residents killed in a plane crash in Iran.
The Ukraine International Airlines flight was en route to Kyiv from Tehran when it crashed minutes after takeoff.
The Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton says at least 27 Edmontonians were on board the flight.
“We are here for the memory of our friends who we lost in this tragedy. It’s super cold, but still the people came here because we love them,” Iranian-Edmontonian Aidin Pour said.
“When I came here [to the vigil] I felt better. We are a small community, but we should support each other.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Jason Kenney and Mayor Don Iveson all offered condolences Wednesday.
MLAs from both the governing UCP and the opposition NDP were at the vigil to make statements of sympathy from a podium on the steps of the legislature.
“We want you to know that we are with you. We walk with you. You are not alone,” said Kaycee Madu, MLA for Edmonton-South West.
The tragedy has hit the city’s academic community particularly hard, as at least 10 of the victims have been identified as faculty, students or alumni at the University of Alberta.
Edmonton is home to 4,165 people of Iranian origin, according to the 2016 federal census.
“We know the Iranian community has made great contributions here to our city and our province,” Edmonton- City Centre MLA David Shepherd said.
“It has been our honour, as a province, to continue to welcome so many who have come here to learn, to study and to make their home.”
Plans for more vigils are being made, with one likely to happen at U of A campus on Friday and the IHIS Edmonton Mosque on Saturday.
“We may have lost some friends yesterday, but they’ll never be forgotten,” said Payman Parseyan, a member of Edmonton’s Iranian community, said.
The arrival of a new year, it is said, brings both change and challenge.
But it wasn’t supposed to be like this.
As many Edmontonians were fighting the arrival of winter’s fury on a morning commute Wednesday, one of the most shocking tragedies in the city’s history was unfolding 10,000 kilometres away.
For me, and I suspect many of my fellow residents, this was one of those “where were you” moments, learning about the crash of Ukrainian Airlines International Flight PS752 near Tehran.
My plan for the day was to write a column looking ahead to some of the developments Edmonton can expect to see in 2020. It was to include mentions of a new bus system coming this summer, the arrival of green bins for organics and a decision on residential speed limits.
All of it now seems beyond trivial, in light of the news that our city has begun the new year while losing as many as 30 of our residents in a single moment.
Jan. 8 will be a day long lamented in Alberta’s capital.
In trying to come to grips with a catastrophe of this scale, many questions come to mind.
Was it a mechanical failure that led to an engine fire, as early reports suggest? Could pilot error have been involved, or an issue that can be tied back to troubled airline manufacturer Boeing?
Or was there some connection to the violent hostilities that have started between the United States and Iran?
The timing of the crash, just hours after Iran fired missiles at two U.S.-staffed bases in Iraq in retaliation for the targeted killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, is hard to dismiss.
The families of the victims deserve answers to these questions, but when, or if, those answers will come remains in limbo, especially if Iran makes good on its reported vow not to turn over the plane’s black boxes for independent investigation. The Canadian government must use every means at its disposal to get to the bottom of this.
But those are problems for the days and weeks ahead. For today, the focus must be on the human tragedy, which is enormous: 176 people dead, including 63 Canadians.
As of the final version this column, Postmedia had confirmed names of 13 Edmontonians who died. According to local Iranian-Canadian leaders, that may not represent even half the list.
The victims who have so far been revealed engender tremendous heartbreak, perhaps none moreso than Arash Pourzarabi, 26, and Pouneh Gorji, 25, a young couple who were at the height of their lives after being married in Iran last Friday. They were both graduate students in the University of Alberta’s computer science program, returning for the winter semester.
An unknown number of friends of the couple, who had travelled to Iran to take part in the celebrations, also perished.
As much as Edmonton bears a disproportionate burden of this tragedy, so, too, does the University of Alberta, which has a connection to at least 10 of the victims.
Besides Pourzarabi and Gorji, the list includes engineering professors Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand, along with their two daughters, Daria, 14, and Dorina, 9. Daneshmand had the honour of being a Canada Research Chair, and won an award in 2016 in part for being a role model to women in engineering.
Sisters Sara Saadat and Saba Saadat were students at the U of A, both, apparently, in the medical field like their mother Shekoufeh Choupannejad, a respected and charitable obstetrician-gynecologist at Northgate Mall. All three died in the crash.
According to his U of A webpage, Nasim Rahmanifar was a grad student looking at shoulder strain among wheelchair users with spinal cord injuries, while Amir Hossein Saeedinia‘s area of study was on the dynamics of predicting risks to ceramic-metal materials.
Other names with U of A links are Mohammad Mahdi Elyasi and Elnaz Nabiyi, who we will hopefully learn more about in short order.
As their stories start to be told, we must recognize how devastating a blow this is to Edmonton’s 4,300-member community of Iranian-Canadians, and to the city as a whole.
You can imagine the mindset of many of the victims as they boarded the plane early Wednesday, likely relieved to be leaving Iran at a time when the country may be on the verge of war with the United States. Many of their relatives were likely also anxious to see the passengers land safely back in Canada, only to hear that their plane went down shortly after takeoff.
Iranian-Canadians form a community that has given much to our city, contributing not just to our cultural enrichment but also helping to strengthen so many of the public institutions we all depend on, from law, medicine and government to public services, education and business.
They are our colleagues, our neighbours, our friends and family.
They have given to all of us. And we must now recognize our obligation to give back to them when they need us most.
We must react with compassion and support, ensuring that their needs are met through this time of mourning, and recognizing that further tragedy may lie ahead as tensions escalate between Iran and the U.S. government of Donald Trump.
I know Edmontonians will do their part, as we never forget Jan. 8.
With the end of winter break for schools and limited travel options between Iran and Canada, 63 Canadians ended up on a Ukraine International Airlines flight to ...
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