On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, operating between Tehran and Toronto, crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 176 people. Among them, 85 were Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Iranian origin. Dozens of others moved to Canada after a connection to Ukraine, particularly to study there. Three days later, authorities in Tehran admitted they had “accidentally” shot down the plane. Since then, Canada, whose Iranian diaspora is estimated to number more than 210,000 people, has called in vain for Iran to shed light on this tragedy and compensate the victims' families.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used an honors ceremony organized on Monday, January 8, 2024, in Richmond Hill, a northern suburb of Toronto, to condemn the Tehran regime, which he accused of “abusing human rights in his country disregard”. and to participate in the destabilization of the world by continuing to support groups such as Hamas or Hezbollah.” Referring to the harshly suppressed protest movement that followed the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, he reiterated to “Iranian civilians, who show tremendous courage in demanding freedom,” that “Canada will always stand by their side.”
Qualification of the Justin Trudeau, who called the Iranian regime a “murderer”, particularly criticized the authorities for not taking responsibility for this air disaster, which was caused by the firing of two missiles by the Islamic Republic's armed forces, which at the time feared were on alert in case of an American attack. He also took advantage of his intervention to announce that Canada, alongside Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom – which also had nationals on board flight PS752 – had just filed a complaint against the United Nations agency responsible for civil aviation (ICAO). filed against the Iranian regime because of “its inability to refrain from using weapons against a flying civilian aircraft.”
141 Investigations against Iranian officials
The same four countries had already initiated proceedings against Iran at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in July 2023. Hamed Esmaeilion, a member of the Association of Victims' Families, welcomed this new initiative on Radio Canada. “For four years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has claimed that ICAO accepted their version, that they were on the same wavelength and that it was a human error. Now we will see that this is not true. ICAO will urge Iran to tell the truth about the events of January 8, 2020,” he said.
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