There is a mix of anger, sadness and frustration in the Toronto-area’s Iranian community following Iran’s admission it shot down a civilian plane shortly after takeoff from Tehran.
At the memorial for his wife, Shakiba Feghahati, 39, and son, Rosstin Moghaddam, 10 — both victims in the Ukraine International Airlines crash on Wednesday — Shahin Moghaddam struggled to contain his emotions.
Iran’s admission on Friday after days of denials that it had, in fact, unintentionally fired a missile at the flight that later crashed has done little to ease his pain.
“The new announcement is not going to bring them back to us.”
As friends and family mourned their loss, they avoided getting into politics.
“I’m only hoping for my brother to come back to his normalcy,” said Dawson Pereira, a friend of the family. “It’s going to take a long journey because this is a big loss.”
Jalal Mortazavi, also a family friend, said he hopes to see more answers for the families who lost loved ones.
“I believe that clarity is the most important thing here. It might relieve a small piece of this great loss,” he said.
The crash of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 on Wednesday killed all 176 people on board, including 57 Canadians, according to officials.
In a statement to Global News, the Council of Iranian Canadians said, “…the behaviour of this terrorist regime that not only shoots directly to the unarmed peaceful protests but also shoots down a passenger plane and only admits to doing so after U.S. and Canada inform the world that there credible evidence that the plane was shot down by missile, is a solid proof for the terrorist nature of this regime.”
Meanwhile, the group No War With Iran called for accountability for Iran and clarity on what happened without tit-for-tat retaliation.
“We are in a scenario where an eye-for-an-eye will leave the whole world blind. This could be a watershed moment where we come together and … put down our weapons, come to the table and we speak,” said Saman Tabasinejad, lead organizer for the group.
As Shahin Moghaddam prepared to fly to Iran to mourn with other family and bring his wife and son home, he said everything else was secondary.
“It doesn’t change anything. It does not bring them back, does it?”
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