Hundreds gather outside Calgary City Hall to mark three-year anniversary of Flight PS752 crash

Hundreds gathered outside of Calgary City Hall on Sunday to mark three years since the Iranian military shot down Flight PS752, killing 176 people, including two Calgarians.

“It’s very important to show them that they aren’t forgotten. Every single one of those lives is being remembered every year and will continue being remembered,” said Armin Zarringhalam, one of the rally organizers.

The Ukraine International Airlines jetliner was shot down by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shortly after its take-off on Jan. 8, 2020 from Tehran.

The Iranian regime initially said the plane was fired on by mistake, but now claims the aircraft was moving suspiciously.

Most of the passengers were bound for Canada via Ukraine, including 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents.

One was 19-year-old Arshia Arbabbahrami who was in his final year at Western Canada High School.

He was a member of both the track and swim teams and had planned to be a doctor.

Arbabbahrami was returning to Canada after spending the holidays with his family in Iran.

Kasra Saat travelled to Iran over the holidays for a reunion with his wife and two children, who did not board the flight back to Canada.

The other was Kasra Saati who travelled to Iran over the holidays for a reunion with his wife and two children, who did not board the flight back to Canada.

He worked as an engineer for Viking Air in Calgary.

“As a Canadian and an Iranian, it does hit hard,” Zarringhalam said.

“I didn’t know the victims personally but I went to the vigil when it happened and it was just so emotional to see all these Iranians gathered together, come together and mourn.”

Another victim was University of Calgary alumna Marzieh ‘Mari’ Foroutan. She left Calgary in 2017 to pursue a PhD in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo.

Another victim was University of Calgary alumna Marzieh ‘Mari’ Foroutan.

She left Calgary in 2017 to pursue a doctorate in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo.

Saghar Nasr was a close friend of hers and told CTV News she was like a sister.

“Losing Mari has been one of the toughest things for me to deal with. I occasionally go back to our text messages,” she said in a statement.

“Frankly, there has not been a day that I haven’t thought about her, about her kindness, about the great talent that we lost. She was beautiful inside and out.”

Nasr said Foroutan was not only a promising scientist but a talented artist.

Laila Massoudi attended the rally in Calgary to commemorate the lives lost, including her mom’s cousin, Niloufar Sadr, who lived in Montreal.

“She was a very beautiful, loving soul. She was very welcoming to newcomers to Canada who were also going through a refugee process, so I want her legacy to live on,” Massoudi told CTV News.

“It’s emotional. It’s hard … I’m trying to be strong in the hopes that with all these voices, and everyone coming out that maybe we can make a difference.”

RALLIES PLANNED ACROSS CANADA

The rally in Calgary was one of several planned across the country urging Ottawa to take a tougher stance against Iran.

“Now recently we’ve seen that they’ve started doing more and more and we need to spread the voice to continue to stand stronger, to have a more international voice, to stop executions, to stop killings, to stop this terror immediately,” Zarringhalam said.

Ottawa had previously held off on joining other nations in starting the process of sending the Flight PS752 case to the International Court of Justice to compel Iran to compensate victims’ families.

However, on Dec. 28, Ottawa decided to join, as negotiations between Canada and Iran over reparations came to a standstill.

Tom Kmiec, Conservative MP for Calgary Shepard, was at the demonstration outside city hall and said getting justice for the victims’ families is top of mind for him.

“I think the starting point is making sure they get financial compensation extracted out of the government of Iran for their assets that they have here,” he said.

“Second of all would be to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization … ban those individuals from coming to Canadian soul, stop them from being able to use Canada’s financial institutions.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave an emotional speech at a Toronto memorial on Sunday, stressing that Canada will continue seeking justice for the victims and their loved ones.

He emphasized to that the government is working to “hold the Iranian regime accountable for unlawfully and horrifically shooting down the passenger flight. We are here to seek justice for the victims and the families.”