Former Caledon East dentist helps lead rally for Families of Flight PS752 Victims

By Rob Paul

The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims organized a rally through downtown Toronto on August 5 to express the belief that “Justice is Not Negotiable.”

Thousands of Torontonians attended and called for direct action from the Government of Canada and RCMP, including the continued ask to launch a domestic criminal investigation.

With pictures of the 176 victims of Flight PS752 being carried at the front end of the crowd, participants also carried slogans calling on the Government of Canada to hold Iran to account, demanding truth and justice for the downing of the flight—the organizers took precautions to ensure social distancing and masking, considering the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Association has been advocating for over a year that the RCMP and Commissioner Lucki start a criminal investigation, as well as that the IRGC of Iran, the armed forces responsible for firing the missiles at the aircraft, be listed as a terrorist organization.

At Nathan Phillips Square, several prominent guest speakers expressed support for families and victims. Mayor John Tory sent remarks that were read out at the start of the event. 

Other guest speakers included: MP Ali Ehsassi, MP Han Dong, MPP Michael Parsa, and former Ontario MPP and cabinet minister, Dr. Reza Moridi. The President of Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Toronto Branch, Taras Bahriy, also delivered his speech in support of and solidarity with the victims of Flight PS752 and Flight MH17, the Malaysian aircraft shot down over the Ukrainian skies by rebel forces.

Additional demands at the rally included that the Government of Canada lead the negotiations with Iran and, as soon as it is clear that negotiation will not result in full disclosure of the true facts and proper prosecutions of all individuals responsible, or that Iran is not engaging in good faith to provide satisfactory answers in a timely manner, appeal through the relevant mechanisms to the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Court of Justice; and the ICAO Council, including Canada, condemn the Iranian regime in the strongest terms for the crimes committed and breaches of ICAO conventions.

The Association's statement was read in both Farsi and English by Association Directors Dr. Hamed Esmaeilion and Nima Neyestani.

The victims' names were read in between the speeches to commemorate their lives. Among the many emotional moments, a special tribute was paid to the family of Dr. Farhad Niknam, one of the victims of the flight, whose birthday coincided with the day of the rally.

Esmaeilion, who lost his wife and daughter, Dr. Parisa Eghbalian and Reera Esmaeilion, in Flight PS752, had long been a staple in the Caledon community.

He and his wife ran Log Home Dental in Caledon East and he's continued to look for answers from all parties involved.

“One reason for the rally was to talk about our demands,” he said. “We have three main demands. Our first demand is we want the RCMP to open a criminal case in Canada. Our second demand was to ask the Canadian Government to take leadership on this cause among the five countries and based on the international regulations they have to go through negotiations in this case with Iran. It seems very soon that since Iran hasn't answered to Canadian Government requests for negotiation that it will then move to the next step which is ICAO. Our third demand, was to again plead with the Canadian Government to act stronger in ICAO and get condemnation about this crime in ICAO Council.”

Though their demand to the RCMP don't look promising, Esmaeilion does see the Canadian Government's efforts to work towards the truth, but Iran's lack of transparency continues to be the roadblock to finding justice.

“We've had meetings with the RCMP, and it hasn't been successful,” he said. “They're not convinced yet that they have to open a criminal case over Flight PS752. But with the second and third demand, Canada has already sent a notice of claim to Iran more than two months ago and asked them to come to the negotiation table and tell the truth. So far, Iran hasn't responded. If this fails then it will go to ICAO and if ICAO fails too, then this case can be taken to the International Court of Justice.”

The date, August 5, coincided with the inauguration of the new president of the Islamic Republic, Ebrahim Raisi. 

“It was the inauguration day for the new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran—Ebrahim Raisi,” said Esmaeilion. “He's the person at the time of the shooting down of flight PS752 in January 2020, that was a member of the National Security Council. The National Security Council, based on the Canadian forensic report, was responsible for keeping the sky open at night. He (Raisi) was one of the members and one of the decision makers, and at the time, he was the head of the judicial system in Iran. He was the person who had to order the investigation or ask for the accused people to come forward for prosecution. But for the last 18 months, he has blocked the way for justice, and now he's the new president of Iran. The reason for the rally was to show our objection and our unhappiness about this.”

Raisi's involvement as a key member of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran—the entity that made the decision to keep the airspace open on January 8, 2020, according to Canada's forensic report—sparked the decision for the date of the rally.

Raisi has also overseen the judicial system in Iran as the country's Chief Justice. In this capacity, the Association believes he has systematically blocked all paths to truth and justice for victims of PS752 by exonerating the top military and government officials, while arresting and incarcerating protestors who spoke against the perpetrators of the crime.

Esmaeilion says the Association understands the spot the Canadian Government has been put in with the situation because of the way Iran is handling the entire process.

“It's just very slow, it took Iran 15 months to give the final report,” he said. “With Iran, the way they play this game is with delaying tactics. They want to postpone it as long as they can, for things that are important to them, they move swiftly—like with the nuclear deal with the European countries. But when it comes to PS752, they don't even answer the Canadian response, so we basically say, if they're not going to respond let's go to the next step because they don't want to answer questions or tell the truth. The other thing is, Iran claims just a few of the passengers were Canadian, but Canada says 85 were permanent Canadian residents. It's a legal challenge, and we understand this is difficult for the Canadian Government.”

Something else that the Association wanted to come out of the rally was to remind Canadians that there are still no answers for the victims and awareness needs to continue to be raised until the truth comes forward.

“Another major reason we did this publicly was to raise awareness and remind Canadians that this issue is still there,” Esmaeilion said. “The rally for the Iranian-Canadian community was a big thing, after a year they had a chance to come to the streets and chant their demands which was very important. We had lots of strangers coming to us to learn about the issue. We want to remind everyone that this case is still open, and we don't know the truth. Families haven't had closure, let alone justice. It's a long journey, but we just wanted to let everyone know that we won't give up, we are fighters, and we'll take this to the end.”