THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay residents had a chance to commemorate those lost onboard Ukrainian Airlines flight PS752 at a vigil on Saturday afternoon. About 200 people attended the event at Lakehead University.
The aircraft was struck by missiles fired by the Iranian military shortly after takeoff from Tehran on Wednesday. All 176 people on board were killed, including 57 Canadians and many more with ties to the country. Iran has claimed the disaster was a result of human error, saying the plane was mistaken for a hostile target. The incident came amid heightened tensions after a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian General Qasem Suleimani on Iraqi soil on Jan. 3.
Saturday’s vigil at the Lakehead University agora sidestepped that political context to focus on the innocent lives lost in the tragedy. Students involved with the Lakehead Iranian Cultural Association (LICA), who organized the event, read the names of those killed, recited poems, and led the crowd outside to Lake Tamblyn to place candles and flowers in memory of the victims.
Sara Sadeghi came to Canada from Iran with her family in 2002, and is now a Lakehead student and LICA executive. She said the event felt like a necessary step for the school’s Iranian community.
“I think we all knew that we couldn’t really go about the rest of our semester here without recognizing it or giving it the attention that it deserves,” she said. “As you can tell, everyone was very emotional today, and a lot of them need to know that they’re not alone and that their voices are being heard.”
A fellow LICA executive, echoed those sentiments. She immigrated to Canada with her family nearly a decade ago.
“We felt it was our responsibility as Iranians living in this community to represent the losses that we’re all going through,” she explained. “Just looking around, every Iranian I know – even non-Iranians – at least know of someone who was affected deeply by this tragedy.”
Farhan Yousaf, a vice-president of the Lakehead University Student Union, said around 200 Iranian international students attend the university, as well as a number of students and faculty of Iranian descent. While none of the victims had a known connection with Thunder Bay, Yousaf says that hasn’t stopped it from touching people here.
“When there’s a tragedy that happens anywhere in the world, it affects all of us,” he says. “I was just talking to a friend at U of T, and her classmate was on the flight. We’re all connected to each other.”
Organizers said seeing solidarity from those outside the Iranian community was important. MP Patty Hajdu and MPP Judith Monteith-Farrell were among those who showed up to the vigil.
“Having a group of people just to come out was a visual representation of how, regardless of nationality… it’s not about that,” said Sadeghi. “It’s mostly about the human loss we’ve endured, kind of surpassing all of those borders to make something like this happen.”
