OTTAWA-
The families of those who died when Iran’s military shot down Flight 752 in January 2020 are demanding that the Canadian government take a tougher line against the regime.
Iranian-Canadians gathered on Parliament Hill on Tuesday to mark 1,000 days of mourning for their relatives, with the crowd making clear their discontent with the federal government’s actions to date.
“I already lost my whole life, my whole future,” said Maral Gorginpour, whose husband Fareed Arasteh died in the crash.
The two were married in Iran, three days before he boarded the flight.
“I need justice, I need the truth and until that day I will not stop,” said Gorginpour, who joined hundreds outside the Supreme Court before marching through parliament.
In her address to the crowd, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland promised that Ottawa would take more action, but did not say specifically what it would be.
“We will use every tool at our disposal to isolate and punish the brutal dictatorship,” Freeland said.
His comments were interrupted several times, as protesters called on liberals to expel Iranians with ties to the regime from Canada.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre roused the crowd by saying that the Trudeau government has refused to consider the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran’s military, as a terrorist group.
Poilievre backed a formal request last month by the Association of Families of Victims of Flight PS752 for the International Criminal Court to launch a war crimes investigation. So far, Canada has helped Ukraine launch its own criminal case, in recognition that the plane was registered in Ukraine.
“We’ve had 1,000 days of words; we need action,” Poilievre said, drawing cheers.
“The time has come for the facts, and I want you to know that you have friends in the Conservative Party who will fight tooth and nail.”
Sanctions experts have said it would be a challenge to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization without barring entry to Canada and freezing the assets of thousands of people who had been recruited for short, low-ranking positions such as a cook.
But Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi, who has also been pushing his own government to step up its response, recently said that Ottawa should work to find a way to treat the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group without punishing those who were recruited for roles. They are not combat.
On Monday, Canada sanctioned 25 Iranian officials and nine entities, including the head of the Revolutionary Guard. Ehsassi, whose Willowdale riding in Toronto has a large Iranian-Canadian population, said on Twitter that the sanctions “are not enough.”
In Halifax on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada is working with other countries to get justice.
“All Canadians, this government and all political parties stand with the people of Iran as we stand up for women’s rights and human rights,” she said.
Iranian police violently suppressed protests across Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in mid-September, two days after Iran’s morality police arrested her for allegedly wearing her hijab too loosely.
Gorginpour said Ottawa must take a tougher line against the regime, or it will continue to beat up protesters, shoot down flights and torture political prisoners.
“While they remain silent, the regime kills more people and they are not held accountable.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on October 4, 2022.