Hamed Esmaeilion, whose wife Parisa Eghbalian and daughter Reera Esmaeilion were among the 176 victims of the 2020 downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has issued a stark warning against Prime Minister Mark Carney's proposal to reopen Canada's embassy in Tehran and resume diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic.
Carney's proposal draws outrage from victims' families
Speaking days after the 41st anniversary of the June 23, 1985 Air India bombing, while victims' families criticized the government for failing to release recovered aircraft wreckage for museum exhibits, Carney suggested reopening the embassy. Esmaeilion, a Canadian dentist and advocate, said the prime minister appears to have forgotten both tragedies.
"His remarks suggested that he has forgotten not only the tragedy that claimed the lives of dozens of Canadians in the Air India bombing, but also the downing of Flight PS752 by the Islamic Republic of Iran six and a half years ago," Esmaeilion wrote in a National Post op-ed. "He may have forgotten the murder of the 176 passengers and crew members, as well as an unborn child, but Canada remembers that tragedy."
Canada's official designation of Iran as state sponsor of terrorism
The Canadian government formally recognizes the Islamic Republic of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism. Over the past five decades, the regime has killed thousands of Iranians and dozens of Canadians, including Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi in 2003, environmentalist Kavous Seyed-Emami in 2018, and 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents in the 2020 downing of Flight PS752. Esmaeilion also cited the killing of several Canadians during the events of January 8 and 9 this year as part of the regime's crimes.
"The world seems to believe it now faces a new Islamic Republic, despite the regime's clearly premeditated, industrial-scale campaign of violence against protesters across Iran last January," Esmaeilion wrote. He criticized Western politicians who imagine that after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death, Iran will become more like a post-Stalin Soviet Union or post-Mao China, without reckoning with the regime's uniquely malign ideology.
Justice is not negotiable
Esmaeilion noted that many victims' families did not support the recent war between the United States and Iran. "At the same time, we regard negotiations with this regime as an affront to justice and a betrayal of the innocent lives it has taken," he said. For six and a half years, diplomats from the four states affected by the downing of Flight PS752 have repeatedly negotiated financial compensation with Iranian officials. "We, who have been denied every means of securing justice for our loved ones, opposed those negotiations. We said then, and we say now: justice is not negotiable. And we vehemently oppose any notion to reopen the embassy of this criminal regime in Canada."
Prime minister's absence from commemorations
Esmaeilion pointed out that over the past 18 months, Prime Minister Carney has not attended a single event dedicated to the victims of the Islamic Republic's crimes. Other government members attended the sixth anniversary commemoration of the downing of Flight PS752, but Carney chose not to be there. During the events of January 8 and 9, the Iranian-Canadian community did not receive the solidarity it needed from him, Esmaeilion added.
