Condolences
Why were 63 Canadians in Iran?
This should answer your questions, greymouser......
A great many of the passengers were Iranians residing in Canada. Some were Canadian citizens, some were not. They would have included dissidents and expats and their younger family members who immigrated to the West following the overthrow of the Shah and the attack on our embassy in 1979 as well as those studying abroad on student visas in Canada.
The Iranian military shot the plane down with a surface to air missile. As for speculation that the Iranian military "mistakenly" shot down a Boeing 737 civilian airliner taking off from the largest airport in Iran...... I find that hard to believe. There is more to this than is being made public......
"Of those passengers, 63 were Canadians citizens. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that, all told, 138 people on that flight were en route to Canada.
On Thursday, Mr Trudeau said that Canadian officials had "evidence and intelligence" that "indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile".
"Why were there so many Canadians on board?
Canada is home to a large Iranian diaspora, with some 210,000 citizens of Iranian descent, according to the latest federal census.
The country is also a popular destination for Iranian graduate and postdoctoral students to study and conduct research abroad, which is why many students were on the flight, returning to university following the winter break.
There is also no direct flight between Canada and Iran, and the Ukraine International Airlines flight from Tehran to Kiev and then to Toronto is popular because it is one of the most affordable options for the journey.
In 2012, Canada closed its embassy in Tehran and expelled Iranian diplomats from Ottawa."
You may recall as well what came to be called 'the Canadian Caper'. The Canadian embassy hid 6 American diplomats who had avoided capture when Islamist radicals overran our embassy in early November of 1979 and took 65 American hostages (13 were subsequently released and the remaining 52 were held for 444 days).
The Canadian diplomats managed to get their American counterparts out of Iran in January of 1980. For that, all Americans owe the Canadians who risked their own lives to save our countrymen a great debt of gratitude.
Canadian Caper - Wikipedia
Best regards to all,
Harry
