Thousands gather to mourn, call for justice on 3rd anniversary of Flight PS752 tragedy

B.C. Premier David Eby stood in solidarity Sunday with grieving families in North Vancouver who gathered to mark three years since Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired a pair of surface-to-air missiles at a civilian plane over Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.

The North Vancouver event was one of several memorials held Sunday to mark the anniversary, including one in Toronto.

Fifty-five Canadian citizens were on the flight along with 30 permanent residents and others with ties to Canada.

It was the largest loss of Canadian lives in an air disaster since 280 Canadians died in 1985 after a bomb exploded on Air India Flight 182 travelling to London, England, from Toronto.

In a statement preceding the gathering in North Vancouver, where many Iranian-Canadians with ties to the tragedy reside, Eby said he joined them to mourn the deaths "on this solemn day of pain, sorrow and grief.

"Our outrage at the attack on Flight 752 is undiminished by the passing years," he said. "We again condemn this horrific act and stand with the victims' families in demanding justice."

Victims' families say three years after the tragedy they have yet to see the Iranian government be held accountable for the crime.

"Those families deserve answers," Eby said at the event. "And those victims deserve justice."

Eby and the City of North Vancouver pledged up to $100,000 to build a monument in honour of the victims of Flight 752, but did not provide details on the location or when it would be built.

Seven of the victims were residents of the North Shore, including Delaram Dadashnejad, Faye Kazerani, Firouzeh Madani, Fatehmeh Pasavand, Ayeshe Pourghaderi, Naser Pourshabanoshibi, and Daniel Saket.

Hamidreza Borghei, 27, lost four family members in the tragedy, including his sister Negar Borghei, who was 30 when she died and had been living in Ontario.

"You can't really [quantify] the amount of loss that we've felt ... no matter how hard we try there is still that void in our hearts," he said from the event.

"We just hope that maybe this would be the catalyst to [bring] change in Iran at some point so we can seek justice for all the criminals that made this happen."

The crowd walked about 2.5 kilometres from a park in North Vancouver to the Shipyards, a waterfront area overlooking downtown Vancouver. Eby and others spoke while attendees held signs under heavy rain that read "Justice for Iran PS752" and "UNHCR take immediate action for Iran."