Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would be providing the families of dozens of victims in Iran’s downing of a commercial airliner $25,000 to handle immediate needs.
Trudeau, 48, said that while he expects Iran to provide additional compensation to the victims’ families, the initial funds are being provided by the Canadian government for funeral expenses and travel and would be delivered “in the coming days.”
“I want to be clear: We expect Iran to compensate these families,” Trudeau said on Friday. “But I have met [the families]. They can’t wait weeks. They need support now.”
A total of 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three British nationals died when Iran’s air defense fired two anti-aircraft missiles and shot down the Ukrainian airliner. Although the country said at first that the crash was caused by a mechanical failure, it later admitted to shooting down the jet and killing all 176 on board.
The shooting of the plane came just after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired more than a dozen short-range ballistic missiles at bases in Iraq housing U.S. forces in retaliation for a drone strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian military leader responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. troops.
Protests broke out across Iran over the plane crash, with demonstrators calling for Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to resign over his regime’s lies about the incident and further escalating protests that surged late last year.
On Friday, the same day that Khamenei delivered a speech to the nation, posters of Soleimani were torn down and torched in at least nine cities. Dozens have been arrested for participating in the anti-regime demonstrations.
