They flip through TV channels — CBC, CTV, Global — and in each report, Bonnie Rezzaghi and her husband Mahmoudreza Mivehchi see the faces of the dead: a beloved sister, a brother-in-law, a best friend.
Mivehchi says his wife has not stopped crying for two days as dozens of friends and family come to the house to pay their respects to Rezzaghi's sister, Niloofar Rezzaghi, her husband Ardalan Ebnoddin-Hamidi and their 15-year-old son, Kamyar Ebnoddin-Hamidi, Port Coquitlam residents who were killed aboard Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 after it crashed shortly after takeoff Tuesday from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport Tuesday.
“Ardalan…” Mivehchi starts, the name of his brother-in-law catching in his throat. “He was my closest friend for 20 years.
“Its a huge catastrophe for my family. We’re in shock.”
Like many of the 176 people aboard Flight 752 — including 63 Canadians among 138 believed travelling to Canada — the family was on their way home after a two-week vacation.
Niloofar Rezzaghi had just finished studying mathematics and was about to start as a full-time job as a teacher in Surrey.
“She was very happy before she went to Iran,” said Mivehchi, describing her sister as a polite woman who never stopped smiling.
But the sense of loss has been felt far beyond immediate friends and family.
The Tri-City Persian community has been left reeling by the deaths of a family who many say left an indelible mark on the people around them. Hundreds of people have left comments and condolences through The Tri-City News’s social media channels, just a fraction of the outpouring of grief following the family’s sudden death.
Bahzad Abdi, the chair of the Tri-City Iranian Cultural Association said he became especially close with father Ardalan Ebnoddin-Hamidi over the last few years. The two — like many in the Persian community — had attended a popular science and technology university in Tehran together as young men. Shortly after immigrating to Canada in 2009, Abdi said, the two found each other at a party.
In the years since then, they often worked together on Iranian cultural and political events, such as all-candidates meetings. Ardalan joined the cultural association as a board member a couple of years ago and would bring along his son, a boy emulating his father.
In a message Thursday on Twitter, Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam MP Ron McKinnon remembered the father and son duo in the lead-up to last fall's federal election, remarking on "young Kam, who never missed a Thursday evening phone banking and door knocking.”
The family’s sudden death has others in the community reflecting on fleeting moments together.
Lucille Bernat — a Port Coquitlam mother who met Kamyar when he was only five years old while attending school with her daughter — dug up old videos of the two performing puppet shows during play dates.
“The family was such a kind, gentle, happy family,” said Bernat.
Another one of Kamyar’s middle school friends reminisced with old French Immersion schoolmates after learning of the his death.
“Kamyar was a funny, brave and selfless person that always made others smile whenever he could. He had strong relationships with many people around him because of his amazing personality,” the boy, who asked that his name not be used, wrote The Tri-City News. “Kamyar also made sure to help people stuck in tough situations, regardless of his own, which is what further strengthened his bonds with many of his peers. He will be dearly missed by many.”
Kamyar was a Grade 10 French Immersion student at Riverside secondary school in PoCo. Thursday, students at the school are wearing red to memorialize their friend and classmate because it was Kamyar’s favourite colour.
Outside of school and work, Kamyar and his father lived and breathed soccer, say people close to the family, noting the 15-year-old played on Coquitlam Metro Ford Soccer Club's (CMFSC) U16 boys' Div. 3 team while his father was as an assistant coach with the team.
This weekend, all of CMFSC's home games will include a minute of silence to allow “for a period of silent contemplation, reflection, and prayer, and is a gesture of respect for the loss of the family,” according to a letter from the club sent to parents.
With more than a dozen of Metro Vancouver’s Persian community killed in an instant, many are still in a state of shock. Some, like Bahzad Abdi, have started to try and make sense of what happened.
Abdi said when he saw the news that Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 had crashed, his mind started racing.
“Two hours after the airplane crashed, I told my wife I’m sure that the Iranian army hit this airplane,” he said.
By Thursday morning, those suspicions were bolstered by a handful of U.S. media reports alleging an Iranian anti-aircraft missile had downed the aircraft.
Within hours of those reports being published, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared in a televised address, telling Canadians government officials had spent Wednesday evening and Thursday morning reviewing intelligence from multiple sources, ultimately determining that the plane was, indeed, likely downed by an Iranian surface-to-air missile in an act that may have been unintentional.
“The families of the victims want answers. I want answers,” he said, noting Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne spoke with his Iranian counterpart in a rare contact between the tow nations (Canada closed its embassy in Iran in 2012 and suspended diplomatic relations).
Trudeau said Iranian officials would be granting Ukraine access to the aircraft’s black box and Canadians would be working closely with those investigators. By Thursday afternoon, Canada's Transportation Safety Board announced it had accepted an invitation by Iran's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau to attend the crash site.
Some — even in Port Coquitlam — have already laid blame for aviation disaster at the feet of U.S. President Donald Trump, saying his decision to assassinate Iranian general Qassem Soleimani sparked a chain of hostilities that ended in the deaths of those aboard Flight 752.
When asked whether the U.S. bore responsibility in the fatal crash, Trudeau said it was too soon to draw conclusions or assign blame or responsibility.
"My first thought is for the families,” he said. “We will be there for them in this difficult time."
Through his grief, Abdi looks back at the track record of the Iranian government, and says he’s worried the family and friends of the Hamidi’s will never get the answers they seek.
“The Iranians never want to tell the truth,” he said.
