Canada Notified Iran About Ontario Court Ruling On Downing of Ukrainian Plane

Canada announced Tuesday that it has notified Iran of Ontario's Superior Court of Justice’s ruling that IRGC’s downing of Ukraine Airlines Flight PS752 was intentional.

In a letter on June 7 addressed to Mark Arnold, the lawyer of six family members of the victims of the incident, the Canadian foreign ministry said the final ruling issued by Justice Edward Belobaba of Ontario Superior Court “has been transmitted to the appropriate authority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

In the case -- titled Zarei et al vs Islamic Republic of Iran et al – some family members filed a civil lawsuit against Iran and senior officials they believe were to blame for the incident. The Ontario Court ruled that the downing of Flight 752 was an intentional act of terrorism and on December 31, 2021, awarded compensation to be shared by the estates of the six victims. C$100 million in punitive damages, another C$1 million to family members for the loss of guidance, care and companionship, and C$6 million for pain and suffering. 

The airliner was shot down by two air-defense missiles fired by the IRGC on January 8, 2020, as it took off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. Only hours earlier, the IRGC had fired more than a dozen missiles at Iraqi bases hosting US and coalition troops in retaliation for the killing of the IRGC Qods Force Commander Ghasem Soleimani who was targeted and killed in Baghdad by a US drone strike just five days earlier.