{"id":25676,"date":"2020-01-16T17:48:53","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T22:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25676"},"modified":"2020-01-23T18:54:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T23:54:58","slug":"we-will-not-rest-until-justice-is-served-hundreds-attend-vigil-for-victims-of-flight-752","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/we-will-not-rest-until-justice-is-served-hundreds-attend-vigil-for-victims-of-flight-752\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe will not rest until justice is served\u201d – Hundreds attend vigil for victims of Flight 752"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They were friends, family, and each were living lives full of promise \u2013 hopes and dreams which, in the words of Michael Parsa, will now go unfulfilled following the tragic crash of Flight 752 in Iran last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MPP, himself an\nIranian Canadian, was among the hundreds to fill the field behind the Dr. Bette\nStephenson Centre for Learning in Oak Ridges on Monday night to pay tribute to\nthe 176 victims of the Tehran crash in a vigil hosted jointly by the York\nRegion District School Board and York Catholic District School Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organized by the school boards, in conjunction with the\nYork Regional Police and the City of Richmond Hill, it was a way to honour and\nremember the lives of the several York Region students whose lives were cut all\ntoo short in the tragedy, as well as the lives of all others on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His voice cracking with emotion, Mr. Parsa thanked the community\nfor the \u201coutpouring of love and support\u201d expressed by the community in recent\ndays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLike many of you, I knew several of the victims of this\ntragedy,\u201d he said. \u201cMany of those on the flight were our fellow Canadians: they\nwere our close friends and neighbours; they were good friends; young children.\nThey were renowned engineers, doctors and students. They had bright futures\nfull of promise. They had friends and family who loved them, who will always\nlove them, and they had hopes and dreams which will now go unfulfilled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joined on stage by his fellow area MPPs Daisy Wai and\nStephen Lecce, he said the days of mourning since January 8 have been difficult\nto process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re standing here in solidarity on this\ncold January night to comfort each other and try to make sense of all this\nheartbreak and to remember our family, friends and colleagues. We must remember\ntheir contributions to the community, to everyone who knew them, and to the\nbetterment of society through their leadership and hard work. What happened to\nthose 176 innocent people is an unforgivable crime. It is so deeply disturbing\nthat all those lives could be cut short in an instance and for no good reason.\nIt is just so senseless and I am still stunned by it. Reeling from it. I am\ngrieving for the loss of my friends and all the victims, and I am angry at the\npeople who took them away from us. Now that the Iranian regime has admitted\nfault for this disaster, we must not rest until justice is served.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This anger could be felt from many of the people in the\ncrowd, some of whom were holding photos of family and friends killed in the\ncrash as they placed candles and flowers on the front of the dais in tribute as\ndignitaries spoke \u2013 including Richmond Hill MP Majid Jowhari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Jowhari, joined on stage by fellow MPs Tony Van\nBynen, Deb Schulte and Mary Ng, said all Canadians were left \u201cshocked and\noutraged\u201d by the tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all share the pain and the anger,\u201d he said. \u201cOver the\npast six days, I, among my colleagues, have had a chance to hear from many of\nthe families who lost loved ones. Every story is different, but every story\nshares the grief and the ongoing impact that the loss of their loved ones will\nhave for many, many years to come. I want all the family members and loved ones\nto know that we are working night and day to support and put in place the\nstructure to help you get the answers and justice you so richly deserve. You\nhave the commitment of our Prime Minister and the entire government that will\ncontinue to support you today and in the future. After all, that\u2019s what Canada\nis about \u2013 a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His words, however, were not enough for some people in\nattendance who shouted, \u201cWho do you blame?\u201d When an answer didn\u2019t come, more\nshouts of protest were raised until event emcees \u2013 student trustees from both\nboards \u2013 introduced the next speaker, Mr. Parsa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Monday\u2019s vigil was a time to mourn and remember, a\nmessage underscored by representatives from both the YRDSB and YCDSB in their\nremarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe grieve for you and with their families and friends,\u201d\nsaid Maria Marchese, Chair of the YCDSB. \u201cWe grieve the losses to our\ncommunity. So many of those young people who were only beginning to see just\nhow much they would have to offer to the fabric of our community. It is our\nhope that you take some comfort in the presence of one another and in seeing so\nmany people here this evening who mourn with you and are here for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Louise Sirisko, Director of Education at the YRDSB,\n\u201cI wish I could express and truly convey what it has felt like in schools as we\nthink about the students lost and their families. It has been a very, very\ndifficult, difficult week gone by. Quite honestly, this is unlike anything we\nhave experienced here in York Region. This time in our lives, this event is\ngoing to weigh heavy on our hearts, on our schools and in our York Region\ncommunity for a very, very long time to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur hope tonight is that we can come together in our sorrow and in love and care to help our neighbours, friends and community to heal and reach out our hearts and hands to those who are suffering most. On a cold night in January, you rode buses, you walked, you made time out of your busy lives to come together and to hold each other\u2019s hands, whether you are a student, whether you are a staff member, whether you\u2019re a community member, a supportive politician who enables us to come together as Canadians and Ontarians. We thank you so much for being here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They were friends, family, and each were living lives full of promise \u2013 hopes and dreams which, in the words of Michael Parsa, will now go unfulfilled following the tragic crash of Flight 752 in Iran last week. The Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MPP, himself an Iranian Canadian, was among the hundreds to fill the field […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/2020-01-16-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6G8","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 11:20:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}