Families marked six years on Jan. 8, 2026, since Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was shot down over Iran on Jan. 8, 2020, killing all 176 people on board, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents. Ceremonies were held in Richmond Hill, Windsor and Vancouver to honour the victims.
Ceremonies in three cities
The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims hosted the main ceremony in Richmond Hill, Ont., the community north of Toronto where many victims had lived, worked or studied. Other events were planned the same day in Windsor, Ont., and Vancouver, B.C.
The Richmond Hill observance followed a candlelight vigil the night before at Unity Park, attended by human rights activists and elected officials. Speakers at the vigil included the city’s mayor and the local member of Parliament.
The scale of the loss explains why Richmond Hill remains at the centre of the Canadian commemorations. The community north of Toronto was home to many of the Canadian victims, and residents there have gathered every January since 2020 — at vigils, at the park that will hold the permanent memorial, and this year at a formal ceremony hosted by the families’ association.
What happened on Jan. 8, 2020
Flight PS752 had just taken off from Tehran when it was struck by two Iranian missiles. All 176 people on board were killed.
The passengers included 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents of Canada, alongside citizens of Iran, Ukraine, Sweden, the United Kingdom and other countries. Many were students, academics and families returning to Canada after the holiday period, which is why universities and schools across the country also lost students and colleagues that day.
Iran later described the shootdown as a mistake made at a time of high military tension, but families and the governments of the affected countries have continued to press for a full accounting of how a civilian airliner was allowed to take off, and then be fired on, that morning.
Canada’s statement and the legal cases
On the anniversary, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon issued a joint statement honouring the victims. “Six years have now passed since the lives of 176 people, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 Canadian permanent residents, were taken in the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752,” the statement said.
The ministers said Canada remained unwavering in its commitment to justice, accountability, transparency and solidarity with families, and that the government had reaffirmed that commitment during a call that morning with loved ones.
Canada has pursued the case with Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom through the International Coordination and Response Group. The group filed a case against Iran at the International Court of Justice in 2023 under the 1971 Montreal Convention on unlawful acts against civil aviation, and a separate case at the International Civil Aviation Organization in 2024. In the court case, Canada and its partners were waiting for the court to set a date for oral hearings on preliminary objections Iran filed in January 2025, after filing their reply in May.
Separate compensation litigation has also moved through Canadian courts. Last year, Ontario’s highest court upheld a ruling that found Ukraine International Airlines legally responsible for paying full compensation to victims’ families.
A permanent memorial in Unity Park
The sixth anniversary also brought a concrete local commitment. Ontario announced $350,000 for the City of Richmond Hill to build a permanent Flight PS752 memorial at Unity Park, the same park where vigils have been held.
According to the province’s description reported that week, the memorial was designed by the city in partnership with victims’ families. It will feature a series of steel panels and an engraved granite base listing all the names, along with accessible pathways and integrated lighting. Construction is scheduled to begin in mid-2026 and to be completed in 2027, as a collaboration between the city and the provincial and federal governments.
Ontario’s Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism, Graham McGregor, said the province was proud to support a memorial that honours the victims while providing a space for reflection and healing, and that recognized the strength of families who continue to seek justice and accountability.
For families, the memorial does not close the legal or political cases. It does give Richmond Hill a permanent place, built around the victims’ names, where the annual gathering that began in grief can continue.
