A week after a plane crash that took the lives of dozens of students, professors and researchers from within Canada’s university community, universities are being asked to observe a nation-wide moment of silence. The memorial to those who died aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 will begin at 1 p.m. EST tomorrow, January 15.
The effort is being coordinated by Universities Canada (publisher of University Affairs). In a message sent to member institutions on Monday morning, Universities Canada president Paul Davidson explained that the gesture is an opportunity to “provide those within and outside the community a galvanizing national moment to recognize the unprecedented and far-reaching effects of this tragedy on universities.”
An estimated 46 students, faculty members and researchers from at least 19 Canadian universities were among the 176 passengers killed on January 8, when a flight departing Tehran for Kyiv was hit by an Iranian missile and crashed just minutes after takeoff. In the week since the tragedy, several universities across the country have hosted events in memory of the victims, including a memorial attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the University of Alberta, which lost 10 members of its community – two professors, five graduate students, one undergraduate and two recent alumni.
My heart breaks for all and their families and loved ones. As an online student i will be honoring this heartwarming gesture in my office at work and would like to thank you for the opportunity to join the universities in honoring the lives taken in this horrific tragedy. Miigwetch .
The world was small for your laughs! Forever, the sound of laughter will be heard, sometimes with the waves of the sea or the wind in the forests of this land and sometimes in the hands of a kind child who paints the love of child and parents
It has been heartbreaking for all Canadians and more Iranian-Canadian community. It is a big lost for the whole academic community across the world. Thanks to University Affairs for coordinating this innititatives.