EDMONTON—The moment Nooran Ostadeian heard about the crash, she was suspicious.

When she learned two of her best friends in Edmonton had been onboard, her suspicion gave way to sorrow and grief.

Now, she’s angry.

Ostadeian was one of those processing the assertions Thursday that the Ukraine International Airlines flight that crashed in Iran on Wednesday morning appeared to have been struck down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that intelligence from multiple sources indicated the flight was downed by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, echoing statements from Ukrainian officials and U.S. President Donald Trump earlier in the day. Both Trudeau and Trump said the strike might have been unintentional.

“It makes the situation worse because then there’s anger and frustration that innocent people are victims of dirty politicians, from either side,” Ostadeian said.

“We don’t know who did it, actually.”

The development added an additional layer of anguish to an already tragic situation for those stunned by the loss of loved ones. It also cast a shadow over what some had seen as a rare moment of tragic solidarity for the Iranian community in Canada.

A night earlier, on the steps of the Alberta legislature building, a small vigil was held as mourners stood side by side to grieve the community’s losses, putting political and religious differences aside.

“I’ve never felt so much a part of this community like I did yesterday,” said Payman Parseyan, an active member of the Iranian community in Edmonton.

“We weren’t disagreeing yesterday on whether there should be sympathy for the regime or not.”

The small Iranian cohort living in Edmonton is estimated at nearly 5,000 people. Many see the regime in Iran as totalitarian — watching them still, even after they’ve lived in Canada for years. Others try to stay out of political discourse, acknowledging diverse views, and calling some of the theories that Iran’s government keeps tabs on ex-pats exaggerated.

Pegah Salari, another Iranian community member and Edmonton resident since arriving in 2006, said that, normally, “I would probably never even talk to” some folks she’s been working with to organize and gather information about victims.

“We all came together. For the first time, any conversation around what party, what kind of view who belongs to, was cut very short within the first few sentences,” she said. “Everyone put aside those kinds of concerns … everybody is mourning.”

Ostadeian, an Edmonton real estate agent, had known her friends Mojgan Daneshmand and Pedram Mousavi since they reached out to her for help in finding a home in 2010. She described them as a happy couple who were deeply committed to their community, their careers and their family.

Daneshmand and Mousavi, both professors at the University of Alberta, died in the crash along with their daughters, Daria, 14, and Dorina, 9.

Ostadeian said she was initially skeptical of the report that the crash was the result of an engine malfunction.

“Putting the puzzle together, it didn’t make sense that the airplane would crash. This is not a kind of defect,” she said.

“How can an accident like this happen? Are you just going to randomly shoot something and it hits an airplane? I don’t think this is an accident. This is a game. It’s politics.”

Still, to some, it didn’t come as a surprise.

Salari said the divisions among the Iranian community will become apparent once again. By watching where members draw the line in condemning Iran or not, she said, it will be obvious where they stand.

“This is just heartbreaking. Mistake or not, obviously if it’s not a mistake it’s a whole other conversation, but even if it’s a mistake,” Salari said.

“How on Earth were you going to go to a war with the United States if you can’t control your frickin’ missiles? ... I feel so extremely angry about that.”

The reality for Salari is that the government in her home country oppresses people, sometimes violently, and she said she doesn’t understand why Iranians in Canada would support it, even if that segment of the community is small.

Her fears are compounded by concerns in Edmonton, too, she said. Having spent the previous day fielding interview requests from reporters, she said she had concerns about what the Iranian government might think about her speaking out.

“I said goodbye to the possibility of going to Iran,” she said. “I am worried that those interviews will implicate my parents if they ever have to go back.”

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But others aren’t sold on the notion that the Iranian government keeps tabs on those living abroad and say that in Canada, all Iranians enjoy free speech rights.

Ali Zakerhaghighi, who sits on the board of the Imam Hussein Islamic Society in Edmonton and knew a family of three who died in the plane crash, said many concerns about the Iranian government watching people in Canada are based on rumours or exaggerations.

“I am hoping that people, rather than listening to stuff that they read on the news and media, they just try to understand the realities,” he said.

Zakerhaghighi said the local Iranian community has differences of opinion when it comes to politics, but that he hopes for a final investigation to be completed on the downed plane before people start coming to conclusions. He also expressed a feeling of overall solidarity in the face of the tragic circumstances.

“Past is past. We cannot control it,” he said. “I am just hoping that news like this will not be true because it will really deepen the sorrow for the families and relatives and friends.”

Since the news of the crash, Zakerhaghighi said he’s been inconsolable and mourning the loss of three victims he knew — medical doctor Shekoufeh Choupannejad and her two daughters, Saba Saadat and Sara Saadat.

“I cannot even put in words,” he said. “My friends and my family even sometimes ask me through these two days, ‘you have to calm down,’ and I say, ‘I cant.’

“It will take some time for the community to pass through this situation.”

In Metro Vancouver, Kei Esmaeilpour lost a number of friends in Wednesday’s tragedy, including Ardalan Ebnoddin-Hamidi, whose wife Niloofar Razzaghi and son Kamyar Ebnoddin-Hamidi also perished.

Esmaeilpour said news Iran was believed to have shot the plane down with a missile, likely by mistake, is shocking. But sadness was still the dominant emotion.

“They are in a deep sadness and they worry for the future,” Esmaeilpour said. “Some are thinking the people who were killed could have been their family.”

For another friend of the family, Fred Soofi, the pain of the air crash was being tampered however slightly in the Canadian-Iranian community by the feeling that a full scale war now appeared unlikely for the moment.

Back in Edmonton, Ostadeian said she’s saddened by the loss of her friends but also feels “helpless” seeing her country of origin get entangled in global politics.

“You cannot do anything as a civilian and as a citizen, you have no influence. You can express your anger or sadness and everything, but we are the victims of the politics,” she said.

For Ostadeian, both the U.S. and Iran are at fault for the crash. She said she’s angry at the U.S. for “what they have done in the whole world”, but also calls the Iranian government murderers.

“I’m angry from both sides. Who cares if it’s Iran or U.S.? They both have similar actions and the same goal … They are not thinking about people. They are thinking about their own benefit,” she said.

“They are fooling people.”

with files from Jeremy Nuttall

Kieran Leavitt and Omar Mosleh are Toronto Star reporters based in Edmonton.

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