Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Hamed. I appreciate the question.
When we're talking to the officials—we talk to all who have a stake in this tragedy—we always say: We want to know the truth. We want to know justice. We want to get justice for our loved ones.
We have had a hard time explaining to everyone, from the very beginning and for the past 17 months now, that compensation is not what we want. That's not a priority for us. Truth and justice would allow us to have a sense of closure in our lives. Without that, we cannot go on. Our lives have been destroyed.
I lost my partner, Dr. Forough Khadem. She was a wonderful person. She was an academic. She had a fantastic career. She just went for a holiday to see her family. She didn't deserve to die like that, along with all the other people on board that plane. That's not acceptable. Canada cannot accept this as another thing that just happened. This was by no means an accident. There was absolutely zero evidence that this was just an accident. All the evidence we have seen through these past few months has directed us to think that this had some element of intentionality.
We thought to have a proper criminal investigation in Canada, and early on the RCMP—we don't know why—decided it could not open a criminal investigation in Canada. I think 176 dead bodies are enough reason to start a criminal investigation. I understand they may not have access to all the evidence in Iran, but that should not be a reason not to open the criminal investigation.
Thank you.