The province is launching a scholarship fund to honour Canadians killed when Iran mistakenly shot down an airliner last week, including 15 students and staff at colleges and universities in Southwestern Ontario.
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The province is launching a scholarship fund to honour Canadians killed when Iran mistakenly shot down an airliner last week, including 15 students and staff at colleges and universities in Southwestern Ontario.
The fund will award 57, $10,000 post-secondary scholarships — one for each of the Canadian victim — the province announced Thursday. The Ministry of Colleges and Universities plans to launch the scholarships by September.
It was not immediately clear whether the scholarships would be offered for more than one year, Premier Doug Ford’s office said.
All 167 passengers and nine crew were killed when Iranian surface-to-air missile fire downed Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, a Boeing 737-800 NG, on Jan. 8. After denying for days that it shot down the passenger plane, Iran’s leaders apologized and admitted what they said was a mistake.
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Fifteen Ontario schools lost students or faculty in the Jan. 8 incident, including Western University, University of Guelph, University of Waterloo, University of Windsor and Cestar College of Business, Health and Technology, a Toronto-based campus with close ties to Lambton College.
Western held a memorial service for its four graduate students killed on flight PS752 Wednesday at Alumni Hall. The University of Windsor lost five students and Waterloo and Guelph each lost two.
“Many of the victims were students and professors with bright futures, studying and teaching at Ontario universities and colleges, and contributing to the advancement of research in many life-changing fields,” Ford said in a statement.
“We will honour their memories through these scholarships to recognize their incredible contributions to our communities.”
The ministry will award the scholarships based on financial need, academic merit and other criteria in consultation with victims’ families and post-secondary schools.
Thirty-four of the scholarships will go to students from institutions which lost people in the downing. The rest will go to other eligible college and university students.
With files from The Canadian Press
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