Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says a soccer friendly between Canada and Iran next month in Vancouver is ill-advised.
“This was a choice by Soccer Canada,” Trudeau said Tuesday in St. John’s, when asked about the match. “I think it wasn’t a very good idea to invite the Iranian soccer team here to Canada. But that’s something that the organizers are going to have to explain.”
The merits of hosting Iran were raised by a reporter, citing families who had lost loved ones on Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 calling the game a “slap in the face.”
Flight 752 was shot down on Jan. 8, 2020, minutes after taking off from Tehran by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. The Canadian government says 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents were among the 176 people killed.