Lots of Iranis fled the country when the crazies took over. Used to hang out at a bar near the U of MD where the bartender was from Iran. Good guy. Also worked a couple of telecom equipment installs with an older vendor from Iran. Seems like someone who left a Schiffhole country because of a brutal govenment might just be on our side.
Pappy348;
Good evening to you sir, I hope that the day was acceptable for you and yours and this finds you all well.
From what I've been able to glean from the news on this side of the medicine line a lot of the folks from Canada were professionals - doctors, nurses, university profs - who had come here for the exact reasons you describe.
Our neighbor across the gully - Cyrus - came to Canada when Khomeini came into power and began to systematically kill all the folks who believed different than Khomeini did. I want to say Cyrus is of the Bahai faith, but I could be wrong about that.
I will say that in the last 28 odd years we couldn't ask for better neighbors. Our eldest daughter bought a Jeep from him that he'd purchased new and again he was just fine to deal with.
Anyway, as mentioned several times previous to this, personally I've got a soft spot for refugees since my maternal grandfather was smuggled out of Russia under a load of hay and my paternal grandfather left Romania with his wife and brother in law and sister as refugees. In that instance the brother in law was AWOL from the Romanian Army and as I understand it even travelling with him would mean everybody got lined up against the closest handy wall and dispatched.
So since Canada was gracious enough to allow my ancestors in more than a century back, hopefully folks can understand my reluctance to be too quick to cast aspersions on other folks in the same boat - sometimes literally.
Without meaning to sound braggadocious, the descendants of those aforementioned refugees - my grandfathers - have contributed to their new homeland in a significant and meaningful manner for that 100 plus year stretch.
I'd imagine that potential was there for any of the folks on that flight, but we'll never know now that they've been killed.
My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families left behind.
All the best to you folks in 2020 Pappy.
Dwayne
