CALGARY — The RCMP is facing renewed calls to reopen its criminal investigation into the 2020 downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 after newly released records suggested the probe was shelved days after then-prime minister Justin Trudeau held a private meeting with Iran's foreign minister.According to documents first reported by Blacklock's Reporter, Ontario businessman Shahin Moghaddam, who lost his wife and 10-year-old son in the attack, says Canadians deserve answers and believes the Mounties should launch a full criminal investigation into the deaths of the 138 Canadian citizens and permanent residents killed when Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down the passenger jet shortly after takeoff from Tehran on Jan. 8, 2020."The RCMP must open the case even if it takes years to collect the clues," Moghaddam said. "They must start an investigation. They cannot ignore it."Moghaddam said he has never understood why Canadian authorities failed to pursue their own criminal investigation into the attack."It is the duty of the Canadian government to look out for its citizens, any Canadian," he said. "It doesn't matter how or when.""Why was there no Canadian investigation? They must make clear what happened."Internal RCMP records now made public show investigators initially believed an independent Canadian criminal investigation was essential."The RCMP's expertise in obtaining information to an evidentiary standard could allow the Canadian government to provide victims' families with a factual sequence of events to explain the crash of PS752," investigators wrote. "It is therefore imperative to determine what actually occurred, independently from open source reporting and the Iranian narrative.".Canadians see China as bigger threat than Iran amid Carney's push for closer ties.The documents said an investigation conducted to Canadian evidentiary standards would help establish "individual or systemic culpability" and provide Canadians with confidence about what took place.However, that planned investigation was abandoned less than two weeks after Trudeau met privately with then-Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif during the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 14, 2020. Iranian state television later broadcast footage of the meeting, which had not been publicly disclosed to Canadian media.Twelve days later, on Feb. 26, the RCMP informed Canadian diplomats by email that it would not proceed with a domestic criminal investigation."The RCMP will not be launching a formal domestic investigation into the downing of PS752," the email stated. "The decision was taken based on advice provided by the Department of Public Safety and considerable internal work and discussions."Moghaddam questioned the timing of the decision."Somebody gave them an order to stop right after Trudeau met with Iran's foreign minister," he said. "The Prime Minister was smiling and bowing. It is strange."The records were obtained through a review conducted by the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, which declined to comment on the case."All investigations by the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency must be held in private," the agency said in a statement. "As such NSIRA is not in a position to comment."For Moghaddam, the passage of time has not diminished the need for accountability.He said the RCMP still has an obligation to investigate the deaths of Canadian citizens and permanent residents, regardless of how long it takes."They must start an investigation," he said. "They cannot ignore it."
