Supreme Court rejects attempt by Flight PS752 victims' families to seize Iranian assets

The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear an appeal launched by the families of Flight PS752 victims to seize Iranian state property and bank assets held on Canadian soil to cover millions of dollars in unpaid compensation.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp shot down the commercial plane in 2020 over the skies of Tehran, killing 175 people, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled in 2021 that Iran shot down the plane intentionally in an act of terrorism. The court later awarded nine families representing 14 victims close to $250 million in compensation in two different lawsuits that later merged.

Iran hasn't paid those families and did not defend itself in court, making it a default judgment. Iran's foreign minister later called the ruling «shameful» and said it had «no basis.»

The victims' families subsequently moved to enforce the judgment against Iran's properties and bank accounts in Canada.

But the federal government — which concluded in 2021 that Iran is entirely responsible for the destruction of the plane — also argued in an Ontario court that under international law, the courts don't have the power to allow the families to seize Iranian assets.

A justice with the Ontario Superior Court sided with the government and concluded that Iranian property is protected by diplomatic immunity under Canadian law.

Federal government guilty of 'hypocrisy,' lawyer says

The families' lawyer Mark Arnold took the case to the Ontario Court of Appeals, which also denied the families permission to seize and sell certain Iranian diplomatic properties.

Arnold then asked Canada's top court if it would hear the case.

He said the Supreme Court's dismissal of his leave