After the Flight 752 disaster killed his colleague’s wife and son, Michael McCain, chief executive of Maple Leaf Foods Inc., took to Twitter on Sunday night to admonish the Trump administration for escalating tensions with Iran.
“I am very angry, and time isn’t making me less angry,” McCain wrote on Maple Leaf Foods’ official Twitter account. “A MLF colleague of mine lost his wife and family this week to a needless, irresponsible series of events in Iran.”
McCain is at the helm of a major Canadian meat processing empire, with 12,500 employees and production facilities in Canada and the U.S., including a planned $310-million plant-based protein plant in Indiana.
Without ever naming Donald Trump — referring to him instead “a narcissist in Washington” — McCain criticized the president’s abandonment of the Iran nuclear agreement and the recent U.S. killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.
…U.S. government leaders unconstrained by checks/balances, concocted an ill-conceived plan to divert focus from political woes. The world knows Iran is a dangerous state, but the world found a path to contain it; not perfect but by most accounts it was the right direction…
— Maple Leaf Foods (@MapleLeafFoods) January 13, 2020
Iran retaliated with missile strikes on U.S. military positions in Iraq, then hours later, Iran fired on Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752, killing on 176, the majority of them en route to Canada via Kiev. After initially denying any involvement, Iran admitted on Friday to shooting down the plane, calling it a “disastrous mistake” caused by human error.
“The collateral damage of this irresponsible, dangerous, ill-conceived behavior? 63 Canadians needlessly lost their lives in the crossfire,” McCain said. The Canadian government has since updated its figure to 57 Canadians killed.
“We are mourning and I am livid,” McCain wrote.
Iran admitted on Saturday that it accidentally shot down the plane in which 57 Canadians, mostly of Iranian descent, died.
Iran said its air defences were fired in error while on alert after Iranian missile strikes on U.S. targets in Iraq.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday told a vigil for some of those killed in the disaster that he would “pursue justice and accountability” for what happened.
With files from Reuters
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
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