Canada's national police force is taking part in the massive effort to identify dozens of Canadians killed in last week's plane crash in Iran.
While no RCMP officers are currently on the ground in Tehran, where the Ukrainian passenger jet was shot down by the Iranian military, a spokeswoman said the force is co-ordinating the crucial work of gathering physical material that will eventually be used to identify the remains of the 57 Canadian victims.
The Canadian Press has independently confirmed at least 89 victims with ties to Canada, many of them students and professors returning after spending the December break visiting relatives in Iran. "Some family members may therefore be asked to provide biological samples to assist with the identification of the victims," Fortin said, adding those samples would then be used to generate a DNA profile that would later help identify remains.
But Sweet said officials around the world may face challenges in their efforts to identify the dead due to conditions on the ground in Iran. "There's training and capacity-building that's necessary over a period of time, and nobody worries about that," he said.
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