title: Zeenat Aman

text: In 1978, Aman married actor Sanjay Khan, which was annulled in 1979. Aman then married actor Mazhar Khan from 1985 to his death in 1998. She had two children with Mazhar Khan, and was married for a total of 13 years. Aman has two sons with Mazhar Khan; film director Azaan Khan, who directed the heist film "Bankster", and composer Zahaan Khan. He has also made a cameo appearance in the 2000 film "Gang". She lives with her sons, since Mazhar's death in 1998. In her marriage with Mazhar, Aman stated she was unhappy. She commented on her marriage with Mazhar Khan in 1999, on the show Rendezvous with Simi Garewal:


title: Zeenat Aman

text: In 1980, Aman was the victim of abuse in an incident where actor Sanjay Khan beat her; she had received a phone call from Khan asking to discuss specifics for the film "Abdullah". She met with him at the hotel he'd been staying at for the meeting, where he beat her severely, resulting in many injuries after the incident. This had been witnessed by his wife, who had allegedly cheered him on to keep beating Aman. The incident left Aman with a lazy eye, and she later stated that she pretends it never happened.


title: Zeenat Aman

text: In February 2018, Aman filed a rape case against businessman Aman Khanna, better known as Sarfaraz. After stalking, harassing, and robbing Aman, as well as allegedly raping Aman various times, charges were pressed against Khanna in which he was then incarcerated. The incidents described were said to have taken place between 2011 and 2016.


title: Zeenat Aman

text: Aman was initially met controversy with in her acting career for her often sexualization in a number of films, to which some critics and fans believed overshadowed her performances. Commenting on this, she told Hindustan Times: "I don't regret or feel bad about anything that happened or may not have happened. If I lost something, I gained something more. The fact that I can look back at my career with so much pride and happiness means I have had a good run without any complaints."


title: Zeenat Aman

text: In March 2016, an exhibition created by artist Mina Siddique was launched in Dubai, which featured various works and arts in dedication to Aman, which was titled as "Zeenat Aman", with the tagline "Redefining Beauty". The event was attended by Aman herself, as well as members from various countries, including UAE and Pakistan. In April 2019, Bollywood Hungama listed Aman as one of the "10 Hottest Bollywood Actresses Of All Time". She has frequently been cited as the original sex symbol of Bollywood, and is notorious for her figure and looks. However, Aman has stated that she does not take the term seriously, and rather felt restricted by it.


title: Zeenat Aman

text: Aman commented on dealing with the media exposure in 2019, saying that "...I haven’t got used to it and feel very blessed. Like I said to you, it is only now I have realised how blessed I am. I see people watching my films and songs as a blessing. There is a wonderful feeling of nostalgia when they see my films and songs. Whenever I am in their city, they reach out to me with that love and I feel very blessed and grateful for the same."


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: After a protracted development and multiple delays, "Thrice Upon a Time" was released on March 8, 2021, to positive reviews, and became the highest-grossing film of the franchise, and the second-highest-grossing Japanese film of 2021 at . It was released internationally on August 13 the same year via the Amazon Prime Video streaming service. On June 17, 2022, it was announced that GKIDS had acquired the North American rights to the film. The movie was released to theaters in December 2022 with a release on home video to follow in the future.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: In Paris, a team from the Wille organization, led by Maya Ibuki, works on a system designed to restore the city to its previous state. Upon being attacked by Nerv forces, they are defended by the Wunder fleet and Mari Illustrious Makinami in Unit-08. Mari defeats the attackers, and the Wille team restores Paris.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Asuka Langley Shikinami, Rei Ayanami and Shinji Ikari, still despondent, are walking across the outskirts of Tokyo-3. They arrive at a settlement of survivors, and encounter Toji Suzuhara, Hikari Horaki, and Kensuke Aida, now adults. Toji is a doctor and has a child with Hikari, while Kensuke is a technician, and all are friendly to Shinji. Asuka expresses frustration with Shinji, force-feeding him. As Shinji slowly recovers, Rei explores the village and settles down, working as a farmer. Shinji meets Ryoji Kaji, the son of Misato Katsuragi and the late Ryoji Kaji, who died averting Third Impact. Rei requires constant exposure to LCL and cannot maintain herself, decomposing in Shinji's presence.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Wunder arrives to pick up Asuka, and Shinji decides to go with her, despite protests from the crew. Shinji is placed in isolation. Meanwhile, Kozo Fuyutsuki, distressed over Shinji's treatment by Gendo Ikari in forcing him to experience the same loss as him, helps Gendo restart Unit-13. In response, Wunder heads to Antarctica. Before the mission, Asuka admits her past feelings for Shinji but states that she "grew up before him", referring to their actual ages being 28 but bodies being stuck at 14 due to the "Curse of Eva", as well as Shinji's suspended animation between the events of "2.0" and "3.0". Shinji apologizes to Asuka for being indecisive in either saving or killing her whilst she was trapped by the . Asuka accepts the apology and acknowledges he has matured.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Wunder is attacked by three Nerv ships and a swarm of EVA units. Asuka and Mari sortie and move to destroy Unit-13 before it can reactivate. However, Unit-02 refuses to attack Unit-13, forcing Asuka to remove her eyepatch, revealing the Ninth Angel contained within, converting Unit-02 into a "Pseudo-Evolved EVA"-Angel hybrid like Shinji's Unit-01 14 years ago. Unit-13 overpowers and absorbs Unit-02 according to Gendo's plan. Moments before being absorbed, Asuka is approached by her "original", revealing she is a clone of the Shikinami series. Meanwhile, the Wunder is attacked by a new EVA, Unit-09A.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: In the Nerv vessel restraining the Wunder, Misato and Ritsuko Akagi confront Gendo. Ritsuko shoots him to no effect as Gendo has used the Key of Nebuchadnezzar to transcend humanity. Gendo reveals that the purpose of the Shikinami and Ayanami clones is to enact the Human Instrumentality Project, and enters Unit-13. A determined Shinji asks Misato to let him pilot Unit-01. Sakura and Midori Kitakami try to stop Shinji, but Misato protects him and is shot in the process. Misato apologizes to Shinji, saying that she was wrong to blame him and will take responsibility for his actions, as she is still technically his legal guardian. Mari takes Unit-08 and merges it with Units 09A through 12. Inside Unit-01, the original Ayanami clone appears before Shinji, apologizing for not being able to spare him from having to get into an EVA, but Shinji forgives her.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Gendo and Shinji fight in a surreal "Anti Universe", and Gendo shows Shinji an "imaginary Evangelion", a "Black Lilith". Shinji meets Gendo, seeing a vision of his past experiences, including how Yui's loss traumatized him. As a result, Gendo wanted to initiate an "Additional Impact" for a chance to reunite with Yui. Meanwhile, Misato evacuates the crew of the Wunder and sacrifices herself and the ship to create the "Lance of Gaius", which gives Shinji the power to rewrite the world. Shinji talks with and provides closure to Gendo; to Asuka, returning her feelings; and to Kaworu Nagisa, revealing the existence of a cycle the cast is trapped in. Kaworu also talks with the elder Kaji, who helps him understand that his own happiness should not be tied to Shinji's.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Shinji says farewell to Rei, deciding upon a complete reset of the world, a "Neon Genesis", without Evangelions. Gendo and Yui sacrifice themselves to spare Shinji from doing so himself, bringing back all humans who were transformed in the Near Third Impact and restoring the world. Shinji waits on a beach as reality resets until Mari comes back to get him, with her "Final Evangelion" being the last to disappear. The children are all present as adults at a train station, and Shinji and Mari leave for a shot at the real world.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: The film was announced alongside "" for release in 2008 as the final part of the "Rebuild" series under the working title "Evangelion: Final". After delays of the first three films, "Evangelion: Final" was expected for release in 2015. In 2014, following the troubled production of the third film, director and producer Hideaki Anno became depressed and announced that the film would be further delayed to an unknown date, stating publicly in 2015 that he could not work on another film. As part of his recovery, Anno had also worked on Studio Ghibli's "The Wind Rises" under his mentor Hayao Miyazaki. Toho (which co-distributes the film in Japan with Toei) also approached Anno with an offer to direct a reboot of its "Godzilla" film series, "Shin Godzilla", which also contributed to the delay on "3.0+1.0". Getting Toei and Toho in the same film had been a long-standing dream of Anno's. Financial reasons also played a part. In 2014, Anno's Studio Khara loaned his former company Studio Gainax ¥100 million ($916,400). In 2016, Anno filed a claim for debt collection, fearing not only for the return of the money but also because of Gainax selling production materials to third parties, after a precedent of other sales of intellectual property without informing him. This was part of several legal issues surrounding Gainax and Evangelion.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: After a formal apology from Anno, animation director Takeshi Honda stated that the last film had resumed development after the production of "Shin Godzilla" ended in late 2016, with Studio Khara tweeting on April 5, 2017, that development was going smoothly. In May 2018, the studio put out a job listing for animation staff to work on 3DCG, VFX, and 2D animation starting on June 30, 2018. Animation was going through the final check by October 2, 2020. Dialogue recording wrapped on November 19, 2020. On December 16, 2020, Studio Khara announced that compositing and editing work had finished. In 2019 the film was scheduled for a June 27, 2020, release date but received two delays due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, first scheduled for a January 23, 2021, release, before being released on March 8, 2021.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Anno was very reluctant to return to work on the film in 2016. In 2018, Anno had asked for the opinion of voice actors like Megumi Ogata (Shinji) on how to move the plot forward after "3.0." Anno felt he could no longer understand Shinji and by now his current self was closer to Gendo than Shinji, and needed Ogata's input on how Shinji could recover after the events of "3.0." Anno felt that at that point the only people who could understand Shinji's feelings were Ogata herself and his personal assistant, Ikki Todoroki. Anno himself had intended to go to Paris for Japan Expo 2019, but the film's continuing delays in production prevented him. Anno had often visited the film's music composer Shirō Sagisu, who lives half the year in Paris, and wished to pay homage to the city in the opening 10 minutes of the movie, entitled "AVANT1" ("before" in French), seeking to surpass his earlier depiction in "". At the event, Ogata also recounted Anno had asked what ending she preferred "as Shinji". "AVANT1+2", including a further 2 minutes of the opening sequence, was also streamed on Khara's YouTube channel and Japanese Amazon Prime Video for free for two weeks.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Dialogue for Parts A and B, set after "AVANT", started recording in March 2019. As there were several changes to the plot, many voice actors had to come back and record lines again. In 2020, due to the pandemic restrictions, production slowed down further and recording was mostly done by the voice actors separately as many dozens of takes were necessary: Ogata first notified the recording as almost finished in February 2020, but as production slowed down, staff began retouching several aspects of the film, and Ogata later noted recording to be finished in November 2020. The voice actors organized themselves through a Line group. This created a bond between the cast that was unprecedented in previous productions. At the end of recording, Anno thanked the cast for their contributions. Yūko Miyamura, who played Asuka, was instructed to treat her character as completely separate from the series' Asuka Langley Soryu, and the last thing asked of her was to write the character's full name in cursive herself to be used in the movie. She had lived in Australia for the past two decades, but was still unsure of how to write ""Langley"". Miyamura expressed her surprise at Anno's behavior near the end of production, in contrast to his behavior during the making of "End of Evangelion": "Anno-san is amazing. He has become an adult".


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Anno sought to bring in new talent and people outside the usual "Evangelion" core crew, like "Darling in the Franxx" creator Atsushi Nishigori, a protégé of his, while other core staffers like chief editor Masayuki largely stepped down in order to allow new talents to gain more experience. In addition, the series' original character designer, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, has had diminishing involvement since "3.0", and the new character designs are mostly done by Hidenori Matsubara. Anno had long stated his wish to revitalize the anime industry, and saw the sponsorship of new creators as a prime way of achieving this, as well as the promotions of events backed by Studio Khara like the Japan Animator Expo. Director Mahiro Maeda recounted Anno wanted him to figure out specific details of the plot on his own when asked. Similarly to production in the series, Anno would take ideas from staffers but have the final word in plot decisions. Anno had also been an advocate of employing new and innovative animation technologies, combined with extensive use of motion capture and computer-generated imagery, and employed them in the film. Maeda and others noted nonetheless that Anno seemed to be directing the film more like a live action film than animation, including in the way he directed the voice actors, taking cues from theatre techniques, after his previous experience outside "Evangelion", despite the staff's own limited experience, something he had previously attempted in "Cutie Honey". He thought Anno "wanted to get out of here the most", but expressed his feelings in film sincerely.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Director Kazuya Tsurumaki details Anno wanted to try a new process for the film. Instead of first creating storyboards and then developing the animation based on them as is traditional, Anno proposed to first draw the animation cels and then draw the scenes from them. This technique was generally referred to by staff as "pre-visualization". He was once more inspired from the usual process in live action, where scenes are first shot from multiple angles and then stories are created and then selected during editing. The latter half of the film, however, progressively returned to the traditional anime style. Tsurumaki noted the original intention was that "the first 80%" of the "Rebuild" series would be a "compilation" of the original anime series, and the changes would only start with the last film, in keeping with earlier comments in 2006 by producer Toshimichi Ohtsuki regarding the intention that only the ending would be a major departure from the series, as staff felt "End of Evangelion" could not receive a sequel, and the "Rebuild" movies were not going to be "metaphysical" like the original anime, but rather "oriented towards entertainment". This eventually changed, and major changes started happening as early as "". He also noted that the previously stated goal of "destroying Evangelion" through the character of Mari was entrusted to an external party. Anno would ask the opinion of many parts of staff, including those not involved in the actual film like office staff for their opinions on several nuances. Anno's wife Moyoco Anno provided early designs for some characters. Studio Ghibli also provided assistance to scenes set in the survivor's village. For the village itself, Khara had a box model custom-built to orientate the artists, and Anno personally adjusted it to the smallest details like individual house layout, with road and utility posts to make it as realistic as possible. Staff consulted with multiple professionals and conducted research like sky-diving for maximum accuracy.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: A making-of documentary aired on Japanese broadcaster NHK on March 22, 2021, with the crew following production for 1214 days. BS Japan also broadcast an extended version of the documentary on April 29, 2021, totaling 100 minutes of runtime, featuring unused footage. Amazon Prime Video included the extended version of documentary in its international release of the film in August. When production started in 2016, Anno initially intended to not involve himself much in the film, wishing to delegate most of it to his directors, particularly Tsurumaki, generally considered Khara's second-in-command, but as the release date approached with mounting production problems he progressively took more control and took on more tasks directly, also driven by his perfectionism. Maeda was also not initially serving as a director, but was brought in the middle of production. Kim Morrisy of Anime News Network described it as tumultuous: "There were several occasions shown when he decided that the work he had done at the time was insufficient and would scrap it entirely. The [final] D part of the script was eventually completed in early 2019, at the latest possible stage it could have been done to meet the deadline."


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: In the documentary, Anno is depicted as frequently late or absent from the studio, or would often stay overnight adjusting individual scenes he was unsatisfied with. Part A had been rewritten 40 times due to the difficulty staff had in depicting it, and at one point Anno was so lost on how to resolve the storylines he considered restarting it from scratch after nine months of work. Anno told the documentary crew he wouldn't miss working on the franchise and said everything he needed to, but felt finishing his work remained a priority, even at the expense of his well-being. He told Ogata later at post-production that he'd indeed miss it. Hayao Miyazaki described Anno as "one who sheds blood for his films". Upon finishing production, Anno preferred to immediately start work on a script for a new production while his staff was watching the first screening together. Gainax co-founder Toshio Okada criticized the documentary as "sloppy" and "propaganda" trying to make Anno look better, claiming Anno's live-action approach in fact took inspiration from Hiroyuki Yamaga's work in "" instead of being "sui generis" as the documentary implied, and Anno noted the crew was in fact not present during the highly intense production of Part D for several months, nor did it cover him thanking the staff at the end.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: On March 28, 2021, the cast was fully reunited for the first time in 14 years and held a stage greeting, commenting on the film and their bond to the characters. On April 12, 2021, directors Anno, Tsurumaki and Maeda, as well as Ogata, held another stage greeting. On June 26, 2021, Anno held a live stream on singer Hikaru Utada's Instagram page, and debated the film. The cast and directors also participated in the "All Night Nippon" radio show on June 22, 2021. On June 27, 2021, another cast greeting was held. Mari's voice actress Maaya Sakamoto explained she had been absent from the previous events because she felt apprehensive over the details she knew about Mari's character that Anno told her, but refused to share them: "I will take secrets to my grave". A last stage greeting was held on July 11, 2021. Anno felt he had now done everything he could with anime, and accordingly Khara denied reports that he was working on a reboot of a popular animation series. He also noted he initially attempted a shorter two hour runtime, but had to extend it.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Anno had originally intended on making a new "Evangelion" story since 2000 and has intended to open up the franchise in the future to new creators and turn Eva into a "new Gundam", using the "Rebuilds" as a foundation for this, but "3.0+1.0" is intended to be his final "Evangelion" work. The Animator Expo already featured three independent works based on the franchise: "Evangelion – Another Impact" and "Neon Genesis IMPACTS," as well as "until You come to me", a short film intended to showcase the talent of younger Khara animators, not as an official trailer"." In an interview in August 2021, Anno stated other parts of the franchise and story might be revisited later. Staff also commented on doubts over this being the "end of the story". On the film's first anniversary on March 8, Khara held a livestream of the film and included a Q&A session with Anno and other staff reaffirming his future plans.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: The film's theme song is "One Last Kiss". The song, performed by Hikaru Utada and co-produced by Utada and A.G. Cook, was scheduled to be released for digital download on January 24, 2021, and as an extended play CD and LP record featuring remastered versions of the previous "Rebuild of Evangelion" theme songs on January 27. It was released alongside the film on March 9, 2021, and internationally in the summer. Utada noted this was the first time they wrote the song's lyrics based on reading a finished version of the film's script, instead of simply skimming over early rough drafts. Anno also directed the music video for the song.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: A soundtrack album, titled "Shiro Sagisu Music from "Shin Evangelion"", was scheduled to be released on February 10, 2021, but was also delayed due to the delay of the film. It was released on March 17. The 3-disc score utilized several revamped tracks from Sagisu's previous works for Anno, like "" and "Kare Kano", as well as featuring cover versions of "VOYAGER ~ Hizuke no Nai Bohyou" by Megumi Hayashibara, originally written and performed by Yumi Matsutoya for 1984's "Bye-Bye Jupiter", and a cue from 1977's "The War in Space", originally composed by Toshiaki Tsushima.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: A vocal song based on the track "what if?: orchestra, choir and piano" from the soundtrack album titled "Shiro SAGISU « what if? » Yoko TAKAHASHI ver." was released as a digital single on August 31, featuring Yoko Takahashi and arrangements by Sagisu himself.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: On July 6, 2019, Khara screened the first ten minutes of the film on Japan Expo in Paris, Anime Expo in Los Angeles and CCG Expo 2019 in Shanghai. The film was originally scheduled for release on June 27, 2020.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: In April 2020, it was announced that the film had been removed from the schedule due to concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, and the film was later rescheduled for release on January 23, 2021. The theatrical release poster was revealed shortly afterwards with the tagline ""Bye-bye, all of EVANGELION."", indicating that this would likely be Anno's final "Evangelion"-related project. Anno released a statement via Studio Khara's Twitter in October apologizing for the delay while confirming the film was near completion. Khara suggested the run time of the finished film could be over two hours, with the "D-part" clocking in at 41 minutes. They also reported that as of October 2 the film was undergoing a "rush check", a final check of the animation before editing. On January 14, 2021, the film was removed from the release calendar again. On February 16, 2021, it was reported that the film would be 154 minutes long, making it the longest film in the "Rebuild" tetralogy and one of the longest animated feature films ever, behind the films "In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World", "Final Yamato", "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya", and "".


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: On February 26, Hikaru Utada's staff account on Twitter reported that the film's feature song "One Last Kiss" would be released on March 8, 2021, with a link to their website with more information confirming a new release date for the film of March 8, 2021. This was also confirmed on Studio Khara's website, along with a runtime of 155 minutes.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: An updated version of the film, titled "Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time", was released in Japanese theaters on June 12, 2021. This version features updated cuts of various scenes while not changing the overall story of the film. It also accompanied the distribution of a 36-page booklet called "Eva-Extra-Extra", including non-canon illustrations by staff and a prequel manga set before the events of the previous film, "", called "Evangelion: 3.0 (-120min.)," written by director Kazuya Tsurumaki under Anno's supervision. The manga was Anno's initiative, and began production on April 11.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Internationally, Amazon Prime Video acquired exclusive streaming rights to the film; it was released in worldwide on August 13, 2021, excluding Japan. However, on July 20, 2021, Amazon Prime Video announced that it will also stream the film in Japan on the same day as its international release. It featured full re-dubbings of the previous "Rebuild" films, including several voice actors from the A.D. Vision and Manga Entertainment localizations of the original series and films, in place of the mostly new cast used in the Funimation adaptations of the "Rebuild" series and Netflix's adaptation of the series. Like Netflix's release, it also included a full re-translation by Khara's in-house translator, Dan Kanemitsu.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: GKIDS acquired the rights for theatrical releases of the film in North America. The film was released in the United States on IMAX in select theaters on November 30 followed by a nationwide release on December 6, 8, and 11.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: On October 4, 2022, Khara announced a home media release for March 8, 2023, on the film's two-year anniversary, titled "3.0+1.11". Its limited edition includes several bonus materials, like a copy of the script signed by Hideaki Anno. All editions also accompany a bonus feature short video called "Evangelion: 3.0 (-46h)." In North America, GKIDS also acquired home media rights to the film. An announcement on the North American home media release will be made in the future.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Anno stated his desire to see "3.0+1.0" break the ¥10 billion mark, which he considered would be a landmark for robot anime. The film was released in Japan on March 8, 2021, earning ¥802,774,200 ($7,387,198) on its first day, outdoing its predecessor by 23.8% and breaking the IMAX opening day record in Japan. The film grossed ¥3,338,422,400 ($30,596,851) in its first week, ranking #1 in Japan in its opening week. In 21 days, the film sold 3,961,480 tickets and grossed ¥6,078,211,750 ($55,492,310) in Japan, outdoing "3.0"'s total earnings of ¥5.3 billion. In 30 days, it surpassed ¥7 billion ($63.77 million), completing four weeks as #1 in Japanese box offices. On May 8, it surpassed "Shin Godzilla" and became Anno's highest-grossing film at ¥8.28 billion ($75.72 million). With the "3.0+1.01" updated release on June 12, the film jumped back to top box office spot after spending a weekend out of the top 10 chart and on June 15, exactly the 100th day since release, achieving a 960.5% increase, reached ¥9 billion ($81.7 million). On July 13, it was announced that the film has exceeded ¥10 billion, becoming the first ever film distributed by Toei to hit this box office milestone and ending its theatrical run on July 21 pocketing ¥10.23 billion with an attendance number of 6.69 million people, finishing with almost double as its predecessor's ¥5.3 billion mark. Japanese Twitter archival site Fusetter had its all-time highest view count on March 9. After the film's August streaming release, it broke Amazon Prime Video's all-time high day-one view amount since its launch in Japan. By December 2021, the movie became the highest-grossing movie of the year in Japan, accounting for over ¥10.2 billion (about US$89.5 million). The film has grossed a Japanese box office total of ().


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Japanese reception has been highly positive. "The Asahi Shimbun" released a series of reviews from Japanese academics and critics. Hiroki Azuma praised the film as a "grand masterpiece", and thought it was nearly impossible for the film to respond to all the "burden" it carried, but it did so successfully. He considered that, although it outwardly looks like a science fiction film, it is in reality a confessional I-novel by Anno. Commenting on Anno's style, anime director Mamoru Oshii shared this perception, and considered that Anno is "more of a producer than a director these days" and felt that he lacked a theme. In a later interview with comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto, Anno himself later echoed this, saying that as a director he could afford to be a child, but not after he started producing. Akiko Sugawa praised the portrayal of its female characters. Japanese aggregator site Eiga.com and others praised the movie for fulfilling its promise of being easily approachable to a viewer not familiar with the original "Neon Genesis Evangelion", reiterating its role as a stand-alone story, but also likening it to the series' status as a pop culture phenomenon in view of the many emerging analyses, a view shared by the cast. On aggregator site Filmmarks, the film attained the highest first-day satisfaction score in its history.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: Reviewers also noted the film's deeply divisive reception among "Evangelion" fans, with the ending proving particularly controversial. Gainax co-founder, Toshio Okada, promulgated an association between the character of Mari and Anno's wife Moyoco, and was rebuffed by significant backlash from Khara staff, Moyoco, and Anno himself, who instead pointed out to Tsurumaki's responsibility for developing her and similarities to his earlier characters from "FLCL" and "Diebuster", which shared her voice actress, and Anno's detachment from her creation. Similarly to "End of Evangelion", reviewers considered the film to have the theme of "moving into reality", but were divided on the effectiveness of its execution and the resolution of its plot lines. "Bunshun Online" concluded that unlike the 1997 film, "3.0+1.0" did not intend to give viewers a mystery to solve, but to provide a more straightforward answer. Writers for Yahoo! Japan and others agreed on its distinctiveness from the previous work, reflecting a different cultural context and personal state of Hideaki Anno, speculating his time at Ghibli had greatly influenced him, with a less multifaceted story where Shinji's character had been completely "consumed" by Anno attempting to break the "Otaku curse" represented in-story by the ""Curse of Evangelion"", and considered the ending could only be explained with background knowledge on Anno's life, and how this controversy would likely drive more heated discussion in the near future, with fan backlash coming even at small subsequent statements by Anno and other staff. Writer Ichisi Lida concluded he could not decide if he liked the film or not, but felt if he watched it again after some years, he'd think it was a bad film, not feeling the same feeling of confusion mixed with amazement as 1997's "End of Evangelion" or its 2012 predecessor "". Lida expressed disappointment at a "sense of déjà vu", characterising the film a self-imitation of Anno's past works. Lida felt that Shinji's maturing was not surprising, but expected, as he had already gone through that process with the 1997 film. Similarly, he noted how the generation that grew up with the "Rebuild" films could feel like their own coming-of-age would be marked by the film, but for an older fan such as himself, that had already happened with the 1997 movie. Anno had partly re-created his hometown of Ube as it existed during his youth for the ending scene, prompting tourism from fans to the town.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: In contrast to the negative receptions of its predecessor "", Western critical reception has been extremely positive. As of October 2021, it holds a 100% score and an average score of 8.70/10 on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with 17 reviews. According to Metacritic, which calculated a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 based on 7 critics reviews, the film received "universal acclaim". Richard Eisenbeis of Anime News Network noted the film's close connections with "End of Evangelion" on a thematic and narrative level and praised its characterization, while also noting its different themes, but criticized its world-building, and also the lack of development given to Mari to justify her role in the plot. Kyle McLain of "IGN" praised the film for having themes of maturity, hope and positivity, but disliked the final act as "inscrutable". Matt Schley of "The Japan Times" shared his opinion, saying: ""Thrice" is not the charm for those hoping for a definitive, easy-to-understand ending for "Evangelion". Like its predecessors, "3.0+1.0" raises more questions than it answers. Time is a circle." Justin Harrison of "The Spool" called it "a deeply moving motion picture". "SoraNews24" expressed puzzlement at the ending, but noted the film is "complex, hits different people in different ways, and is something that immediately triggers a repeat-viewing reaction". Crunchyroll's Daryl Harding noticed the film "goes pretty meta" and praised its direction, but repeatedly criticized the animation. Otaquest's Chris Cimi noted the film builds an aesthetic that is meaningfully different from the series' "iconic visual language", to a point of contention: "The CG sure does look like CG". Andrew Osmond of "NEO" felt that although there were things about the film that felt "indulgent, pandering, and flat-out dumb", he felt satisfied with the film, noting a resolution of "Evangelion"'s baseline conflict, and felt the film managed to synthesize Anno's previous efforts into a coherent and touching ending. Although he believed the "Evangelion" franchise has been "bolder and more brilliant in the past", he stated that the film "brings it to a beautiful ending".


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: The film has won the 45th Japan Academy Film Prize, and animated film categories at the Tokyo Anime Film Festival, with Anno winning the original screenplay and director categories.


title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

text: In February 2022, a collaborative project titled "Shin Japan Heroes Universe" was announced. A joint venture between Khara, Toei, Toho and Tsuburaya, the project will feature characters adapted by Anno, in addition to "Evangelion" characters, such as "Shin Godzilla", "Shin Ultraman", and "Shin Kamen Rider".


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater Toronto Area begins in Burlington in Halton Region, and extends along Lake Ontario past downtown Toronto eastward to Clarington in Durham Region.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: According to the 2021 census, the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) of Toronto has a total population of 6,202,225. However, the Greater Toronto Area, which is an economic area defined by the Government of Ontario, includes communities which are not included in the CMA as defined by Statistics Canada. Extrapolating the data for all 25 communities in the Greater Toronto Area from the 2021 Census, the total population for the economic region included 6,712,341 people.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The Greater Toronto Area is a part of several larger areas in Southern Ontario. The area is also combined with the city of Hamilton to form a conurbation known as the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). The GTHA combined with Niagara Region form the core of the Golden Horseshoe.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The term "Greater Toronto" was first used in writing as early as the 1900s, although at the time, the term only referred to the old city of Toronto and its immediate townships and villages, which became Metropolitan Toronto in 1954 and became the current city of Toronto in 1998. The use of the term involving the four surrounding regional municipalities came into formal use in the mid-1980s, after it was used in a widely discussed report on municipal governance restructuring in the region and was later made official as a provincial planning area. However, it did not come into everyday usage until the mid- to late 1990s.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: In 2006, the term began to be supplanted in the field of spatial planning as provincial policy increasingly began to refer to either the "Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area" (GTHA) or the still-broader "Greater Golden Horseshoe". The latter includes the Greater Toronto Area's satellite municipalities, such as Peterborough, Barrie, Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Niagara Region. The GTA continues, however, to be in official use elsewhere in the Government of Ontario, such as the Ministry of Finance.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Some municipalities considered part of the GTA are not within the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) which is smaller than the land area and population of the GTA planning area. For example, Oshawa is the centre of its own CMA, yet deemed part of the Greater Toronto Area, while other municipalities, such as New Tecumseth in southern Simcoe County and Mono Township in Dufferin County are included in the Toronto CMA but not in the GTA. These different border configurations result in the GTA's population being higher than the Toronto CMA by nearly one-half million people, often leading to confusion amongst people when trying to sort out Toronto's urban population.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Other nearby urban areas, such as Hamilton, Barrie, St. Catharines-Niagara or Kitchener-Waterloo, are not part of the GTA or the Toronto CMA, but form their own CMAs near the GTA. Ultimately, all the aforementioned places are part of the Greater Golden Horseshoe metropolitan region, an urban agglomeration, which is the sixth most populous in North America. It is part of the Great Lakes megalopolis, containing an estimated 59 million people in 2011.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The term "Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area" (GTHA) refers to the GTA, and the city of Hamilton, located along the western border of the Greater Toronto Area. The term has been adopted by several organizations, including Metrolinx and the Ministry of Energy) due to growing commuter population in the combined region. The GTHA and the Regional Municipality of Niagara form the inner ring of the larger Greater Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration and secondary region of Ontario.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Historically the Greater Toronto Area was home to a number of First Nations who lived on the shore of Lake Ontario long before the first Europeans arrived in the region. At various times the Neutral, the Seneca, the Mohawk and the Huron nations were living in the vicinity. The Mississaugas arrived in the late 17th or early 18th century, driving out the occupying Iroquois. While it is unclear as to who was the first European to reach the Toronto area, there is no question it occurred in the 17th century.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The area would later become very crucial for its series of trails and water routes that led from northern and western Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Known as the "Toronto Passage", it followed the Humber River, as an important overland shortcut between Lake Ontario, Lake Simcoe and the upper Great Lakes. For this reason the area, under French fur traders, became a major part of the North American fur trade. The French would later establish three trading forts, Magasin Royal in the 1720s, although abandoned within the decade, Fort Toronto in 1750 and Fort Rouillé in 1751. During the Seven Years' War both forts were abandoned but Fort Toronto was later renovated. Fort Rouillé was burnt down after the Battle of Fort Niagara in 1759 by the French garrison during the French and Indian War.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The first large influx of European settlers to settle the region were the United Empire Loyalists arriving after the American Revolution, when various individuals petitioned the Crown for land in and around the Toronto area. In 1787, the British negotiated the purchase of more than a quarter million acres () of land in the area of Toronto with the Mississaugas of New Credit. York County, would later be created by Governor John Graves Simcoe in 1792, which would at its largest size, comprise all of what is now Halton Region, Toronto, Peel Region, York Region and parts of Durham Region.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The GTA saw three American incursions during the War of 1812. The Town of York (present-day Toronto) was attacked by American forces at Battle of York, on April 27, 1813; and was subsequently occupied until May 8. The second incursion occurred several months later, in July 1813, with two landings in the GTA. On July 29, American forces landed at Burlington Beach (present-day Burlington) in an attempt to dislodge British forces at the adjacent Burlington Heights. However, finding the British forces too well-entrenched for any assault to be successful, the American naval force withdrew and proceeded east towards York. The American landings at York on July 31 went unopposed, with most of the soldiers garrisoned at York directed to defend Burlington Heights. The third incursion occurred a year later, when an American naval squadron arrived outside of York's harbour on August 6, 1814. The squadron dispatched to enter the harbour in order to gauge the town's defences, where it briefly exchanged cannon fire with Fort York before withdrawing to rejoin the American squadron outside the harbour. American forces did not attempt a landing during this incursion, although remained outside York's harbour for three days before departing.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: In 1816, Wentworth County (which would later become the city of Hamilton) and Halton County were created from York County. York County would later serve as the setting for the beginnings of the Upper Canada Rebellion with William Lyon Mackenzie's armed march from Holland Landing towards York Township on Yonge Street, eventually leading up to the battle at Montgomery's Tavern. In 1851, Ontario County (present-day Durham Region) and Peel County were separated from York.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The idea towards a streamlined local government to control local infrastructure was made as early as 1907 by, William Findlay Maclean, a member of parliament and founder of "The Toronto World", who called for the expansion of the government of the former City of Toronto in order to create a "Greater Toronto". The idea for a single government municipality would not be seriously explored until the late 1940s when planners decided the city needed to incorporate its immediate suburbs. However, due to strong opposition from suburban politicians, a compromise was struck, which resulted in the creation of Metropolitan Toronto. In 1953, the portion of York County south of Steeles Avenue, a concession road which formed a common boundary between several townships across the width of the county, was severed from it and incorporated as the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. With the concession of Metro Toronto, the offices of York County were moved from Toronto to Newmarket.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Originally, the membership in Metropolitan Toronto included the City of Toronto and five townships: East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough and York; as well as seven villages and towns, which became amalgamated into their surrounding townships in 1967. The early Metro Toronto government debated over the annexation of surrounding townships of Markham, Pickering and Vaughan. Frederick Goldwin Gardiner, the first Metro Toronto Chairman, planned on the conversion of these townships into boroughs of the Metro Toronto government. In 1971, the remaining areas of York County was replaced by the Ontario government with the Regional Municipality of York. In 1974, Ontario and Durham Counties were reorganized to become the Regional Municipality of Durham; Pickering west of Rouge River was transferred to Scarborough at that time. Peel County became Peel Region in 1974 as well. In 1980, North York would be incorporated into a city, with York following suit in 1983 and Etobicoke and Scarborough in 1984, although still part of the Metropolitan Toronto municipal government.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: In 1992, the Ontario government passed legislation requiring Metropolitan Toronto to include the rest of the Greater Toronto Area into its planning. Despite this however, there was fear different parts of the municipal system were working against one another. Because of this, Bob Rae, then the Premier of Ontario, appointed Anne Golden to head a GTA task force to govern the region's quality of life, competitiveness and governance. During this time, the Metro Toronto government advocated to the task force the creation of a new GTA authority, which would be made up of 21 of the 30 existing municipalities in the GTA at the time. The proposal from Metro Toronto would have resulted in 15 new municipalities. The City of Mississauga argued consolidation should only take place in such a way the new municipalities would have a population between 400,000 and 800,000. The Town of Markham had similarly advocated municipal consolidation in York Region, although it was opposed to complete consolidation into a single municipality. Municipal consolidation faced stiff opposition however from smaller communities such as Ajax, Milton, and the borough of East York. The task force's recommendation to eliminate the Metro Toronto government, and consolidate its remaining municipalities into an enlarged City of Toronto was completed in 1997 and became official in 1998, under the Common Sense Revolution of the then premier, Mike Harris. However, the task force's recommendation to create a GTA-tier municipality was not taken up by the Harris government, fearing a GTA-wide municipality would recreate the inter-municipal competitiveness that was believed to have impaired the former Metro Toronto government.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Metrolinx, an agency of the Government of Ontario, was established to oversee public transit development across the Greater Toronto Area.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The Greater Toronto Area covers an area of . The region itself is bordered by Lake Ontario to the south, Kawartha Lakes to the east, the Niagara Escarpment to the west, and Lake Simcoe to the north. The region creates a natural ecosystem known as the Greater Toronto Bioregion. The Greater Toronto Area forms part of the neck of the Ontario Peninsula.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Vast parts of the region remain farmland and forests, making it one of the distinctive features of the geography of the GTA. Most of the urban areas in the GTA hold large urban forest. For the most part designated as parkland, the ravines are largely undeveloped. Rouge Park is also one of the largest nature parks within the core of a metropolitan area. Much of these areas also constitute the Toronto ravine system, which consists of deep and steep valleys, and a number of conservation areas in the region which are managed by Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. The Cheltenham Badlands in Caledon is an example of environmental degradation due to poor agricultural practice. The Scarborough Bluffs are part of the Glacial Lake Iroquois shoreline.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: In 2005, the Government of Ontario also passed legislation to prevent urban development and sprawl on environmentally sensitive land in the Greater Toronto Area, known as the Greenbelt, many of these areas including protected sections of the Oak Ridges Moraine, Rouge Park and the Niagara Escarpment. Nevertheless, low-density suburban developments continue to be built, some on or near ecologically sensitive and protected areas. The provincial government attempted to address this issue through the "Places to Grow" legislation passed in 2005, which emphasizes higher-density growth in existing urban centres over the next 25 years (i.e., until 2030).


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The climate of the Greater Toronto Area is classified as humid continental, according to the Köppen climate classification. Much of the Greater Toronto Area is under Köppen "Dfb" (warm summer subtype) zone, while Old Toronto (excluding the Toronto Islands) and some areas between there and Burlington to the south-west, are under the Köppen "Dfa" climate zone, the hot summer subtype. Precipitation averages annually, fairly distributed through the year but driest in later winter with higher average totals in the later summer. In winter, typical high temperatures will range from and low temperatures from . Cold arctic outbreaks keep daytime highs below for several days but this does not occur in every winter, while low temperatures sometimes drop below , accompanying wind chill makes this feel much colder. Annual snowfall averages between across the area. Mild and snow-free spells are also a feature of Toronto's winter, with temperatures surpassing for several days, to occasionally above . Spring is short and often cool to mild, snow can sometimes fall well into April, rarely accumulating. The transition from spring into summer can be rapid. Summer is warm on average to hot and moderately humid with high temperatures usually between , while low temperatures average between in the suburbs and downtown and near the lake. Although fairly sunny, summers do feature occasional heavy, thundery showers. Heat wave conditions with temperatures between are not uncommon but very rarely does the temperature exceed . Immediate lakeshore locations have generally lower average maximum temperatures but they can also experience hot conditions when offshore winds prevail. Normally in autumn it alternates between wet and dry with lengthy periods of mild and calm weather. Temperatures fall and windspeeds increase sharply in November and by December, cold and snowy weather are more common as the temperature average falls below .


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The Greater Toronto Area is a commercial, distribution, financial and economic centre, being the second largest financial centre in North America. The region generates about a fifth of Canada's GDP and is home to 40% of Canada's business headquarters. The economies of the municipalities in Greater Toronto are largely intertwined. The work force is made up of approximately 2.9 million people and more than 100,000 companies The Greater Toronto Area produces nearly 20% of the entire nation's GDP with $323 billion, and from 1992 to 2002, experienced an average GDP growth rate of 4.0% and a job creation rate of 2.4% (compared to the national average GDP growth rate of 3% and job creation rate of 1.6%). Greater Toronto has the largest regional economy in Canada, with its GDP surpassing the province of Quebec in 2015.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: In 2010, over 51% of the labour force in the Greater Toronto Area is employed in the service sector, with 19% in the manufacturing, 17% of the labour force employed in wholesale & retail trade, 8% of the labour force involved in transportation, communication and utilities, and 5% of the workforce is involved in construction. Despite the fact the service industry makes up only 51% of Greater Toronto's workforce, over 72% of the region's GDP is generated by service industries.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The largest industry in the Greater Toronto Area is the financial services in the province, accounting for an estimated 25% of the region's GDP. Notably, the five largest banks in Canada all have their operational headquarters in Toronto's Financial District. Toronto is also home to the headquarters of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Standard and Poor TSX Composite Index and offices of the TSX Venture Exchange. The TMX Group, the owners and operators of TSX Exchanges as well as the Montreal Exchange, are also headquartered in Toronto. The TSX and the TSX Venture Exchange represent 3,369 companies, including more than half of the world's publicly traded mining companies.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Markham also attracted the highest concentration of high tech companies in Canada, and because of it, has positioned itself as "Canada's High-Tech Capital". The Greater Toronto Area is the second largest automotive centre in North America (after Detroit). Currently, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler run six assembly plants in the area, with Honda and Toyota having assembly plants just outside the GTA. General Motors, Ford, Honda, KIA, Mazda, Suzuki, Nissan, Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, Subaru, Volvo, BMW, and Mitsubishi have chosen the Greater Toronto Area for their Canadian headquarters. Magna International, the world's most diversified car supplier, also has its headquarters in Aurora. The automobile industry within the region accounts for roughly 10% of the region's GDP.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: As with the rest of Canada, the economy of the Greater Toronto Area has been hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: While it was once the most dominant industry for residents in the Greater Toronto Area, agriculture now occupies a small percentage of the population, but still a large part of land in the surrounding four regional municipalities. Census data from 2006 has shown there are 3,707 census farms in the GTA, down 4.2% from 2001 and covering . Almost every community in the GTA is currently experiencing a decrease in the acreage of farmland, with Mississauga seeing the most significant. The only communities in the GTA that are experiencing a growth in the acreage of farmland are Aurora, Georgina, Newmarket, Oshawa, Richmond Hill and Scugog, with Markham experiencing neither any growth nor decline. Most of the GTA's farmland is in Durham Region, with 55% of their total land area being farmland. This is followed by York Region with 41% of their lands being farmland, Peel Region with 34%, and Halton Region with 41%. Toronto's remaining farmland is completely within Rouge Park in the Rouge Valley. The average size of the farm in the GTA () is much lower than the farms in the rest of Ontario (averaging ). This has been attributed to the shift of farm types in the GTA from the traditional livestock and cash crop farms (requiring an extensive land base), towards more intensive enterprises including greenhouse, floriculture, nursery, vegetable, fruit, sheep and goats.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The most numerous farm types in the GTA are miscellaneous specialty farms (including horse and pony, sheep and lamb, and other livestock specialty), followed by cattle, grain and oilseed, dairy and field crop farms. Although the output of dairy production has dropped with farms from within the GTA, dairy has remained the most productive sector in the agricultural industry by annual gross farm receipts. Despite the decreased amount of farmland around the region, farm capital value increased from $5.2 billion in 1996 to $6.1 billion in 2001, making the average farm capital value in the GTA continued to be the highest in the province.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: There are a number of public transportation operators within the Greater Toronto Area, providing services within their jurisdictions. While these operators are largely independent, provisions are being made to integrate them under Metrolinx, which manages transportation planning including public transport in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. GO Transit, which merged with Metrolinx during the late 2000s, is Ontario's only intra-regional public transit service, linking the communities in the GTA and the city of Hamilton, as well as the rest of the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Implementation of a 'Presto card' by Metrolinx has created a common means for all fare payments and allows for seamless connection between these and other transit operators.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Public transit operators in the GTA include Brampton Transit, Burlington Transit, Durham Region Transit, GO Transit, Milton Transit, MiWay (serving Mississauga), Oakville Transit, Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), and York Region Transit. The TTC operates the Toronto subway system, which runs in Toronto and in Vaughan, the latter of which began to be served by the system in December 2017 with an extension of Line 1 to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station on Highway 7 at Jane Street.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The GTA also consists of a number of King's Highways and supplemented by municipal expressways. One of the principal highways in the GTA, Highway 401, is also the longest in Ontario and is also one of the busiest highways in the world. Notably, a segment of the highway passing through the GTA is North America's busiest highway. The GTA is laced with a number of limited-access highways including the 400-series highways. These include:


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The main airport serving the GTA is Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, which is Canada's largest and busiest airport. It processed over 47 million passengers in 2017 and nearly 50 million passengers in 2018. Toronto Pearson International Airport is operated by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA). John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in nearby Hamilton also handles international flights handles some discount flights and charters and acts as an alternative to Pearson. The Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport on the Toronto Islands near downtown is used for civil aviation, air ambulance traffic and regional scheduled airlines (it handled nearly two million passengers in 2012). There are also a number of smaller airports scattered throughout the GTA. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) uses "YTO" as a code for multiple airports in the area, including those without passenger service.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The Greater Toronto Airport Authority has also placed a tentative proposal to develop a new airport in Pickering (which also extends over into Markham and Uxbridge). As the GTAA predicts Toronto Pearson would be unable to be the sole provider for the bulk of Toronto's commercial air traffic in the next 20 years from the report's publication in 2004 (i.e. in 2024), they believe a new airport in Pickering would address the need for a regional/reliever airport east of Toronto Pearson, as well as complement the airport in Hamilton, Ontario. The GTAA also stated the new airport would create more opportunities for economic development in the eastern region of the Greater Toronto Area.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The region also has significant maritime infrastructure being on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system. The Port of Oshawa and Port of Toronto handle between 2 and 4 million tonnes of cargo annually. The Port of Toronto also has an International Marine Passenger Terminal, which had 12,000 cruise passengers in 2019.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The Greater Toronto Area is served by seven distinct telephone area codes. Before 1993, the GTA used the 416 area code. In a 1993 zone split, Metropolitan Toronto retained the 416 code, while the other municipalities of the Greater Toronto Area were assigned the new area code 905. This division by area code has become part of the local culture to the point where local media refer to something inside Toronto as "the 416" and outside of Toronto as "the 905". For example, the Raptors 905 basketball team in the NBA G League is named after the area code the team represents. Though for the most part, the use of the area 905 as shorthand for the suburban areas outside Toronto city limits was correct, it is not entirely true as some portions of Durham and York Regions use the 705 area code. Furthermore, there are areas, such as Hamilton, the Regional Municipality of Niagara and Port Hope (in Northumberland County) that use the 905 area code, but are not part of the GTA. The unincorporated community of Acton (in Halton Hills), is the only community in the GTA that uses the 519 area code, which covers most of Southwestern Ontario.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: To meet the increased demand for phone numbers, two overlay area codes were introduced in 2001. Area code 647 (supplementing the 416 area code) was introduced in March 2001 and area code 289 (supplementing the 905 area code) was introduced in July 2001. Some individuals within the 905 area code region may have to dial long distance to reach each other; although residents of Mississauga and Hamilton share the same area code (905), an individual from Toronto, for example, would have to dial "1" to reach Hamilton, but not to reach Mississauga. Ten-digit telephone dialling, including the area code for local calls, is required throughout the GTA. In March 2013, two additional area codes were introduced to the GTA: area code 437 in Toronto and area code 365 in the area served by 905 and 289.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Since the 2015 election, the Greater Toronto Area has been represented by 58 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada. Forty-six Members of the Provincial Parliament also represent the GTA in the Ontario Legislature. Five Senators from Ontario have also designated themselves as representatives of certain areas in the GTA in the Canadian Senate.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Federally, the Conservatives, Liberals, and the New Democrats (NDP) all hold several electoral districts in the GTA. The City of Toronto has often been supportive of the Liberal Party. Traditionally, Liberal support is strongest in Downtown Toronto, while Conservative support is stronger in the surrounding communities outside Toronto. The NDP also has a strong base within the GTA. The Greater Toronto Area has the ability to influence election results and determine the governing party in Canada, due in part to its large population and riding count.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: From 1993 to 2011, a centre-right party failed to win a single seat in the former Metro Toronto. In the 2011 election, however, a surge in NDP support combined with a collapse in Liberal support allowed the Conservatives to win eight seats in Toronto itself, and another 24 in the suburbs. Toronto's political leanings now appeared to mirror those of surrounding communities that leaned toward the Conservatives.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The election of 2011 showed Liberal support, based on votes in the GTA, had collapsed from 43.7% to 30.6%, giving the Liberals only 14.9% of the local seats in the House of Commons. However, the support of the Conservatives and NDP increased accordingly, with the Conservatives increasing their vote share from 31.5% to 42.2% (and capturing 68.1% of the GTA seats) and the NDP increasing from 14.6% to 23.2% of the vote and 17% of the local Federal ridings.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: In the 2015 federal election, the Liberals regained their dominance of the GTA after suffering devastating losses there four years earlier. They defeated a number of prominent incumbents from both the NDP and the Conservatives. The Liberals took all of Toronto itself. They also took back almost all of the suburban ridings they had lost in 2011. Both the NDP and the Conservatives suffered heavily as their support collapsed in the inner city and the suburbs respectively. Only a few Conservatives held onto their seats in the outer ring of the GTA, while the NDP failed to elect any MPs in this area. The 2019 and 2021 federal elections have similar results.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Toronto is the capital of Ontario with the Ontario Legislative Building, often metonymically known as Queen's Park after the street and park surrounding it, being located in downtown Toronto. Most of the provincial government offices are also located in downtown Toronto.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: On the provincial level of government, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, Ontario Liberals, and the Ontario New Democrats all hold electoral districts in the GTA. While the GTA provided a strong base of support for the Progressive Conservative government between 1995 and 2003, the Ontario Liberal Party achieved a major victory in the GTA during the 2003 election and has enjoyed strong support from the region ever since. In the 2011 election, the Liberals won 33 of the 44 available seats in the GTA, allowing Premier Dalton McGuinty to hold onto a minority government. The 2014 election under McGuinty's successor, Kathleen Wynne, was an even bigger electoral landslide for the Liberals, as they won 38 seats in the region. They even took a number of ridings in territory that had voted PC for decades, like Durham, Burlington, Newmarket-Aurora and Halton. The PCs hold no seats in Peel Region, and only one seat in each of the Halton, York, and Durham regions. While the NDP has been weak in the GTA since the 1995 election, they have seen some successes in Brampton and Durham Region, where they hold one seat each.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario has not won a riding in the city of Toronto during a general election since 1999. On the other end of the spectrum, the NDP saw major losses in Toronto during the 2014 election, and only hold two seats in the city. This is no longer the case since the 2018 provincial election, as the Progressive Conservatives and the NDP made significant gains at the expense of the Liberals and this continues to hold true in the 2022 provincial election.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: In 2011, 244 politicians govern the Greater Toronto Area below the provincial and federal levels, holding offices in cities, towns, and regional municipalities. Unusual for a large North American urban agglomeration, the GTA has very few agencies with powers that can cross boundaries.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Attempts to create an interregional organization have been made, such as the Province of Ontario's Office of the Greater Toronto Area (OGTA) in 1988 and the Greater Toronto Services Board (GTSB) in 1998, but have failed due to a lack of real authority in these agencies.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Consequently, there are few interregional public authorities: Metrolinx, an agency of the provincial government, manages the GTA-wide GO Transit system, while the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority manages some of the GTA's watersheds and natural areas. Notably, there is no organization with broad powers as in other Canadian cities, such as the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal and Metro Vancouver Regional District.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: According to the latest census data from 2021 from Statistics Canada, the population of this area is 6,712,341. Population growth studies have projected the City of Toronto's population in 2031 to be 3,000,000 and the Greater Toronto Area's population to be 7,450,000, while the Ontario Ministry of Finance states it could reach 7.7 million by 2025. Statistics Canada identified in 2001 that four major urban regions in Canada exhibited a cluster pattern of concentrated population growth among which included the Greater Golden Horseshoe Census Region, which includes all of the Greater Toronto Area (which includes Oshawa), as well as other Southern Ontario cities including Niagara, Hamilton, Guelph, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo and Barrie. Combined, the Greater Golden Horseshoe has a population of 9,765,188 in 2021, containing over 20% of Canada's population.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The Toronto CMA also has the largest proportions of foreign-born residents (46%) as a share of the total population out of all metropolitan areas in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Toronto region is also unusually diverse over the composition of its ethnicities. The four largest foreign-born populations of Toronto only constitute 15% of the total foreign-born population. This is opposed to the four largest foreign-born populations of other metropolitan areas such as New York and London, where they make up 25% of their respective foreign-born populations.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Statistics Canada also found in 2006, there were 31,910 Indigenous people living in the Greater Toronto Area, which represented 2.7% of all Indigenous peoples in Canada and 13.2% of those in Ontario. The majority of which, however, are not registered with the Indian reserves within the Greater Toronto Area, the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation and the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Education in the Greater Toronto Area is managed by the provincial Ministry of Education, who manages preschool, elementary and secondary education, while the provincial Ministry of Colleges and Universities administers laws relating to tertiary education, including colleges, universities, and vocational schools.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: There are presently twelve public English first language school boards, and two French first language school boards operating within the GTA. Seven of these school boards operate secular schools, whereas the other seven operate separate schools; the seven separate school boards in the Greater Toronto Area all serve the Roman Catholic faith. In addition to public schools, there are also a number of private schools that operate within Greater Toronto.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Three of these GTA-based public school boards also manage institutions outside Greater Toronto, the two French first language school boards, based in Toronto, as well as the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB). Conversely, English first language public schools in Clarington, a municipality within Durham Region, are managed by school boards based outside the GTA.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The Greater Toronto Area is also home to six publicly funded colleges that have campuses spread in and around the metropolitan area. The six publicly funded colleges based in the Greater Toronto include:


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Another publicly funded college, Collège Boréal, also maintains a satellite campus in Toronto. However, Collège Boréal's main campus, and administration, is based outside the GTA, in Greater Sudbury. In addition to publicly funded colleges, there are also a number of private career colleges spread throughout the Greater Toronto Area.


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: The Greater Toronto Area is home to six publicly funded universities. Universities based within Greater Toronto include:


title: Greater Toronto Area

text: Three publicly funded universities based outside of the GTA operate satellite campuses within the GTA, including the Hamilton-based McMaster University, Peterborough-based Trent University, and the Guelph-based University of Guelph. The McMaster's DeGroote School of Business operates the Ron Joyce Centre in Burlington; Trent University operates a satellite campus in Oshawa, referred to as Trent in Oshawa; The University of Guelph operates an affiliated institution alongside Humber College, the University of Guelph-Humber, in Toronto.


Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 (PS752/AUI752) was a scheduled international civilian passenger flight from Tehran to Kyiv, operated by Ukraine International Airlines. On 8January 2020, the Boeing 737-800 flying the route was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shortly after takeoff, killing all 176 passengers and crew aboard.


title: Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752

text: Missiles were fired at the aircraft by the IRGC amidst heightened tensions between Iran and the United States. The incident occurred five days after the United States carried out the assassination of Qasem Soleimani and some hours after Iran retaliated with Operation Martyr Soleimani, in which the IRGC fired dozens of ballistic missiles on American-led coalition forces; both the assassination and the missile strikes took place in Iraq.


text: Iranian authorities initially denied having any responsibility for the aircraft's destruction, but investigations by various intelligence agencies from the Western world as well as by the Iranian public later revealed that it had been struck by two surface-to-air missiles. On 11 January 2020, the Iranian government admitted that the IRGC had targeted Flight 752 after mistakenly identifying it as an American cruise missile. The announcement triggered another wave of Iranian anti-government protests (part of the larger 2019–2020 Iranian protests), with many Iranians calling for the removal or overthrowal of Ali Khamenei.


text: The disaster occurred amid a heightened political crisis in the Persian Gulf, four hours after the Iranian military launched retaliatory ballistic missile strikes towards U.S. military airbases in Iraq in response to the assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani by the U.S. The U.S. previously threatened Iran and was initially expected to retaliate for the Iranian attack. Iran was on the highest state of defensive alert and, according to Commander of the Aerospace Force of the IRGC Amir Ali Hajizadeh, was "totally prepared for a full-fledged war".


text: In response to the Iranian missile attack, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in a notice to airmen (NOTAM), banned all American civil aircraft from flying over Iran, Iraq, the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. Although the FAA NOTAMs are not binding on non-U.S. airlines, many airlines take them into consideration when making safety decisions, especially after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014. Several airlines, including Austrian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, KLM, Air France, Air India, SriLankan Airlines, Qantas and Vietnam Airlines began to reroute their flights. Other airlines, such as Lufthansa, Emirates, Flydubai, and Turkish Airlines cancelled some flights to airports in Iran and Iraq, making further operational changes as necessary.


text: The aircraft was a Boeing 737-8KV, serial number 38124, registration UR-PSR. It was three-and-a-half years old when it was shot down, having first flown on 21 June 2016. It was delivered to UIA on 19 July 2016, the first 737 Next Generation aircraft purchased by the airline. The aircraft was well maintained, with the airline saying it had been inspected just two days before the crash.


text: The flight was operated by Ukraine International Airlines, flag carrier and largest airline of Ukraine, on a scheduled flight from Iranian capital Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport to Boryspil International Airport in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The aircraft was carrying 176 people, including nine crew members and fifteen children.


text: Flight 752 took off from Runway 29R an hour behind schedule, at 06:12:08 local time (), and was expected to land in Kyiv at 08:00 local time (). Between 06:14:17 and 06:14:45 the airplane turned from the take-off heading of 289° to heading 313°, following its regular route.


text: According to the data, the last recorded altitude of the aircraft was above mean sea level with a ground speed of . The airport is above mean sea level and the terrain around Parand and the crash site lies approximately higher at . The flight was climbing at just under when the flight data recorder abruptly ended over the open ground near the northern end of Enqelab Eslami Boulevard in Parand.


text: Analysis of several videos by "The New York Times" showed that the aircraft was hit almost immediately by the first of two short-range missiles (which knocked out its transponder) launched thirty seconds apart by the IRGC, and with the aircraft having maintained its track, by the second missile 23 seconds later, after which it veered right and could be seen on fire before disappearing from view. Ukrainian investigators believed the pilots were killed instantly by shrapnel from the missile which exploded near the cockpit. However, an analysis of the cockpit voice recorder indicated that for at least 19 seconds after the first missile strike, all three cockpit crew members continued to attempt to fly the aircraft, and there was no indication of injury or adverse health effects during that time.


text: after which the aircraft's track was recorded by primary radar only. Its last seconds were captured in several video recordings. The aircraft crashed on a park and fields on the edge of the village of Khalajabad, north-west of the airport, and about ENE of the last missile strike, about six minutes after takeoff. There were no casualties on the ground.


text: Shortly after the crash, emergency responders arrived in 22 ambulances, four bus ambulances, and a helicopter, but intense fires prevented a rescue attempt. The wreckage was strewn over a wide area, with no survivors found at the crash site. The aircraft was completely destroyed on impact.


text: All 176 passengers and crew were killed. It is the deadliest flight in terms of fatalities involving the Boeing 737 Next Generation fleet, and the second deadliest of the entire Boeing 737 family behind Lion Air Flight 610.


text: There were 167 passengers and nine crew members on the flight. According to Iranian officials, 146 passengers used Iranian passports to leave Iran, ten used Afghan passports, five used Canadian ones, four Swedish ones, and two used Ukrainian passports. There is some disagreement with other sources over this accounting of nationalities, possibly due to some passengers being nationals of more than a single country.


text: According to Ukrainian foreign minister Vadym Prystaiko and a flight manifest released by UIA, out of the 167 passengers, 82 were confirmed to be Iranian citizens, 63 were Canadian, three were British, four were Afghan, ten were Swedish, and three were German. Eleven Ukrainians were also on board, nine of them crew members. The German Foreign Ministry denied any Germans were aboard; the three people in question were Afghan nationals who lived in Germany as asylum seekers. According to Iranian nationality law, the Iranian government considers dual citizens to be solely Iranian citizens.


text: Of the 167 passengers, 138 were travelling to Canada via Ukraine. Many of the Iranian Canadians were affiliated with Canadian universities, as students or academics who had travelled to Iran during the winter break. The crash was the largest loss of Canadian lives in aviation since the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182. On January 15, 2020, Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau said 57 Canadians died in the crash.


text: In addition to six flight attendants, the crew consisted of Captain Volodymyr Gaponenko (11,600 hours on Boeing 737 aircraft, including 5,500 hours as captain), instructor pilot Oleksiy Naumkin (12,000 hours on Boeing 737s, including 6,600 as captain), and first officer Serhiy Khomenko (7,600 hours on Boeing 737).


text: The Civil Aviation Organization of Iran (CAOI) reported shortly after the incident that a team of investigators had been sent to the crash site. On the same day, the Ukrainian government said it would send experts to Tehran to assist with the investigation. President Volodymyr Zelensky instructed the Ukrainian General Prosecutor to open a criminal investigation into the crash. The Ukrainian government sent 45 investigators to assist with the inquiry into the shootdown of the airliner.


text: Under standard International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rules, according to Annex 13 of the Chicago Convention, the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) would participate in the investigation, as they represented the state of the manufacturer of the aircraft. France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) would participate as representatives of the state of manufacture of the aircraft's engines (a U.S.–France joint venture) and Ukraine's Ministry of Infrastructure would participate as representatives of the state in which the aircraft was registered. Given that there were tensions between these nations and Iran as part of the 2019–2021 Persian Gulf crisis, it was not known how these investigative organizations would be involved, although it was reported that Iran had said American, French and Ukrainian authorities would be involved.


text: The head of the commission for accidents in the CAOI said they received no emergency message from the aircraft before the crash. It was reported that the aircraft's black boxes (the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR)) had been recovered, but the CAOI said it was not clear to which country the recorders would be sent so the data could be analyzed. The association said it would not hand over the black boxes to Boeing or to U.S. authorities. On 9January, the black boxes were reported, by Iranian investigators, to have been damaged and that some parts of their memory may have been lost. Mary Schiavo, a former U.S. Department of Transportation inspector general, said no automated distress messages had been sent from the aircraft or by its crew.


text: On 9 January, the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority and Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) were officially invited by the investigation team to participate in the probe on the crash. The NTSB, Ukraine, and Boeing were also invited to participate in the investigation. Due to American economic sanctions placed on Iran, U.S. investigators would need a special licence from the Treasury and the State Departments to travel there.


text: On 9 January, media reports showed bulldozers being used to clear the crash site. Some aircraft investigation experts expressed concerns about disturbing and damaging the crash site before a thorough investigation could be conducted. Iran denied bulldozing the evidence. On 10 January, the Iranian government granted Ukrainian investigators permission to investigate the flight recorders and Ukrainian investigators visited the crash site, with plans to download the recorders in Tehran. On 14 January, the head of the TSB, Kathy Fox, said there were signs that Iran would allow the TSB to participate in the downloading and analysis of data from the airplane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. On 23 January, the TSB announced that they had been invited by Iran to help with the flight recorders.


text: On 2 February, aired a leaked recording of the information exchange between the Iranian pilot of an Aseman Airlines flight and an Iranian air traffic controller. The pilot stated in Persian that he saw "a series of flares like that of a missile" and later an explosion. Following the leak, Zelensky said the new evidence proved Iran was well aware from the very first moments that the Ukraine passenger airplane was brought down by a missile. The following day Iran ceased co-operation with Ukraine in its investigation into the disaster. Iran resumed co-operation on 15 February. In the final report about the crash, Iranian authorities gave a more complete transcript of the communication.


text: On 20 January, Iran asked for assistance from France and the United States to recover the data from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. On 5 February, Canada urged Iran to send the recorders to France. Iran denied the request.


text: On 12 March, Iran agreed to hand over the recorders to Ukraine. However, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed this action. During this time, impatience began to mount from Ukraine, Canada, and ICAO.


text: On 11 June, Iran announced that the flight recorders would be sent directly to the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) in France.<ref name="RFE/RL"></ref> Canadian officials urged Iran to complete this action "as soon as possible", citing the previous delays in handing over the recorders. This statement was further reinforced 11 days later, when Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif commented on this intention during a phone call with Canadian foreign minister François-Philippe Champagne.


text: On 8 January, Iran's Road and Transportation Ministry released a statement that the aircraft burst into flames after a fire started in one of its engines, causing the pilot to lose control and crash into the ground. The airline opined that pilot error was impossible to be cited as the cause of the crash as the pilots had exclusively been trained for the Tehran flights for years, noting that Tehran Airport was "not a simple airport".


text: Iranian and Ukrainian government sources initially blamed mechanical issues aboard the aircraft for its crash. The Ukrainian government later retracted its statement and said anything was possible, refusing to rule out that the aircraft was hit by a missile. Zelensky said there should not be any speculation about the cause of the crash.


text: On 9 January, U.S. intelligence and defence officials said they believed the aircraft had been shot down by an Iranian Tor missile (NATO reporting name SA-15 "Gauntlet"), based on evidence from reconnaissance satellite imagery and radar data. Ukrainian authorities said a shootdown was one of the "main working theories", while Iranian authorities denied this, stating that allegations of a missile hit were "psychological warfare". British defence officials agreed with the American assessment of a shootdown. Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau said evidence from multiple sources, including Canadian intelligence, suggested the aircraft was shot down by an Iranian missile. He added that "this may well have been unintentional". Iranian media described it as "an American lie", "a wrongful scenario by CIA and the Pentagon", and "an attempt to prevent Boeing stock from a free fall".


text: On 11 January, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran admitted they had shot down the airplane, having erroneously identified it as a hostile target. According to an early IRGC statement, when the airplane seemed to head toward a "sensitive military centre" of the IRGC, controllers mistook it for a "hostile target" and shot it down. Iran's Civil Aviation Organization disputed this timeline, arguing that the airplane was on the correct course all the time and there was no proven flight deviation. The CAOI's viewpoint was also supported by a Radio Canada International article that used public ADS-B flight tracking data. Iranian Brigadier general Amir Ali Hajizadeh of the IRGC Aerospace Defense said a missile operator in Bidganeh had acted independently, mistook the airplane for a U.S. cruise missile and shot it down. Hajizadeh also said the airplane was on-track and "made no mistake".


text: Western experts had previously noted that Flight 752 was flying near several sensitive Iranian ballistic missile facilities, including the Shahid Modarres missile base at Bidganeh near Malard, which the Iranians could have believed would be targets of retaliation for their attack a few hours earlier.


text: The flight had been delayed by more than an hour because the captain had decided to offload some luggage as the aircraft was over its certified takeoff weight.


text: On 11 July 2020, the CAOI reported that Iran now blamed the missile strike that downed PS752 on "bad communication" and "poor alignment". According to the Iranians, the missile battery "had been relocated and was not properly reoriented" and the guilty parties did not include the higher-ranking chain of command officers. On 20 July, Canadian foreign minister François-Philippe Champagne rejected the finding by the CAOI that "human error" caused the launch of the missiles which destroyed the aircraft: "It cannot just be the result of a human error. There is no circumstance under (which) a civilian aircraft can be downed just by the result of human error in this day and age... All the facts and circumstances point to more than just a human error, so certainly we will continue to pursue vigorously the investigation."


text: On 9 January, the Instagram account Rich Kids of Tehran published a video captioned: 'The actual footage from the moment the #Ukrainian flight was shot down by a Russian-made Tor-M1 missile just moments after takeoff from #Tehran's Airport '. The video was published at the same time the Iranian authorities were claiming technical problems for the crash. Qassem Biniaz, a spokesman for Iran's Road and Transportation Ministry, said the pilot "lost control of the plane" after a fire broke out in one of its engines, denying the Ukrainian plane was hit by a missile.


text: On 9 January, a video was posted on a public Telegram channel showing what was, according to Bellingcat, apparently a mid-air explosion. "The New York Times" contacted the person who filmed the video and confirmed its authenticity. An investigation team from Bellingcat carried out an analysis of this video and geolocated it to a residential area in Parand, a suburb west of the airport. Bellingcat also examined photos from an unknown source and said these images of a missile nose cone had yet to be verified, despite claims from several sources. The Tor missile's warhead is located in its midsection, meaning its nose may not be destroyed in an explosion. Similar photographs of fragments have been taken in eastern Ukraine, but none have been found to be the same as those attributed to the recent incident.


text: "USA Today" reported that the firm IHS Markit reviewed photographs showing the guidance section of a missile and "assesses them to be credible". Aviation monitoring group Opsgroup said: "We would recommend the starting assumption to be that this was a shootdown event, similar to MH17—until there is clear evidence to the contrary" asserting that photographs "show obvious projectile holes in the fuselage and a wing section".


text: On 9 January, President Trump said the airplane "was flying in a pretty rough neighbourhood, and somebody could have made a mistake." He said the U.S. had no involvement in the incident and that he did not believe a mechanical issue had anything to do with the crash. U.S. intelligence sources informed U.S. media outlets they were "confident that Iran painted the Ukrainian airliner with radar and fired two surface to air missiles that brought down the aircraft."


text: Also on 9 January, at a news conference in Ottawa, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the airliner was likely brought down by an Iranian missile, citing intelligence from Canadian and other sources, and said the incident "may well have been unintentional".


text: On 10 January, during an interview with Sky News, Iran's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Hamid Baeidinejad, rejected video footage obtained by American media that showed bulldozers clearing the crash site as "absurd". Baeidinejad further denied that an Iranian missile had brought down the airplane, and said that "[p]lane accidents are a very technical issue, I cannot judge, you cannot judge, reporters on the ground cannot judge. Nobody can judge. A foreign minister or a prime minister cannot judge on this issue."


text: On 11 January, Iran admitted it had shot down the Ukrainian jet by "accident", the result of human error. General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the IRGC's Aerospace Force, said his unit accepts "full responsibility" for the shootdown. In an address broadcast by state television, he said that when he learned about the downing of the airplane, "I wished I was dead." Hajizadeh said that, with his forces on high alert, an officer mistook it for a hostile missile and made a "bad decision".


text: On 14 January, the Rich Kids of Tehran Instagram account published a new video, showing two missiles hitting the aircraft. The security camera footage, verified by "The New York Times", shows two missiles, fired 30 seconds apart. On 20 January, the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran also admitted that the country's IRGC had fired two Russian-made Tor-M1 missiles at the aircraft.


text: On 8 January 2021, the first anniversary of the shootdown, Ukraine and several other countries made a joint statement calling on Iran for a thorough investigation and reiterated for them to prosecute anyone involved, and provide full compensation.


text: Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister Dmytro Kuleba rejected the findings and criticized the report as "a collection of manipulations, the goal of which is not to establish the truth, but to whitewash the Islamic Republic of Iran." The Transportation Safety Board of Canada also criticized the report, saying that it did not provide an exact reason to why the IRGC fired its missiles at Flight 752.


text: On 10 August 2020, IRGC officer Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of Basij forces, said that Iran would not compensate Ukraine International Airlines for the shootdown because the "plane is insured by European companies in Ukraine and not by Iranian companies". The countries were expected to negotiate on compensation again in October.


text: In February 2020, a proposed class action claim was filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against Iran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and various branches of the Iranian military, among others. Lawyers of the families of Canadian victims were seeking compensation of at least billion.


text: In April 2020, families of the victims formed The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to follow the case through legal avenue. The association's president and spokesman, Hamed Esmaeilion, said the association's aim is, "to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice, including those who ordered it". In July 2020, Esmaeilion was outraged that the ICAO had yet to condemn the incident, and pointed out that the ICAO needed only three months to adopt a unanimous resolution condemning in the strongest terms the destruction and alleged murders of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.


text: On 30 December 2020, Iran unilaterally announced that it had allocated $150,000 for each victim's family. Ukraine was critical, stating that the compensation should be set through talks after establishing the causes of the crash, and that "the Ukrainian side expects from Iran a draft technical report on the circumstances of the aircraft shooting down".


text: On 20 May 2021, Justice Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released a decision finding that "The shooting down of Flight 752 by the defendants (Islamic Republic of Iran) was an act of terrorism and constitutes "terrorist activity" under the SIA (State Immunity Act), the JVTA (Justice For Victims of Terrorism Act) and the provisions of the Criminal Code." The defendants were not represented or in attendance in court and the case resulted in a default judgment. Iran's foreign ministry denounced the court's verdict as political, stating "This verdict has no basis and does not consist of any objective reasoning or documentation ... This behaviour of the Canadian judge, by following orders and political cliches, is shameful for a country which claims to follow the rule of law." Leah West, an assistant professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University said that the "judge contorted the law by cherry-picking his way to finding the aircraft was destroyed in an act of terrorism." She concluded "While his motivations for doing all that may be noble, that's dangerous for the rule of law". The lawyer for the plaintiffs indicated that, depending on the amounts awarded, he would move to have Iranian assets in Canada or internationally seized, including oil tankers. As of 3 January 2022, the Ontario Superior Court has awarded more than C$107M to families of six victims after ruling the shootdown was "an intentional act of terrorism". It is unclear how any of the plaintiffs will collect their settlements from the government of Iran and legal experts have indicated that a diplomatic solution for compensation may be the only realistic route available, since Iran views the court ruling as illegitimate.


text: Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) suspended flights to Tehran indefinitely shortly after the incident, with flights after the day of the crash no longer available. The suspension also complied with a prohibition issued by State Aviation Administration of Ukraine for flights in Iran's airspace for all Ukrainian registered aircraft. Since the crash, additional airlines, Air Astana and SCAT Airlines also re-routed flights that overflew Iran. This followed a recommendation by the Kazakhstan Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development, issued to Kazakhstani air companies after the crash, to avoid flying over Iran airspace and/or to cancel flights to Iran. Air Canada rerouted its Toronto-Dubai flight to fly over Egypt and Saudi Arabia instead of Iraq.


text: Iran declared 9 January a national day of mourning both for the victims of Flight 752 and for those killed in a stampede at Qasem Soleimani's funeral.