Air India families await report

Families of the victims of the worst mass murder in Canadian history are hoping to get some answers Thursday with the release of the report of the inquiry into the Air India Flight 182 bombing.

All 329 people on the flight from Toronto and Montreal to New Delhi died in the 1985 terror attack when the Boeing 747  they were on went down in the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland.

Bal Gupta was the first of many family members to testify at the Air India Inquiry. He and his wife, Ramwati (Rama) Gupta, were on the waiting list for the flight. At the last minute, a single seat came open, and the couple decided Ramwati would take it and Bal would follow later.

"She said, 'OK.' She wouldn't mind going and spending two weeks extra with her parents," Bal Gupta said.

Twelve hours after his wife boarded the flight, Bal Gupta was suddenly a single parent to his two young boys.

Gupta hopes Justice John Major explains today why the RCMP and CSIS failed to act on intelligence reports that Sikh extremists were plotting to attack an Air India jet. He would also like to see Major recommend improvements in Canada's present aviation security regime — and a recommendation to crack down on terrorist front groups that raise money in Canada.

One thing Gupta is not expecting is closure for the families of victims.

"I mean how can it be over for a couple who are in their twilight years and they have lost all their children," he said. "For them, it will never be over."

In Ottawa, Rob Alexander — who lost his father, Dr. Anchanatt (Mathew) Alexander, in the bombing — called Thursday a "bittersweet" day.

He said he was pleased the report was finally coming out, "but unfortunately that won’t bring back our loved ones."

It took the families of the Air India victims 20 years to persuade the federal government to call the inquiry. Some family members believe if the victims had been white and Canadian-born, instead of brown-skinned new Canadians, it would have been called a lot sooner. Major's report is expected to address that issue too.