Canadian government failed Air India families, inquiry told

The Canadian government was nowhere to be seen after 329 people died in Canada's worst terrorismincident and later worked against the families of the survivors, says Bal Gupta.

The Toronto engineer made the charge Mondayduring the first day of testimony from relatives of those killed when a bomb exploded onAir IndiaFlight 182 off Ireland on June 23, 1985. His wife Rama died in the plane, which was flying from Canada to India.

After the disaster, the families were treated as "second-rate citizens," he told a government-orderedinquiry into the bombing. No victims of terrorism should be treated the way the Air India families were treated, he said.

The treatment and inability of the government to find out what happened has eroded the faith families have in the system, he said. The big challenge for the inquiry, headed by former Supreme Court justice John Major, will be to restore that confidence, Gupta said.

Early morning phone call

Gupta said he was woken early on June 23 bya call from a friend, who told him to listen to the radio.

"The news shattered our little world,"he recalled, dabbing his eyes.

Even though the bombing killed 280Canadian citizens, most of them of Indian origin or descent,Gupta complained that the Canadian government did not set up anyinformation phone line or offer emotional or psychological supports. He said he had heard thatthen prime minister Brian Mulroney sent condolences to the Indian government.

In contrast, Air India set up an information line, and offered to fly two members from each family to Ireland. Once there,Irish officials, volunteersand people gave "every possible physical and emotional support," Gupta said.

Guptasaid that while representatives of other governments were in Ireland, there was no one from the Canadian government present untilfive days after the explosion, and even then, they only showed up after he appeared on TV to complain.

Later on, he said,the government fought the families who had launched a lawsuit.

"The Canadian government worked … at each stage to use their big stick of Crown privileges against the families," so in the end, the families were left with no option but to accept "trivial settlements" in 1991, he said.

As the government launched an investigation of the bombing, the families were kept in the dark for years, and could not get a meeting with any top politicians or RCMP officials, Gupta said.

The Canadian government did not want to deal with Canadian terrorism until after the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, he said.

He then went on to list many questions which he wants the inquiry to answer, ranging from shortcomings in the security agencies whichmight have been aware before the attack was launched, to the investigation and the subsequent trial, 20 yearsafter the attack.

Only one person was convicted in the plot andthe trial of the RCMP's two main suspects ended in 2005with acquittals.

Inquiry in two parts

Gupta, who has long lobbied for an inquiry, led off the testimony fromrelatives ofvictims, set to last 11 days. The inquiry will move into a second phase in November, when it will shift from victims to looking atwhether the Canadian government, investigators and prosecutorsshould have been able to stop, find and convict the perpetrators.

The police have allegedamilitant group that wanted to create an independent Sikh homeland in northern India placed the bomb on the plane.

There have beencourt cases,studies and reports, mostly recently by former Ontario premier and current Liberal leadership contender Bob Rae, who recommended last fall that the federal government hold a full-scale inquiry.

In May, Prime Minister Stephen Harper set the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182 headed byMajor.

Inquiry aims to prevent future tragedies

"This inquiry will not focus on dissecting the past," Major said earlier this year. "It will look to how we can establish parameters for the future — to help shape a system that contains sufficient safeguards to prevent tragedies from occurring. We must collect evidence that provides guidance on systemic changes to prevent terror attacks against Canadians, whether on land or sea, in airspace, or anywhere else. "

The inquiry opened with a warning that the statements from relatives of the victims will be hard on the speakers and the listeners.

"I expect the testimony will be emotional and I expect the testimony will be difficult," lead counsel Mark Freimansaid in his opening statement.

"It takes a great deal of courage to speak in a public forum about matters that reach into the innermost parts of one's being."

Freiman said he hoped the victims' testimony will show "the human dimensions of this terrible event."

Major is expected to review previous reports on the bombing and isallowed to hold public and private hearings inside and outside the country.

He is expected look at a number of questions, including whether turf wars between the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service interfered with the initial investigation.

The inquiry is expected to hear testimony until April, and Major is expected to file a report by September 2007.

Two of the RCMP's prime suspects in the bombing, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, were acquitted of all charges in March 2005 after a trial that lasted 19 months.

The suspected mastermind of the bombing was Talwinder Singh Parmar, who led the Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa.He lived in the Vancouver area in the 1980s, but left Canada after the bombing and was killed by police in India in 1992.

The only person convicted in the bombing was Inderjit Singh Reyat. He is serving five years for manslaughter, having served 10 years for a linkedbombing that killed two baggage handlers at Narita Airport in Tokyo.

Reyat is currently facing perjury charges arising from his testimony at the trial of Malik and Bagri.