Long Awaited Air India Bombing Inquiry Report Released
By Faisal Kutty
The long awaited report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182 is finally out today.
Confirming what many security experts have believed for some time, former Supreme Court of Canada justice John Major wrote that Canada’s air security system needs sweeping changes to ensure the safety of travellers.
Flight 182 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people on board.
The four volume report calls for ramped-up powers for a new national security adviser to oversee communication between agencies and settle disputes.
To be more explicit, Justice Major blasts government security agencies for their handling and analysis of information leading up to the bombings.
The report notes that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) were in possession crucial pieces of information “that, taken together, would have led a competent analyst to conclude that Flight 182 was at high risk of being bombed by known Sikh terrorists in June 1985.”
Justice Major also called the existing arrangements and practices of information-gathering agencies “wholly deficient” in their sharing of information.
The report blames this deficiency for “the worst mass-murder in Canadian history.”
Tags: Air India, Bombing, CSIS, Inquiry, Justice John Major, RCMP, Supreme Court of Canada, Terrorism
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I followed the news about the Air India Bombing Inquiry during all the years I was in Canada and now the report is finally out.
It took 25 years, from 1985 to 2010, to produce this report. The legal proceedings related to suspects were still continuing a few years ago.
There is a saying that justice delayed is justice denied. I have not heard of any other court case anywhere in the world that lasted a quarter of a century.