Air India inquiry told Ottawa failed victims' families

There will be no justice for the Air India victims until the government makes legislative changes to ensure that the unprecedented mass murder could never be repeated, the Ottawa inquiry heard Friday.
And the federal government should apologize and consider compensation for families after revelations of critical systemic failures both before and after the terrorist attack, lawyers for the families told Commissioner John Major in their final arguments.
Jacques Shore, representing the Air India Victims' Families Association said the government failed the families in the months leading up to the June 23, 1985 bombing by ignoring warnings that Sikh terrorists in B.C. were plotting something diabolical.
After the deadly blast killed 329, the objectives of the newly created Canadian Security Intelligence Service trumped that of the RCMP, which was hampered in its quest to solve the country's worst terrorist attack, Shore said.
"Where is the justice in an investigation and prosecution doomed from the start because of the lack of preparedness to deal with the challenge of moving from CSIS-obtained intelligence to RCMP-useful evidence that would meet the evidentiary requirements of a criminal trial?" he asked.
Only B.C. mechanic Inderjit Singh Reyat has ever been convicted in the Air India bombing and related same-day blast at Tokyo's Narita Airport that killed two baggage handlers. Two other B.C. Sikh separatists, Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik were acquitted three years ago.
Lawyer Norm Boxall laid out a series of recommendations he hopes Major will consider, including the establishment of an Office of National Security Coordination and a legislative change to make intelligence-sharing between CSIS and the RCMP mandatory.
15/02/08 Kim Bolan/Canwest News Service/Canada.com, Canada

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Categories: Air India - International Feb 2008, Foreign Feb 2008, NACIL Feb 2008, Safety Feb 2008