Canadians say Air India security apology due

Almost half of all Canadians believe the federal government should formally apologize for the systemic failures of security and policing agencies prior to the June 23, 1985 Air India bombing, a new poll says.
Forty-five per cent of those surveyed by Angus Reid Strategies support an official apology, something families of the Air India victims requested last month in the final days of the judicial inquiry into the terrorist attack.
In B.C. and Ontario, 49 per cent of respondents favoured an apology, while across the country, 30 per cent opposed the federal government taking an official stand on the issue.
Mario Canseco, of Angus Reid, said the inquiry increased the public's awareness of the problems that plagued the Air India case.
Sush Gupta, an Ottawa man who lost his mother in the Air India bombing, said he was happy with the considerable public support for a government apology.
But he said besides an official apology, he would like to see acceptance of whatever recommendations come out of the judicial inquiry, headed by retired Supreme Court of Canada justice John Major.
"More important to me would be to see the government act on those recommendations," Gupta said.
Inderjit Singh Reyat is the only person ever convicted in the Air India bombing, which killed 329 - most Canadians of Indian origin. Two other B.C. Sikh separatists were acquitted on all counts three years ago.
The victims' families have also called for immediate legislative changes in the way police, intelligence officers, prosecutors and judges deal with terrorist cases. And they asked Ottawa to fund a new centre for national security studies.
The Angus Reid poll was conducted online between Feb. 19 and Feb. 21, among a randomly selected, representative sample of 1,085 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
02/03/08 Kim Bolan/Vancouver Sun/Canada.com, Canada

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