Air India inquiry head baffled by Ottawa’s response

Ottawa: In his Calgary law office, Justice John Major tried but failed to make sense of a one-page press release outlining the federal response to his exhaustive Air India report.
“I can’t make much out of it,” he said frankly in an interview with the Star.
The former Supreme Court of Canada judge expressed disappointed bafflement at the announcement the federal Conservative government rejected several key recommendations of his three-year Air India inquiry.
In his June report, Major recommended changes to aviation and national security practices, and warned gaps that led to the 1985 terrorist bombing that downed an Air India plane killing 329 still exist.
However, the Conservative government said Tuesday it has already taken several steps to increase air security, and dismissed Major’s call for a national security “czar” because it wants to avoid creating a “new bureaucracy,” said Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.
Toews said key agencies, the RCMP and CSIS, already report to a central cabinet minister – him.
Major said of all the recommendations in his report, that one was central, and envisaged “a very small change” not the creation of “a whole new department.”
“The national security advisor (recommendation) was one person, it wasn’t a bureaucracy,” said Major.
08/12/10 The Star.com

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Categories: Air India - International Dec 2010, Air India Dec 2010, Foreign Dec 2010