‘Evasive Canada cops almost derailed Kanishka probe’

Chandigarh: ...The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) were reluctant to share evidence. At that point of time I wanted to shut the inquiry... Then it started coming. It was not easy to get information,” recalled Justice John C Major, who was Chairman of Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182 (Kanishka). It was the largest mass murder in the history of Canada.
“The bombing was clearly preventable. It could have stopped at the desk of CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) desk. There was an input that terrorists would seek revenge in June, 1985. Air India had also sent a message to all airports on June 1, where they were operating flights,” said Major.
“At the time of blast, Canadian ambassador was recently replaced and there was no one at that time. Canada’s response was slow at that time, but the Irish people did an excellent job,” said Major. In his report, he had commented on racism angle, “While the Commission does not feel that the term “racism” is helpful, it is also understandable that the callous attitude by the Government of Canada to the families of the victims might lead them to wonder whether a similar response would have been forthcoming had the overwhelming majority of the victims of the bombing been Canadians who were white. The Commission concludes that both the Government and the Canadian public were slow to recognize the bombing of Flight 182 as a Canadian issue.”
According to Major, the plane was two-and-a-half hours late. The manager (of Air India) was anxious to get off the ground. The X-ray screening machine broke down after checking part of the luggage and PD-4 sniffer device had to be used, but Air India security staff were not trained to use it.
He said, “It was around 3 o’ clock in the afternoon. M Singh got off the plane unobserved. He could go off so easily.”
He added that terrorists wanted to take revenge for “invasion of Golden Temple” as “assassination of Indira Gandhi was not enough”. It had come out that they had warned Sikhs not to fly Air India.
11/05/11 Bhartesh Singh Thakur/Indian Express

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Categories: Air India May 2011, Foreign May 2011, Safety May 2011