Kanishka debris to be preserved

This is because the probe is far from over, writes Gurmukh Singh.

The wreckage of the Air-India Kanishka, which was re-assembled during the trial of the two suspects — Ripduman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri — in Vancouver, is stirring emotions as the 20th anniversary of the bombing of the flight 182 rolls around.

About one tenth of the wreckage of the plane, which plunged into the ocean from 31,000 feet after the explosion, was salvaged from the seabed off the Irish coast and restructured in a Vancouver warehouse to prove the bomb explosion theory.

After the trial ended on March 16 in the acquittal of Malik and Bagri, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said the wreckage was the property of the Indian Government and it was up to them to decide what they wanted to do with it.

With reports in a section of the media on Wednesday about the plan to dispose of the wreckage, the RCMP has clarified that it will preserve the wreckage as the investigation was far from over.

The RCMP, which spent more than $40 million to investigate the case, has about a dozen officers still working on the case.

Accordingly, RCMP spokesman Tom Seaman said in Vancouver, "the wreckage would not be turned over until it's deemed they will not be required as any evidence or exhibits in a trial."

Once the investigating agency felt the wreckage was no longer needed, the Government of India could decide what it wanted to do with it, Seaman said, adding that the RCMP was pursuing all clues in the case.

Some Indo-Canadians are of the view that the wreckage should be enshrined in the form of a memorial to the 329 victims. Relatives of some of the victims, angry with the Indian Government for not pressuring Canada after the acquittal verdict, don't want it to be sent to India.

Dave Hayer, Indo-Canadian MLA in the British Columbian assembly and son of the slain Indo-Canadian Times editor Tara Singh Hayer, says he favours a suitable memorial to the victims to remind the future generations that this ghastly crime originated here. He says the memorial -- with or without the wreckage — can be raised either in Vancouver or in the British Columbian capital city of Victoria. "But it is up to the people. I don't want politicians to be take this decision,'' says Hayer whose father was apparently killed to stop him giving testimony against the Air-India suspects.

On the other hand, the relatives of the victims are likely to take up this issue with Bob Rae, former Ontario premier, who has been appointed to see whether a public inquiry, as demanded by the relatives of the victims, will serve any purpose.

However, the Canadian government, which has so far refused to accept their demand, has offered $2,500 each to relatives of the victims wishing to go to Ireland for the 20th anniversary of the tragedy on June 23.

Meanwhile, summer in Canada is the time for our desi dignitaries — or whosoever matters in India — to visit this country. Close on the heels of his deputy Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Punjab Chief Minister (Capt) Amarinder Singh was in Toronto and Vancouver last week.

Accompanied by Tourism Minister Jagmohan Kang, Cultural Minister Partap Singh Bajawa, Food and Civil supplies minister Avtar Henry and MP Rana Gurjit, Capt Amarinder Singh met with Canadian and Indo-Canadian leaders to explore the possibilities of increasing trade ties with India (read Punjab).

In Vancouver, which has the largest concentration of Punjabis in North America, the Chief Minister interacted with the community to seek their involvement with the development of their native state.

Capt Amarinder Singh also attended a business forum, organised by the University College of the Fraser Valley, and spoke about the avenues for promoting trade between the two countries.

Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said though India-Canada trade had risen 200 per cent in a matter of years, there was a huge scope for growth in the bilateral trade.

British Columbia, which sees itself as a gateway to Canada and the whole of North America, has allocated $1.25 million to set up a research chair on Canada-India Business and Economic Development at the University College of the Fraser Valley. It has also created the Council on Asia-Pacific Trade.

There was a bit of commotion in the community when the Chief Minister eluded some hardline Sikh leaders who wanted to raise the issue of Sikh detainees in Indian jails. Apparently, they had come to meet without any prior appointment.

Another issue which created commotion — and continues to evoke strong reaction — in the Indo-Canadian community is the taped conversation of Surrey MP Gurmant Grewal with Tim Murphy, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, about the alleged offer to the Indo-Canadian MP to abstain during the no-confidence motion against the minority Liberal government.

Grewal, who has taped four hours of conversation and released only a part of it, alleges that he was approached by Ujjal Dosanjh and Tim Murphy with offers for a diplomatic assignment for him and a Senate seat for his wife Nina Grewal (she is also an MP) if they abstained from voting on the no-confidence motion.

For their part, Ujjal Dosanjh and Murphy said that it was Grewal who approached them first.

While the Opposition NDP and Bloc Quebecois have called for an investigations by the RCMP and the Ethics commission into the episode, many in the Indo-Canadian community are not amused and want the matter to be probed to know who is lying.

Whether the truth will ever come out or not, they believe the episode has cast the community in a bad light. True.