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Kanishka verdict fails to die
Air-India verdict debate will not end any time soon in this country, writes Gurmukh Singh in Canada Diary.
The Air-India verdict debate will not end any time soon in this country. Not a day goes by when something is not said about it even as the shattered families of the victims of the 1985 bombing knock at various doors in search of justice.
Sadly, the issue seems to have become a matter of political football. Since March 16 when the single-judge bench of the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver found the two suspects -- Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripduman Singh Malik -- not guilty, opposition political parties have been demanding a public inquiry and the government has been flatly saying `no'.
Opposition parties say the government is trying to shield its investigative agencies -- the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) --whom the Air-India judge blamed for bungling the case by working at cross-purposes.
They back up their demand by citing a 1991 paper titled Calls for Air-India Inquiry -- prepared by the Solicitor general's department and released in 1996 -- which says the worst terrorist act and mass murder in Canadian history remains unexplained. ``It may not, in fact, ever be fully explainable, but the country is owed as full an account as the government can devise."
Deputy prime minister Anne McLellan, who also happens to be minister for public safety, has all along ruled out the need for a fresh probe, saying lessons from the tragedy have been learnt and incorporated in Canada's security systems.
She reels off facts and figures about various security and intelligence measures. She tells how billions of dollars has been earmarked for security and how an anti-terrorist law has been enacted. This is another matter that these steps were put in place in the wake of 9/11.
McLellan has been saying that she is willing to sit down with the victim families and address their questions. Never mind she belongs to the same party, which had vociferously demanded a public inquiry when it was in the opposition.
On Thursday, the issue once again raged in the House of Commons when the members began discussion on an Opposition motion seeking a public inquiry into the bungled case.
Relenting a little, the deputy prime minister announced -- what opposition MPs call another cruel joke on the families of the victims -- that an independent adviser would look into "questions of public interest" in this case.
She said she had invited the relatives of the victims to come to Toronto on Tuesday so that they could meet her and speak with government officials.
"Before I take any action, I want to meet the families at the start of an ongoing dialogue so we know what questions remain unanswered for them. This review can only begin once we've determined if the province of British Columbia will appeal the (Air-India) decision," she said.
British Columbia whose Supreme Court in Vancouver delivered the no-guilty verdict has 30 days to appeal.
One wonders what will come out of Tuesday's meeting. The families of the victims have repeatedly said: they want justice.
Reacting to the invitation from the deputy prime minister, Ottawa-based lawyer Susheel Gupta, who speaks for the victim families, says they are not interested in listening to McLellan telling them how the security apparatus has improved since 1985. They want justice.
``We were only given seven days' notice to put our lives aside and try to get work off and so on to travel to Toronto. So she is being rather disingenuous on that and very disrespectful," Gupta said. According to him, most of them are not interested in meeting the deputy prime minister unless she considers their demand for a public inquiry.
In the House of Commons, Indo-Canadian MP Gurmant Grewal, who represents the Opposition Conservative Party, said everyone wants to close this tragic chapter. The only way to end this was a public inquiry, he said.
Another Indo-Canadian MP Navdeep Bains, of the ruling Liberal Party, said, ``It (the motion) clearly indicates that the government has a role to play in order to provide Canadians and, more importantly, the families with answers ... I fully support that the government should examine all possible options. No stone should be left unturned.''
Bains said it was not an Indo-Canadian issue. ``This is a Canadian issue. The concerns that people addressed and brought forth were that they had concerns about the process. They had concerns about the role of the RCMP and CSIS. To that effect I think it is very important in the House today that we examine some of the facts...''
Meanwhile, Canadian immigration minister dropped a bombshell this week when he asked the Ethics Commission to investigate Indo-Canadian MP Gurmant Grewal for allegedly asking bonds of $50, 000 to $ 100,000 from visa seekers to ensure that visitors leave Canada before its expiry.
Grewal, who has long advocated reforms in the immigration system, reportedly told the House committee on immigration on March 24 that he demanded these bonds from those who sought his help for visas to ensure they left the country.
His Conservative Party has come out in Grewal's support and threatened Volpe with a lawsuit. ``I would say to the immigration minister and anyone else with the kind of cloud (because of the on-going sponsorship scandal inquiry by Justice Gomery against Liberal Party members) are under, they should be very careful," said Conservative Party and Opposition leader Stephen Harper. "Because we will not hesitate to have them in court as fast as you can say Gomery if they are not correct in those kinds of accusations," he warned.
