TORONTO, JUNE 17
The final report into the 1985 Air India Kanishka bombing today recommended ex-gratia payment to the families of 329 victims, mostly of Indian origin as it blamed the Canadian government for its failure to prevent the country’s worst terrorist attack.
“A cascading series of errors contributed to our police and security forces” failing to stop the bombing, Justice John Major, the head of the Kanishka bombing inquiry commission recommended today, nearly 25 years after the tragedy.
Canadian authorities should have known that Air India Flight 182 was a terrorism target, Major said.
“The government needs to take responsibility to avoid further failure and to prevent a return to a culture of complacency,” said Major in his 3,200 pages report
It called for an independent body to be created to recommend an appropriate ex gratia payment and to oversee its distribution, though it offered little relief to the families of those who were killed in the tragedy.
“This was the largest mass-murder in Canadian history,” said Major, adding the “finest tribute” that could be paid the victims of the bombing is to create a rigorous aviation security system.
