Harper says Air India inquiry report a 'damning indictment'

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The final report into the 1985 Air India bombing calls for a powerful national security czar with direct access to the Prime Minister to sort out disputes between the RCMP and Canada's spy agency - an ongoing turf war that the inquiry learned continues to this day.

The National security advisor, a job that currently exists in a much more diminished role than Judge Major envisions, would be the ultimate security authority.

"I stress this is a Canadian atrocity," Mr. Justice John Major said as he announced his findings. "For too long the greatest loss of Canadian lives at the hands of terrorists has somehow been relegated outside the Canadian consciousness."

The national security advisor would help shepherd terrorism prosecutions through the courts, as would a new director of terrorism prosecutions. It's felt these positions could help navigate the "intelligence-to-evidence" quandaries that beset the Air India probe in the 1980s and still hamper terrorism cases today.

The report recommends appropriate compensation for the families. "The families in some ways have often been treated as adversaries, as if they had somehow brought this calamity upon themselves. This goes against the Canadian sense of fairness and propriety," he said. "The time to right that historical wrong is now."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the report was a "damning indictment of many things that occurred before and after the tragedy" and he promised his government would respond "positively" to the recommendations, specifically the call for compensation.

"Our government launched this inquiry to bring closure to those who still grieve and to ensure that measures are taken to prevent such a tragedy in the future," he said.

"We thank commissioner Major for his work and once again extend our deepest sympathies to the families and friends for the loved ones they lost."

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Justice Major suggests agents with the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency should get with the times and lose their longstanding aversion to the courts. "CSIS should conform to the requirements of laws relating to evidence and disclosure ... in order to facilitate the use of intelligence in criminal justice process."

However, the report also urges his colleagues on the bench to be more sensitive to some imperatives of state secrecy. Canada's sweeping laws to disclose documents to the accused may have to be reined in somewhat in terrorism cases, the judge suggests. He says judges should contemplate "non-disclosure orders" for terrorism cases.

"This was the largest mass-murder in Canadian history," said Justice Major, in releasing his report at a news conference in Ottawa.

Judge Major made scathing findings about government agencies and government lawyers trying to discredit whistle blowers and even the victims' families, while presenting an overly rosy facade of Canada's security agencies.

The RCMP and CSIS, he said, "engaged in turf wars, failed to share information and adopted a misguided approach to sources," he said. "… The government argued 'that was then this is now' basically suggesting that whatever weaknesses or deficiencies existed in 1985 have been fully recognized analyzed and rectified in present day."

"The Commission rejects that position," he said.

Judge Major goes so far as to suggest that Canada's national police force has become unfocused - an all-things-to-all-people agency.

He suggests the Mounties may have bitten off more than they can chew by probing both high crime while accepting contracts from provinces to patrol rural communities.

"We believe the RCMP is not structured to deal with terrorism prosecutions. There is a need for greater specialization," he said. "Perhaps the time has arrived to reassess the role of the RCMP in providing contractual policing services in many of the provinces."

The commission concludes that Canada still has a great deal to learn about terrorism and proposes that Ottawa fund an academic centre for the study of terrorism and counterterrorism. The report recommends that the centre be named "The Kanishka Centre," to honour the victims of the Air India bombing.

Acknowledging that many recommendations from past public inquiries went on to gather dust, Judge Major said he wants a follow-up mechanism put in place that will report on which recommendations have been implemented, which have been rejected and which will require further study.

"The government needs to take responsibility to avoid further failures and to prevent a return to a culture of complacency," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said. "The finest tribute that could be paid to the victims of the bombing of Air India Flight 182 would be the creation of a rigorous aviation security system. This will require cooperation and resources, but, most importantly, leadership from the highest levels of government."

Bal Gupta, whose wife Rama died in the bombing, said the report addresses most of the concerns of the victims' families and expressed hope that it will help prevent a similar tragedy in the future.

"I think the report addresses most of the concerns which the families have raised. It confirms what families suspected while asking for the inquiry: That it was not a sheer accident it was a compounding of mistakes after mistakes both before the tragedy and after the tragedy," he said.

"A long time has passed since that infamous day in June of 1985, but I am sure that many of us continue to join the families and loved ones of the victims in grieving their loss," he said. "We will not forget."

Deepak Khandelwal, whose sisters Chandra and Manju died aboard Flight 182, said he appreciated Judge Major's "frankness and directness" and hopes Ottawa will adopt his proposals.

"I really do hope the Canadian government follows through on the recommendations that he has made so that they can ideally avoid anything like this happening again," he said.

The Major Commission looked at how to fix the fractured relationship between two agencies that were infighting even as terrorists in British Columbia were plotting mass murder. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service was carved out of the RCMP in 1984, a schism that created bad feelings and muddled missions even as robust teamwork was needed to tackle the nascent Air India mass-murder plot.

The release of the final report marks the end of a frustrating odyssey for families of the victims that stretched over more than two decades. They first called for a judicial inquiry into the bombing of the two flights a few years after the explosions in June, 1985. Ottawa was deaf to their pleas, leaving the families to learn about the disaster from inquiries held overseas.

Details emerged from an inquiry in India called immediately after the disaster and from a coroner's inquest in Ireland. More information came out during extradition hearings in Britain to bring suspect Inderjit Singh Reyat back to Canada.

Mr. Reyat, who was convicted of manslaughter in the bombings, remains the only suspect ever convicted of a role in the attacks. Two other accused were brought to trial, but never convicted.

The Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, followed by the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien, repeatedly deferred to the advice of the RCMP who urged politicians to wait for the completion of civil and criminal court proceedings before appointing a commission of inquiry.

Some victims' relatives never stopped calling for an inquiry.

The families got together in the mid-1990s as the police investigation wound down with little to show for its work. Mr. Reyat had been convicted for his role in providing parts for a bomb that exploded at Japan's Narita airport on the same day, killing two baggage handlers and injuring four others. He was later charged and convicted in the Air India bombing.

When the families appeared to be making headway, the RCMP pre-empted the campaign with the announcement of a $1-million reward for information, which lead to Mr. Reyat's conviction in the Air India case. A new team of investigators were appointed. Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were charged with the murder of 329 people in Air India in 2000, but in 2005, a B.C. Supreme Court judge did not find the evidence credible.

After that, the families again demanded an inquiry. The federal government was reluctant. The families finally got a judicial inquiry in the spring of 2006, after the Harper Tories campaigned in a federal election on the promise of appointing a commission.

However even the current inquiry, which looked into the investigation of the bombings rather than criminal responsibility, will not satisfy all the families.

Some say they want a clear understanding of who did it and they want to see the culprits held accountable. The Major Commission did not answer those questions.

Family members have said they feel Ottawa was trying to avoid liability for the disaster in order to avoid compensation claims. Air India paid out compensation to families in the late 1980s, backed up by a fund financed in part by Ottawa. However Ottawa has never acknowledged any liability for the role of its agencies in the disaster.