The Harper government's Air India Action Plan is being met with disappointment by relatives of those who died in the 1985 bombing for failing to include clear pledges to act on the specific recommendations from June's public inquiry report into the largest mass murder in Canadian history.
While Public Safety Minister Vic Toews criticized one of the commission's main proposals - the creation of a national security czar - he insisted Ottawa will, in time, act on many of the other recommendations.
Calling it a "road map," the government's response to the June report by the commissioner, former Supreme Court justice John Major, outlines six broad themes where the government has acted and will go further to enhance Canada's national security.
The government is pledging to reform the criminal trial process to prevent long, drawn-out mega-trials, to change the witness protection program to make it better suited to terrorism cases, and strengthen authorities' ability to stop money from being funnelled to terrorists.
It also plans improvements to co-operation between intelligence agencies, the way intelligence is gathered and disclosed in court, and aviation security.
The plan is silent on many of the 64 recommendations Mr. Major made in June.
Mr. Toews noted the government has already begun to improve security at airports through new funding and proposed new laws. He also promised new legislation on the rules for sharing intelligence between security agencies.
Representatives of the victims' families noted that in addition to lacking clear policy pledges, Ottawa has yet to conclude negotiations toward financial compensation.
"It kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth," said Rob Alexander, who was 15 when his father - Dr. Mathew Alexander - was killed in the bombing of Air India Flight 182, which left 329 people dead, including 280 Canadians. "Everyone's a little upset right now."
The inquiry, which studied the events before and after the bombing but also focused on security gaps that continued decades later, concluded that Canada's security agencies had a great deal of information before the bombing that should have led to greater vigilance. The commissioner also said the investigation was hampered by a lack of co-operation between the RCMP and Canada's spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, a problem Mr. Major reported "is continuing to this day."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared the findings a "damning indictment" in June, and promised to respond positively to the recommendations, including the call for compensation.
Mr. Major also said Ottawa should report on which of the commission's recommendations have been implemented, which have been rejected and which are subject to further study.
On Tuesday, Mr. Major noted that the government did not do so.
"I'm vitally interested in what follows," he said.
Mr. Toews, who released the action plan in Ottawa with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, insisted that future action - including legislative proposals - will follow. He also promised updates every six months.
"There are 3,000 pages in that report. There are 64 specific recommendations. We are committed to implementing those recommendations," he said. "This is a complex issue and we've taken every possible step that we could to date and we will continue."
He did say, however, that a national security czar is not needed because his office and the Prime Minister's national security adviser do the co-ordinating work.
"We are not about to set up a new bureaucracy in terms of addressing this issue," he said.
Mr. Major said he did not think that creating a security adviser would require a significant new bureaucracy, but rather the refocusing of existing offices and staff. He declined to say more because the commission's work is complete and it would be inappropriate to comment on specifics.
Ron Atkey, who headed the independent oversight body for CSIS - the Security Intelligence Review Committee - from 1984 to 1989 and has taught national security law, called the government's response disappointing. Mr. Atkey originally sided with critics of the idea of a national security adviser, but now says people with inside experience persuaded him it's needed.
"This response is not overwhelming because it doesn't deal with the national security czar proposal, which Major and his staff had thought about long and hard and which has a lot of support within the security intelligence community," he said.
Bill Curry