Air India first received communication of the incident and reached out to Director of Air Safety, Mr. H.S. Khosla, who was appointed Inspector of Accidents to carry out investigations into the air crash.
While search and rescue operations were under way at Cork, a team of officials rushed from India to Cork and was joined by Mr. Kiran Doshi, the Indian ambassador to Ireland, officers of the Indian Navy who were attached to the Indian High Commission at London and two medical experts.
Canadian police believed that one of the suspects, Talwinder Singh Parmar, the Vancouver-based founder of the Babbar Khalsa terrorist group had masterminded the attack, but charges against him were ultimately dropped. He was later killed by police in India. Two suspects who were put on trial, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, were alleged to be involved with a Sikh separatist movement fighting for an independent Khalistan, or the Sikh homeland, in India.
This has strengthened the view that the bombings were an act of retaliation for the Indian state’s atrocities against Sikh separatists in the 1970s and 1980s, the Indian Army’s storming of Sri Darbar Sahib (the Golden Temple) in “Operation Blue Star” (June 6, 1984) and the Indian National Congress government’s complicity in the anti-Sikh violence in India (October 31–November 4, 1984) following the assassination of PM Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards (October 31, 1984).
The British Columbia Supreme Court acquitted both Malik and Bagri. Inderjit Singh Reyat, who made the bombs, was the only person convicted of manslaughter in 2003.
Download the complete text of the judgement
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Following the acquittal of Malik and Bagri, in March 2005, Bob Rae (former Ontario premier), was appointed to provide independent advice to the Minister of Public Safety on whether there remain outstanding questions of public interest.
In November 2005, Rae submitted his federal investigation report recommending that a focused, policy-based inquiry be held to deal with questions from this mass murder that remain unresolved, such as Canada’s assessment of the threat, the role of intelligence and police forces in managing the investigation and airport safety regulations.
Describing the Air India bombing as “a profoundly Canadian event,” Rae’s report recommended that families should be provided with the necessary resources to have input into the inquiry.
Read Lessons to be Learned: The Report of the Honourable Bob Rae, Independent Advisor to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness on Outstanding Questions with Respect to the Bombing of Air India Flight 182.
In 2005, the Canadian government declared June 23rd as a National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism to recognize those who have lost their lives through acts of terror in Canada and around the world.
Read the proclamation of June 23 as National Day
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On May 1, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the launch of an inquiry into the investigation of the Flight 182 bombing, by retired Supreme Court Justice John C. Major. The Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182 submitted its final, 5-volume report.
The inquiry concluded that the bombing was “a Canadian Tragedy” and “the largest mass murder in Canadian history” with recommendations to make amends to victims’ families for the poor treatment they received in the tragedy’s aftermath.
Read the final report
Prior to the beginning of the official inquiry, families and witnesses were invited to present their testimonies before the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182.
This preliminary report was published as The Families Remember. It includes personal stories about victims and rescuers, the response of the people of Cork in Ireland, Canada’s response to the bombing, and the continuing grief of family members.
Read the complete report
Dr. Sherene H. Razack’s expert witness testimony for the Inquiry was commissioned by a lawyer for the families of those killed in the bombings on whether or not systemic racism played a role in the pre-bombing threat assessment, as well as in the post-bombing response.
This report is not included in the official 5-volume report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182. It is included here to fill the gap in the official government archive.
Sherene H. Razack,. “The Impact of Systemic Racism on Canada’s Pre-Bombing Threat Assessment and Post-Bombing Response to the Air India Bombing. Report submitted to the Inquiry of the Bombing of Air India, 2007. Remembering Air India: The Art of Public Mourning, edited by Chandrima Chakraborty, Amber Dean, and Angela Failler, U of Alberta Press, 2017, pp. 85-117.
PM Harper apologized for Canada’s “institutional failings” and “the treatment of the victims’ families thereafter.” The Air India apology, as it has become known, expressed regret for the past actions of the Canadian government and a commitment to looking forward with renewed hope made possible through increased security and a focus on anti-terrorism.
The apology was a welcome and significant gesture for acknowledging families’ trauma and decades-long grievances, and for recognizing state culpability. However, issues related to systemic racism in Canada’s understanding of and response to the tragedy were ignored, as the focus remained on the perils of terrorism.
The apology is available in text through the archived news statements on the Government of Canada website:
Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)
On June 23, 2010, six days after the release of the scathing public inquiry report, PM Stephen Harper offered a formal apology on behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians at the Humber Bay Park, Etobicoke, Ontario, Air India memorial site.
The federal government apology came on the 25th anniversary of the bombings.
In 2011, the Kanishka Project was launched, named after the Air India Boeing 747 that was bombed on June 23, 1985. The airplane was named after the Kushan dynasty emperor Kanishka.
It was a research initiative to fund communities of multidisciplinary researchers that would address the intelligence gaps that were, in part, responsible for the bombing of Air India Flight 182, as well as domestic and foreign terror threats that emerged following the events on September 11, 2001.
The government initially funded the Kanishka Project with a total of $10 million over five years. An additional $1.3 million allocated from remaining ex gratia payments to families of the Kanishka Project also provided funding in the amount of $3.7 million over five years to existing research initiatives such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant Program and the SSHRC Partnership Grant Program, both of which funded scholarly work in areas of terrorism and counter-terrorism. In total, the Kanishka Project funded close to 70 projects.