A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
Thirty years ago this June 23rd, an Air India flight, carrying 329 passengers and crew, took off on Canadian soil and was blown to pieces by a bomb planted on board above the seas off Ireland, killing them all.
A piece of the Air India jet found floating in the north Atlantic 30 years ago this June
Thirty years later, it remains (in terms of high loss of human life alone) the worst act of domestic terrorism ever perpetrated on Canadian soil. And what is more than scandalous 30 years later, not one of the perpetrators of this horrific crime have been brought to justice yet – even though it is fairly well known, through various investigations and a public inquiry that ultimately went no where, who one or more of these perpetrators are.
Isn’t it something how quickly the Harper government can act to get a draconian anti-terrorist law (C-51) passed, less than a year after some domestic wack job murdered a sentry on duty at Canada’s tomb of the unknown soldier, then walked into the halls of the federal parliament wielding a gun before he was gunned down.
Could it be that Harper and company drew up and passed this law – an act many constitutional scholars in Canada fear compromises our civil liberties – so fast because there they were, huddled behind doors, with a gunman on the other side, hunting them down?
Boy, we sure don’t see that kind of response from this Harper government on the mounting numbers of aboriginal women and girls that have gone murdered and missing, do we? And where is Harper’s response to make true restitution for the victims of residential schools?
I am going to pose a few thoughts that the Harperites, who will surely work to vote this rancid bunch back to another term of power, won’t like to here.
I think that if that Air India flight, which was mostly boarded by Canadian citizens of Indian ancestry, was an Air Canada flight full of affluent white people, the perpetrators of this crime would have been tried and sentenced to life in prison a long time ago.
I also think that the failure to, once and for all, solve this crime is a reason why you continue to read and hear that our American neighbours in homeland security do not trust Canada’s intelligence and law officers to do their part to track down the real bad guys.
Which finally brings me to this June 23rd, with the current prime minister of India in Canada with Harper, playing out a commemoration service on the 30th anniversary of this crime.
It is hard not to think that this is just one more opportunity, prior to this coming October’s federal election, to play up terrorism and fan the flames of fear, in a contemptuous effort to draw Canadian voters’ attention from the real issues – jobs, health care, the infrastructure needs of our communities and climate change, just to mention a few.
It is obscene that this government, which pretends to be so tough on crime, has never solved this most horrific of terrorist crimes committed on Canadian soil, and is using the 30th anniversary of it as a crass political stunt and photo op.
- For more information on this issue, click on this – CBC Digital Archives: The Air India investigation
(Niagara At Large now invites all of you care to share your real first and last name to respond to this post below.)
Niagara At Large 
A friend was adopting two orphans from India and his sister was to sign for the adoption and be the escort. At the last minute she called and informed him one of the adoptive parents must come. As he was leaving his home, the phone rang and the authorities changed their mind again or he would have been on it. He would have been dead, his wife a widow, his children fatherless and two children still orphans. More is destroyed than just the victims.
I do know people who had friends on that plane. To me it is beyond comprehension that innocent people who have nothing to do with these people’s grievances are the victims instead of the people who are to blame. Only cowards do such things.
True that aboriginals or others that Harper seems to consider beneath his notice are expendable yet he has the audacity to lay a wreath on this sad anniversary while the perpetrators remain free (except for one killed in India)!!!! In Holland last month he basked in the glory of the Liberators. Our arrogant hero! How many aboriginal families will never know what happened to their daughters? MacKay gets a free ride on a rescue helicopter while an Inuit boy freezes to death after getting lost on the ice. The rationale…the helicopter MIGHT be needed for an emergency…which the Inuit boy obviously was not. Everything his government does is self serving.
Mr “Tough on Crime” is a big phony. He reminds me of the Pillsbury Dough Boy (no offense to Pop’n’Fresh). As they say in Texas, all hat and no cattle. The only time he takes any action is when it is in self interest. A gunman appears and he hides in the closet. His anti crime and anti terror stance is simply to prey on the fears (largely imagined) of the electorate. He’s the guy who will protect us. When pigs fly!
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He says that he supports the military , so after 8 years where are the new frigates, where are the new jets,, maybe he is playing with them in his spacious basement. Why did he not buy the ships that are already built for the Russian navy by the French , but after Putin invaded Ukraine , the French will not sell them or deliver them. Those ships are Arctic ready, the Stephen Harper, the man is a puffed up gas bag. taking his talking points from his idol, another hypocrite Dick Cheney, the real President of the U.S during the Iraq war.
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