Family members of Air India flight bombing victims disturbed by glorification of terror attack ‘mastermind’

Toronto: Family members of the victims of the terrorist bombing of Air India flight 182, the Kanishka, are extremely disturbed by attempts to glorify the attack’s “mastermind”, which they say is due to an absence of pushback against pro-Khalistan elements from Canada’s political class.

Mourners at a memorial service for the victims of the bombing of Air India flight 182, in Vancouver, Canada on June 23. (Supplied photo)

That bombing of the Kanishka occurred on June 23, 1985 and claimed 329 lives and remains the worst-ever incident of terror in Canadian history. But, as the outlet Globe and Mail reported on the eve of the anniversary of the bombing, a portrait of the mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar hangs in the dining room of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, while he is also featured on a “massive billboard” in the town.

That, family members believe, is because pro-Khalistan elements have been emboldened by a lack of action from the government or criticism from Canadian politicians. The Public Inquiry clearly stated he (Parmar) was the mastermind who planned the bombing. They (the pro-Khalistan elements) are trying to fill a vacuum that exists through misinformation,” reacted Deepak Khandelwal, who was just 17 when he lost his sisters Chandra and Manju in the tragedy.

The Canadian prime minister’s office issued a boilerplate statement on the anniversary, which is recognised in the country as the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism. But, Khandelwal said, they were otherwise ignored, as he explained, “The PM’s office didn’t even respond to our request to attend the memorial service.”

Parmar’s glorification is increasing as the next phase of the so-called Khalistan Referendum organised by the secessionist Sikhs for Justice on July 28 in Calgary, is dedicated to him.

Professor Chandrima Chakraborty, who is curating an archive of the tragedy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said, “The negligence and mistreatment of the families continues in the government’s inability and unwillingness to address the rise of Khalistani rhetoric.”

Nor has the Canadian media called out the increase in such activity. As Shinder Purewal, a political scientist with the Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, said, “Canadian media, which had turned against them (the Khalistanis) in 1980s and 1990s, is now following anti-India (in the name of anti-Modi) Western narrative.”

Canada has accepted the role Parmar played. Former Justice of Canada’s Supreme Court John Major headed a commission of inquiry into it and submitted a comprehensive report in 2010. In an interview with this correspondent in 2017, he said, “No doubt that he was either the ­mastermind or one of the masterminds and the evidence we heard made him clearly a top person in that operation. Whether there was somebody who ­secretly gave him orders, we don’t know. What we know, Parmar was the leader.”

An earlier report was submitted by Bob Rae, currently Canada’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, in 2005, when he was Independent Advisor to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. The report stated, “In his March 2005 judgment, Justice Josephson of the British Columbia Supreme Court concluded that one of the leaders of the conspiracy was Talwinder Singh Parmar.”

That reference was to Justice Ian Stephenson who presided over the Kanishka trial. Parmar, who lived in Burnaby, BC, was never tried in Canada as he was killed in an encounter with police in the northern Indian state of Punjab in 1992.

Part of the reason Canadian politicians can ignore the tragedy is that it has been erased from public memory. In June last year, survey released by the non-profit, public polling agency Angus Reid Institute (ARI) noted their study found that “nine-in-ten Canadians say they have little (61%) or no (28%) knowledge of the worst single instance of the mass killing of their fellow citizens, with three-in-five (58%) of those younger than 35 saying they have never even heard of it”.