On March 16, 2005, a B.C.Supreme Court judge acquitted Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri on eight charges related to the bombing of Air India Flight 182 on June 22, 1985. It was Canada's worst case of mass murder – 329 people were killed. Two baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita Airport died in another connected bombing.
The investigation and prosecution of the accused has been the costliest in Canadian history, estimated at about $130 million.
It all started almost 20 years ago.
To be Canadian, eh? What a freaking joke.
Some passengers actually survived the 747's fall from 31,000 feet only to drown in the frigid waters of the Atlantic.
Three hundred and twenty-nine people are killed. Eighty-two of them are children. Most of the people aboard Air India Flight 182 are Canadian citizens.
By the numbers:
329: people killed, 82 of them children.
$130 million: estimated cost of the investigation and prosecution of the accused.
$7 million: cost of building a high-security courtroom for the trial.
$460,000: paid by the RCMP to a controversial witness called "John" in return for his testimony.
115: witnesses testified at the trial.
19 months: of testimony.
3 weeks: for the Crown to complete its closing arguments.
150 hours: of taped conversations with Sikh informants destroyed by former CSIS agent who feared Mounties would fail to protect identities of informants.
15 years: between the 1985 explosion and the laying of charges in 2000.
31,000 feet: distance passengers fell to the Atlantic Ocean after their plane exploded.
Reaction to the verdict:
I am stunned and deeply disappointed by Justice Ian Bruce Josephson’s verdict in the case of Air India flight 182 today. Once again, the victims’ families must feel devastated and violated.
I feel that my government and the custodians of our justicial system have failed me and all Canadians miserably. Ultimately, I don't believe that they were ever able to see the largest mass murder in Canadian history as anything more than a marginal and "ethnic" crime.
Would it have taken 20 years for a verdict if the plane that exploded over Cork, Ireland, on June 23, 1985, had been an Air France, British Airways or an Air Italia flight? Would the federal government have continuously quashed calls for a public inquiry if flight 182 was an El-Al flight?
I have wondered this many times.
I have also wondered if the RCMP and CSIS would have conducted themselves in a more professional manner by sharing information and preserving key evidence if the perpetrators and victims here had been white and not brown.
Aparna Kurl | Ottawa, Ontario
Any thoughts?
The investigation and prosecution of the accused has been the costliest in Canadian history, estimated at about $130 million.
It all started almost 20 years ago.
To be Canadian, eh? What a freaking joke.
Some passengers actually survived the 747's fall from 31,000 feet only to drown in the frigid waters of the Atlantic.
Three hundred and twenty-nine people are killed. Eighty-two of them are children. Most of the people aboard Air India Flight 182 are Canadian citizens.
By the numbers:
329: people killed, 82 of them children.
$130 million: estimated cost of the investigation and prosecution of the accused.
$7 million: cost of building a high-security courtroom for the trial.
$460,000: paid by the RCMP to a controversial witness called "John" in return for his testimony.
115: witnesses testified at the trial.
19 months: of testimony.
3 weeks: for the Crown to complete its closing arguments.
150 hours: of taped conversations with Sikh informants destroyed by former CSIS agent who feared Mounties would fail to protect identities of informants.
15 years: between the 1985 explosion and the laying of charges in 2000.
31,000 feet: distance passengers fell to the Atlantic Ocean after their plane exploded.
Reaction to the verdict:
I am stunned and deeply disappointed by Justice Ian Bruce Josephson’s verdict in the case of Air India flight 182 today. Once again, the victims’ families must feel devastated and violated.
I feel that my government and the custodians of our justicial system have failed me and all Canadians miserably. Ultimately, I don't believe that they were ever able to see the largest mass murder in Canadian history as anything more than a marginal and "ethnic" crime.
Would it have taken 20 years for a verdict if the plane that exploded over Cork, Ireland, on June 23, 1985, had been an Air France, British Airways or an Air Italia flight? Would the federal government have continuously quashed calls for a public inquiry if flight 182 was an El-Al flight?
I have wondered this many times.
I have also wondered if the RCMP and CSIS would have conducted themselves in a more professional manner by sharing information and preserving key evidence if the perpetrators and victims here had been white and not brown.
Aparna Kurl | Ottawa, Ontario
Any thoughts?
