Books in Canada
He Air-India bombing in 1985 stood at the time not only as the worst terrorist incident in Canadian history but as the most deadly aviation attack in the world. Twenty years later the perpetrators of the attack remain largely unpunished. The failure to detect, prevent, or effectively prosecute the perpetrators of the attack is a stark indictment of Canada's criminal justice system. The failures are the more remarkable given the extensive warning signs that were available to politicians and law enforcement personnel before the attacks. The Canadian government was repeatedly urged by Sikh moderates and other South Asians to crack down on Sikh militants who made no secret of their endorsement of violence to secure a "free" Punjab or Khalistan. Instead politicians rewarded militant platforms, and such was the ease with which extremists secured admission to this country that Sikhs with no political affiliations were known to use bogus claims of militant links to secure successful refugee claims.
Canadians who follow the news cannot help but be familiar with the debacle that was the Air-India investigation, but Bolan's account is still astonishing in terms of the sheer magnitude of the incompetence it lays bare. The Air-India bombing was simply the most dramatic and lethal of the actions of Sikh militants; there were many other occasions on which law enforcement agencies might have intervened to prosecute a pattern of violence, intimidation of Sikh moderates and others who criticised their activities. Bolan, winner of the 1999 Courage in Journalism Award for her coverage of the issue, was herself under regular police protection. The militants were not shy to advertise their intentions and didn't hesitate to literally wave their swords in the air in public demonstrations. In multicultural Canada this invited no sanction.
Bolan provides a detailed account of the background, the botched investigation, the failure to secure convictions in the recent trial and the devastating impact on the victims' families. What the book lacks is sufficient attention to the ‘why' of the failure of the justice system. This is unfortunate since Canada appears to have learned little from the experience; it continues to imperil Canadians through an immigration and refugee determination process that facilitates the relocation of foreign terrorist struggles to Canadian soil. A weak legal framework, a Charter-driven legal system, incoherent interagency investigation, and high-priced legal talent will serve the next generation of terrorists as well as they served the last. Canadian politicians remain more anxious to curry ethnic support than to defend Canada's integrity. Bolan underscores the difficulty of fighting "against powerful people with connections at the highest political level in Canada." The task of critical analysis is the more urgent since the agreement to an Air-India inquiry has been accompanied by terms of reference that ensure that while law enforcement agencies will receive further (and well-merited) opprobrium, the politicians, whose policies created the context, will be free from scrutiny.
Canada continues to give little attention to the potential security dangers posed by would-be immigrants and refugees. It fails to remove even those who are deemed a threat and whose claims are denied. Both the laws and their enforcement are inadequate in this country. It is salutary to recall that when Abdullah Khadr, alleged to have actively assisted Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, by, among other things, purchasing weapons that could be used against Canadian soldiers, recently returned to Canada from Pakistan, it was the FBI that sought his extradition to face charges under American law. The RCMP had the same information but had taken no action.
Martin Loney (Books in Canada)
Product Description
Riveting and shocking,
Loss of Faith is essential reading for all Canadians.
On June 23, 1985, Canada found itself on the international terrorism map when two bombs built in B.C. detonated within an hour of each other on opposite sides of the world, killing 329 men, women, and children.
Canadian Sikh separatists, upset at the Indian government for attacking their religion’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, were immediately suspected by the RCMP of perpetrating the worst act of aviation terrorism before Sept. 11, 2001. But while police agencies scrambled to infiltrate a close-knit immigrant community and collect evidence against the suspects, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was destroying taped telephone calls between the same people the RCMP was investigating.
For years those at the centre of the terrorist plot tried to protect their dark secret. Two Sikh newspaper publishers who overheard an alleged confession by one of the bombers were assassinated. Other potential witnesses were threatened and intimidated. Journalists who wrote about the suspects were targeted by death threats and harassment. The suspects founded charities and participated in political parties, attending fundraising dinners for premiers and prime ministers. And the families of the victims fought to be recognized for their unimaginable loss as the result of an act of terrorism plotted in Canada. When charges were finally laid against three Sikh separatists, the families believed justice was almost theirs. But their faith was shaken when one suspect pleaded guilty to manslaughter and got a five-year sentence for more than three hundred deaths.
The Air-India trial judge spoke in his ruling of the “the senseless horror” of the bombings. He called the plot “a diabolical act of terrorism” with “roots in fanaticism at its basest and most inhumane level.” He then acquitted Sikh leaders Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri on all charges, leaving the victims’ families reeling and the biggest case in Canadian history officially unsolved.
Kim Bolan is an award-winning investigative reporter who has covered the Air-India bombing case since the day Flight 182 went down off the coast of Ireland. Her work on the Air-India story has taken her to Punjab five times over the last twenty years where she met with militant Sikh separatist leaders and victims of the violence. She also followed Air-India mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar to Pakistan before his 1992 slaying and chased down other suspects in England and across Canada. But she faced the most danger at home in Vancouver where the stories she uncovered about the Air-India case led to a series of death threats against her.
