Canada was recently described by a wag as "Hamid Ansari
of countries: always needing to remind everyone of its presence". It has
always been content living under the shadows of its big brother neighbour
United States. However the recent adventurism by a gunman inside the parliament
house in Ottawa, has invited the blinding flash bulbs and view finders of 24/7
global media, which the reclusive country may be finding quite unwelcome.
However for Canada it is not its first brush with terrorism,
as many would like us to believe. Many have called it Canada's 'loss of innocence', but the country had its ample share of terror incidents in the past.
Probably the earliest terror attack that originated from Canadian soil was on
June 23, 1985 and in pre-9/11 days it was considered the biggest one in terms of
casualties.
An Air-India Boeing 747-237B originating from Toronto and
bound for Mumbai was destroyed mid-air near Ireland killing 329 people. The
bomb was allegedly planted in a suitcase by Sikh militant outfit Babbar Khalsa to avenge the
raid on Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984. Another bomb laden baggage was sent on a Canadian Pacific flight, later meant to be transhipped to Air-India flight from Tokyo to Bangkok. The bomb, however, went off prematurely killing two baggage handlers at Narita airport near Tokyo.
Among those killed in Mumbai bound flight 268 were Canadian citizens, 27 Britons
and 24 Indians. Quite predictably among the dead Canadians most happened to be
of Indian origin. Hence the Canadian establishment was more eager to perceive it
as an Indian tragedy than admit it as their national tragedy.
While after the current Parliament attack the Canadian government made a brave proclamation that they will not be intimidated by terror strikes,
back in 1985 Canada's conduct while
dealing with the tragedy left a lot to be desired, as was later revealed in a docudrama Air India 182 produced in 2008 by filmmaker Sturla Gunnarsson. After that tragedy the then prime minister, Brian Murloney, got busy sending
condolence to the Indian Government rather than get in touch with the Canadian
families who lost their loved ones. The Canadian Parliament also did not
observe any mourning or issue condolence, thereby hinting that the lives of
Canadians of Indian origin did not matter.
Those were pre-9/11 days and terrorism like tuberculosis was
perceived as a third world disease, which countries such as Lebanon, Sri Lanka
and India had to contend with. The western world they thought was immune to it,
with sole exception of United Kingdom, but even they had to contend with gora terrorists - the IRA.
So Canada just could not come to terms with the fact that a
terror attack originated from its soil and did its level best to live in
denial. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) which was entrusted with the
probe filed its chargesheet 15 years after the tragedy. The retired Canadian Supreme Court judge, John Major, who carried out a long drawn investigation made it amply clear that Canada's intelligence and police services had enough hints to suspect that Khalistan groups were planning a major operation targeting Air India, but they did not do enough to prevent it.
The explosives that blew up Air India were allegedly planted
by extremists in luggage that was loaded in Vancouver, but only one person
has ever been convicted in relation to the tragedy.
Inderjit Singh Reyat, who assembled the explosives, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2003
and received a five-year sentence. The suspected ringleader, Talwinder Singh Parmar, died in India in 1992 allegedly after a police encounter and the RCMP's two
main surviving suspects were both acquitted in March 2005 after a 19-month
trial.
Thus for the next of kin of those who died in
that tragedy all this provides little consolation.
Also Read: Bangalore Beat
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