For the last few years, I have had some success in placing op/eds about Air India 182 with mainstream news organizations. But not this year. (My thanks to those prior editors for their interest.)
My late mother would have urged me to post this myself. And so here is my op/ed that wasn’t.
Sculptor: Ken Thompson (Cork)
Photographer unknown
As the month of June unfolds, two lines from Arthur Symons’ In Fountain Court beckon: “The fountain murmuring of sleep, a drowsy tune … Peace, through a slumbering afternoon, the peace of June.”
Nearly thirty-seven years ago, that peace was irrevocably shattered for too many Canadians. On 23 June 1985, a bomb on Air India 182 exploded while the plane was in flight off the coast of Ireland, killing all on board. It was the outcome of a terrorist plot conceived and executed from within Canada.
The passenger list would later confirm that of the 329 victims, Canadians were the majority: 280 were lost that day including 137 youth under the age of 18, and of those, 82 were under the age of 13. Yet Canadian reaction at time was muted. That the victims were Canadians of Indian origin seemed sufficient reason for apathy. Even as it became evident that this was terrorism—the culprits were a few extremists whose grievance was with the Indian government of the day—the mass murder barely registered among Canadian politicians and public alike.
It would be twenty years before a Canadian government summoned the resolve to do better.
In 2005, the Honourable Bob Rae was tasked with exploring those painful events to determine if a wider public inquiry would be appropriate. His final report, Lessons to be Learned, admirably probes the horror unleashed that day, compounded by Canadian indifference. Rae recommended that a more fulsome inquiry was necessary.
In 2006, retired Supreme Court Justice John Major was appointed to lead that monumental task. Recognizing the importance of providing victims’ families with a voice, to give them an opportunity to be heard, Major released the first report The Families Remember in 2007. As he wrote then:
Entire families were lost, others were emotionally destroyed by the death of their loved ones, fracturing their home lives….The publication of this report will mark the first opportunity for Canadians, and particularly young Canadians, to be able to fully understand the tragedy that befell many of their fellow citizens over 22 years ago.
These are not easy stories to read. The pages that follow are permeated with an ineffable sadness that is emotionally draining, but the examples of courage and determination that are related through the narratives illustrate the strength that accompanied the desolation of the victims’ families.
But those stories of lives young and old, the depth of the grief endured by their families, even the vivid portrayal of the gruesome recovery-operation by Irish and British seamen who valiantly pulled bodies out the water, did not leave a lasting impact in Canadian awareness of the tragedy. Despite Major’s express hope that young Canadians then, who are well into adulthood now, would understand what happened that day and the unimaginable pain endured by those left to grieve, June 23 largely passes unnoticed.
It will be said that the date was given due reverence by its declaration as a National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism, expressly because of the bombing of Air India 182. Yet the reality is that such recognition came twenty years after the bombing. Cultivating memory after the fact is inordinately difficult.
But last year, two individuals within Parliament humanized the date. Independent Senator Paula Simons gave a touching speech to her senate colleagues, sharing her own recollections of that fateful day, and then-MP Bob Saroya (Markham-Unionville), who lost two family members in the bombing, honoured all the victims through his remarks in the House of Commons.
By coincidence, June 23 also marks the official start of the summer recess for the Government of Canada. That irony has been lost on successive Canadian governments—that the victims and MPs alike chose June 23 as the day to return to the place of their roots, to connect with loved ones.
This year, all Parliamentarians could emulate Saroya and Simons with meaningful recognition—a moment of silence—in memory of those lost and those left behind to grieve. Every year, before MPs leave the seat of government, let them remember that those Canadian families who boarded Air India 182 so many years ago, were only seeking the same comfort as our MPs: to be with friends and family in the communities we hold dear.
Update:
While not covered by Canadian media, at the behest of MP Taleeb Noormohamed (who had worked closely with Bob Rae in the initial inquiry into the bombing), a moment of silence was observed at the House of Commons with some victims’ family members in attendance. As described by Anirudh Bhattacharya (the Hindustan Times), Bal Gupta (chair of the Air India 182 Victims Families Association) expressed appreciation for the government’s action that day.
But there remains more work to be done. As noted by Bhattacharya. Deepak Khandelwal, who lost his sisters Chandra and Manju, had this to add:
Canada has not done a really good job of keeping this in the mind of Canadians.
Remembering June 23 