When B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Josephson rendered his decision in the lengthy Air-India trial, most of those packed into the Vancouver courtroom gasped when the not guilty verdict was read out.
The two accused, Ripudaman Singh Malik, 58, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, 55, were found not guilty of conspiring to destroy two airplanes on 23 June 1985, in what was then the worst mass murder in Canadian history. In all, a total of 329 people died when one of the aircraft exploded just off the coast of Ireland. Most of the doomed passengers were Canadians of Indian origin from Ontario, Quebec and B.C. on their way to India following the end of the Canadian school year. Among the dead onboard the ill-fated Air-India flight 182 were six babies, 77 children aged three to 12 years, 59 teenagers, 106 women and 81 men. The other airplane had just landed at Tokyo's Narita Airport when a bomb in one of the off-loaded suitcases exploded and killed two baggage handlers and injured several others.
[In a sidebar to the Narita explosion, the then mayor of Richmond, B.C. had been onboard that Vancouver to Tokyo flight and told me not long after the event that it was a close thing. Had the airplane he was on not made good time as it travelled west, it, too, would have exploded in flight. As it was, the airplane had only just landed and the baggage removed from its belly hold when the terrorists' bomb exploded.]
The death toll from both explosions numbered 331.
After months of trial and hundreds of witnesses had taken the stand, and after mounds of evidence had been presented, Judge Josephson determined that the Crown had not made its case. In the words of Justice Ian Josephson, "Despite what appears to have been the best and most earnest efforts by the police and the Crown, the evidence has fallen markedly short." In other words, the Crown had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the two accused were guilty.
Almost immediately, there were cries for a public inquiry into the affair. Families of the victims demanded a public inquiry with wide latitude to get to the bottom of the case and to determine who, if not the accused, were guilty of the mass murder. A public inquiry, if it comes to pass, will not be hampered by the constraints of a court of law. Even so, some of the witnesses to the run-up to the June 1985 terrorists' attacks have died or have gone to ground fearful for their lives; so, a public inquiry with its ability to root out the truth might not bring closure to the case.
At time of writing, the government of Prime Minister Paul Martin appeared not to be in any hurry to commission a public inquiry; however, the public's clamouring for one might just tip the scales and force Mr. Dithers to come out from behind his screen and do the honourable thing. Although a vast amount of money was spent on the investigation and trial of the Air-India flight 182 case, and inasmuch as some have decried such expenditure as being excessive, the additional cost of a public inquiry ought not to deter the government.
The United States had its 2001 terrorists' attack and the world stood still as thousands of people perished in one of the vilest attacks perpetrated by one group against another group. In 1985, Canada had its own 9/11. Both cases point up the criminal mind that lies buried in the brains of some zealots who think that they and their religion is the true and only religion. How demented they are. There is but one God and that God is God to all. I am sure that He is not amused with the terrorists' attacks in 1985 or in 2001.
While the court in Vancouver might have determined that the evidence presented did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt the guilt of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, God in Heaven knows if they are guilty; if guilty the appropriate punishment will be meted out by God. In any event, those who are guilty - the accused or not - will meet their fate in another place at another time as will those who are still at large following the 2001 terrorists' attack on the USA.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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