The Air India disaster remains one of the blackest moments in Canadian history. Homemade explosives were put on two flights leaving Vancouver airport on the morning of June 22, 1985. The bombs exploded early the next morning on opposite sides of the world, killing 331 people. Canada’s security service failed to thwart the terrorists before they went to the airport. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police failed to track down enough evidence to convict more than one suspect. Canadian politicians failed to push for answers with the vigour that was required. More than 20 years later, Canadians are still searching for an accounting of what really happened and why authorities could not bring mass murderers to justice.
Two books this fall remind readers of the horror. Both make valuable contributions to the debate over the continuing controversies. Unfortunately neither will satisfy those searching for answers. The authors promise new information, but the revelations turn out...
Robert Matas is a journalist, formerly of The Globe and Mail, based in Vancouver. He has written extensively about the missing women of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, the Robert Pickton trial and British Columbia’s Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.
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