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Canada was slow to recognize the Air India tragedy and the fact that the Sikh terrorists behind the plot were from British Columbia made it even more distant and difficult, the chief of Air India inquiry commission has said.
Justice John Major, who presided over the Air India inquiry commission that concluded its hearing earlier this week, said that he "did not imagine at first that it was a plane full almost entirely of Canadians."
"The fact that the Sikh terrorists behind the plot were from British Columbia made it even more distant and difficult for those in Toronto and Ottawa to understand that it was a Canadian tragedy," Major said in Toronto on Tuesday.
He said that the horror of the tragedy just kept nagging away to the point where it seemed like it could not possibly be real.
"Is this kind of science fiction? Do these things really happen in Canada?" he recalled thinking. "Your mind goes a little numb."
"It really is something that should have been known," he said. "But this came as a surprise."
Major still remembers hearing about the bombing on the news and that it was a Sunday morning. In his mind, he linked it to the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi a few months back and to the raid on the Golden Temple in June 1984.
He said he has had positive feedback on the value of the judicial inquiry, instituted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper following the acquittals of two British Columbian Sikh separatists in the terror plot in March 2005.
Major said that he has heard from many people who believe that "this is one inquiry that should be happening." His 13 years on the Supreme Court of Canada were very different from his role heading the Air India inquiry commission.
"This is far more human... In the Supreme Court, the questions are important to the people involved, but it is a very sterile environment. It gets to be an academic exercise," he said. "You seldom hear a case like Air India."
There were long breaks in the inquiry as his staff tussled with federal government departments over the release of secret documents from the country's national police force -- Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
While Major thinks they "got as much as we needed," he does not think they got it all. "You just get the feeling that over 20 years, there must be so much more."
He expects to spend several months writing his report. The inquiry is likely to resume in February for a few days of hearings, just so the parties can respond in open court to final submissions.
Major did not want to comment on what might be in the report, except that he said he would have to address the problem of information-sharing between CSIS and the RCMP.
He heard months of testimony about how the CSIS was reluctant to provide intelligence gathered under its mandate to police for criminal cases, which had a huge impact on the Air India investigation.
While some witnesses from both agencies said the situation has improved, former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli told the inquiry that there remains a serious problem that requires legislative change. "Zaccardelli had nothing to gain by making those comments," Major said.
Major also noted that other countries have much more transparent security agencies than Canada has. "It is so strange when you hear that in other countries, national security is not clothed in darkness," Major said.
Several witnesses commented about the Sikh parade in Surrey last April, at which several floats carried photographs of Air India mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar, honouring him as a martyr.
Elected officials from all parties and all levels of government attended the parade.
The Air India inquiry has brought home the tragedy of the June 23, 1985, bombing to Canadians like never before, Major had said on Monday.
Major said that much of the evidence he heard in the last 16 months of testimony that ended last week was extremely important for his mandate. "But the most significant part of the inquiry may well be the greater understanding Canadians have about the devastating terrorist plot that killed 331 people."
"I hope it is true that Canadians finally understand what really happened," Major said in an interview.
The most difficult evidence to hear was that of the victims' families, said Major, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of Canada who was appointed head of the Air India inquiry commission in May 2006.
"Those stories were very emotional. You couldn't help but associate yourself with them. It was such a meaningless loss of life... the absolute random killing of them all and our own inability to stop it," Major said.
He lamented the loss to Canada of so many young adults and children with bright futures, killed when Air India Flight 182 was brought down by a terrorist bomb off Ireland coast.