A former diplomat, who stunned the Air India inquiry with his statement that he had seen intelligence warning of an attack, has apologised to the families of the victims but ruled out quitting as Ontario's Lieutenant-Governor.

James Bartleman had on Thursday testified before the inquiry commission that he possessed intelligence that indicated an attack on the airline was imminent just days before the 1985 bombing.

Bartleman read a brief statement to media persons on Friday, a day after he told the inquiry he waited two decades to come forward because he thought police were acting appropriately on his information.

No one could have imagined that questions surrounding the case will carry on for two decades, he said.

'I am aware of the great pain the families of the victims must be feeling as more and more revelations come out at the commission of inquiry and I am deeply sorry about that,' Bartleman said, adding he wanted to reiterate why he had not come forward before now.

'First of all, I acted immediately 23-years-ago on seeing the document in question. This document contained highly classified information. Within five minutes of seeing that document I was showing it, by hand, to a senior RCMP officer in a position to take action.

'I had no doubt whatsoever that the RCMP did not assess it and take appropriate action. Families of Air-India victims say they have suspected for the past 22 years that something could have been done to avert the tragedy.'

Bartleman, the former head of security and intelligence at Foreign Affairs, said he gave the information to the RCMP and was told the force already knew about it.

'The basic point is, I had nothing further to add to the RCMP,' Bartleman said, adding, 'They had the information. I had confirmed it with them before the tragic event.'

After a public inquiry was recommended, Bartleman said he believed he could be of assistance.

'I thought it was my civic duty to tell the commission what I knew whatever the consequences,' he said.

Bartleman did not take questions from media persons saying he had been advised against it while the inquiry continues. His lawyer, Paul Cavalluzzo, said Bartleman will definitely not be stepping down as Lieutenant-Governor.

There were numerous threats that existed at that particular point in time, he said. The information that Bartleman observed was an intercept of the highest classified nature and had far more specificity than the other threats. That is why he immediately acted.

That information likely would have gone to CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) as well, he added.         

Such revelations confirm the suspicions of families who lost loved ones in the 1985 bombing. Bal Gupta, chair of the Air-India Victims' Families Association, said he was stunned to begin with and then the grief took over.

'When I realised that if the authorities took the right action that tragedy could have been averted,' he said.

'It was a shock and then slowly it sank in and the feeling was what if? If they took any real action there would not have been an Air India 182 bombing. I guess they ignored all the warnings, which were as specific as they could be and that has been proven during this week's testimony.'

Bartleman likely won't be the last to come forward with such information, Gupta said.

'We shall wait. There will be other people. We hope somebody else will come up,' he said.

Former Ontario premier Bob Rae, who led an earlier probe into the 1985 Air-India bombing, did not seem surprised by Bartleman's stunning revelations.

'I think what the public is hearing, in a very, perhaps an abrupt way, is what I think has been pretty clear to people who have studied this for a long time, and that is that there really was a problem of communication between different levels of government, different departments, different agencies, the RCMP and CSIS,' he told CTV Newsnet.

'I think that now Canadians are realising that what took place was a preventable tragedy, a terrible disaster and something that we have to do everything we can to make sure it does not happen again.'

Air India's Flight 182 left Toronto on June 22, 1985, and went down the next morning off the coast of Ireland, the victim of a terrorist bomb that took 329 lives.