Air India Fl.182 inquiry

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada

May 10, 2007

The Editor (Letters)
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

Sir:

The Air India Flight 182 inquiry revelations are stunning and embarrassing for Canada. To know that this tragedy could have been averted if only there had been some intelligent decisions made by the RCMP and other airport security officers is unconscionable.

There is no doubt that Canada was naïve then in 1985 about possible acts of international terrorism happening in Canada, and we are still naïve, after 22 years of that possibility.. The Canadian Federal Opposition parties wanting to pull out our brave troops fighting Taliban terrorists out of Afghanistan because 59 of our brave men and a woman died in action, is proof of our naiveté. What we do not understand, or want to understand is that international terrorism is like a deadly octopus with tentacles that could reach any where in the world, and that Canada is not immune to its reach. President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan couldn’t have expressed it better when he said: “If the greatness of a life is measured in deeds done for others, then Canada’s sons and daughters who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan stand among the greatest of their generation…They have sacrificed to ensure the continued safety of their fellow Canadians from terrorism.”

To dismiss that international terrorism like Sikh extremism or Tamil Tiger extremism which have nests in Canada well insulated by some federal parties as just another ethnic thing is stupid. To support their front organizations with charitable status with federal grants should be questioned and audited to find out whether the funds are used to support acts of terrorism in their 'home' countries.

The revelations at the inquiry are proof positive that Canada is not immune to international terrorism. I still wonder whether it would have made a difference if only the signature on the side of the Boeing 747 was AIR CANADA and not AIR INDIA, carrying the 329 Indo-Canadians, even though it was difficult for the majority of Canadians then to accept these unfortunate air-passengers as Canadians and not Indians.