Politicians and police did not appreciate the danger Sikh extremists in Canada presented at the time of the Air India bombing and did not take warnings seriously, Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh told the Air India inquiry Wednesday.
Dosanjh, who represents the Vancouver South riding, spoke out publicly against Sikh extremism in Canada while a lawyer and activist in the early and mid-1980s. He was hospitalized in 1985 after being beaten by a Sikh extremist wielding an iron bar.
"If you have two brown guys arguing, it becomes a tribal issue," Dosanjh told the inquiry in Ottawa, which is examining the investigation into the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182 that killed 329 people, including 82 children.
"Those assaults and those threats, people in power and people out of power felt they weren't happening to Canadians."
Dosanjh, a former NDP premier of British Columbia and a former Liberal federal cabinet minister, recalled that he never got an answer from then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney when he wrote to warn him of the gravity of the problem in 1985.
The letter was sent just two months before a bomb destroyed the plane as it was en route from Canada to India. Among the victims were 280 Canadian citizens, mostly born in India or of Indian descent.
Dosanjh also told the inquiry he shared a perception with many members of the Indo-Canadian community that the Air India investigation would be treated differently had it been an Air Canada flight that was attacked instead.
"Without really accusing anyone, I would ask the question: 'Were police as alert and aggressive in pursuing the issue?' " Dosanjh said. "I think that's a legitimate question."
"It took some time for people to really wake up to the fact that this was a Canadian tragedy."
'Many of my friends told me to shut up'
Dosanjh also told the inquiry the justice system was "failing future generations" if authorities couldn't successfully prosecute those who incite or speak approvingly of violence done to others for religious or political purposes.
"I believe those threats, indirect though they may be, are real incitements to do real damage to human beings and they should not be acceptable in our country — in any country," he said.
Dosanjh said his own experience with police and prosecutors — including a Crown attorney who asked him whether he really wanted to pursue his alleged attacker through a trial — influenced his perceptions of how authorities handled the Air India investigation.
"I believe that most police officers are upstanding citizens," he said. "But I'd be less than candid to you if I said that feeling did not persist today."
Threats by Sikh extremist groups may have moved from the public sphere to the cover of the internet, but can still silence critics within the Indo-Canadian community through fear, he added.
Earlier in 2007, Dosanjh was critical of a Vaisakhi festival and parade in Surrey, B.C., that celebrated Sikhism because it also appeared to honour alleged mastermind behind the Air India bombing, Talwinder Singh Parmar. The event attracted thousands of people, including several prominent B.C. and federal politicians.
Parmar was killed in India under mysterious circumstances in 1992.
Dosanjh cited a recent threat he received on the social networking site Facebook as evidence there are still individuals who seek to silence those who speak out.
"When I was the subject of Facebook threats, many of my friends told me to shut up," Dosanjh said. "And they were my friends, not my enemies.
"If attempts can be made today to silence me, and if my own friends would urge me to keep quiet.… You can be the judge of how deep the fear may still be."
With files from the Canadian PressRelated
More Canada Headlines »
- Canadians flock to Boxing Day bargains
- Millions of Canadinas took part in the Boxing Day bonanza on Wednesday, although shopping malls may have been less crammed with bargain hunters this year.
- Dozens of carcasses discovered at Quebec quarry
- Police and wildlife officers are investigating the discovery of dozens of pig, fox and coyote carcasses at a Quebec gravel quarry.
- Homolka's prison boyfriend could be freed in '08
- A convicted killer, said to have had a relationship with Karla Homolka while the two were behind bars, could be released from a Quebec prison early in 2008.
- Ottawa police defend using Taser on teen
- Ottawa police are defending the use of a Taser last week to subdue a teenager who was acting strangely in traffic.
- B.C. avalanche deaths serve as warning: police
- RCMP are cautioning outdoor enthusiasts in British Columbia to check avalanche warnings before heading into the backcountry after two snowmobilers died on Christmas Eve.
Canada Features
Blog Watch
Most Blogged about CBC.ca Articles
Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - link will open in new window
