Petition supported by Canadian lawmaker advances discredited conspiracy theory related to Air India flight bombing in 1985

Toronto: A petition sponsored by a Liberal Party MP, advancing a discredited conspiracy theory relate to the bombing of Air India flight 182 in 1985, has collected enough signatures to necessitate a formal response from Ottawa.

The e-petition, stated by Gurpreet Singh from Delta, British Columbia, was sponsored by Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal. It opened for signatures in August this year and closed on December 11 with 4,238, far more than the 500 required to trigger a response from the government.

The content of the e-petition is linked to the conspiracy theory that India was somehow connected to the bombing of AI 182, the Kanishka. It stated, “Sikhs in Canada widely believe that this was the handiwork of a foreign intelligence to discredit their political activism and undermine their advocacy work for human rights in India”. It added that “recent developments within the Sikh community in British Columbia give credence to this perception”, linking it to the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 last year in Surrey, British Columbia.

However, that alleged Indian hand in the worst ever terror attack in Canadian history has been dismissed by the court where the trial for the accused was held as well as commissions of inquiry that probed the tragedy. The Kanishka bombing by pro-Khalistan terrorists occurred on June 23, 1985 and claimed 329 lives and remains the worst-ever incident of terror in Canadian history.

That alternate conspiracy has been propounded by secessionist groups including Sikhs for Justice (SFJ). In June this year, as family members of the victims marked the grim anniversary, one of the bereaved Deepak Khandelwal told the Hindustan Times, “They (the pro-Khalistan elements) are trying to fill a vacuum that exists through misinformation.” He was just 17 when he lost his sisters Chandra and Manju in the tragedy.

In a column this October addressing the e-petition before the House of Commons, Christian Leuprecht, professor at the Royal Military College and Queen’s University and Joe Adam George, a national security analyst on South Asia and Middle East affairs, noted, “To the detriment of both the victims’ families and India, the Liberals never let facts or findings get in the way of scoring political points. Their indulgence in identity politics is not about making Canada more equitable, diverse, and inclusive. It is precisely why the Trudeau government seems quite content to revictimise the families of over 250 racialised Canadians who were indiscriminately murdered in the Air India bombing.”

“The Prime Minister could have signalled that he has zero tolerance for conspiracy theories and Liberal MPs who peddle them by expelling Dhaliwal from the Liberal caucus or disallowing him from standing for re-election under the Liberal banner. Yet, he failed to do so,” the column in the outlet National Post, stressed.

It said, “Two separate probes set up to look into the tragedy arrived at the same conclusion: radical Sikh separatists associated with the Khalistan movement were culpable and foreign governments had no role.”

A 2005 report on the attack, submitted by Bob Rae, currently Canada’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, stated, “As Justice Josephson determined in his Reasons for Judgment, the conspiracy to bomb the two Air India flights involved individuals belonging to what became known as the Babbar Khalsa movement, a group of Sikh radicals determined to ‘purify’ the Sikh religion and establish an independent homeland for Sikhs in Punjab, India.”

That reference was to Justice Ian Josephson who presided over the Kanishka trial. He considered Talwinder Singh Parmar, a resident of Burnaby in BC to be the mastermind of the attack. Parmar led the terror outfit, Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), at the time.

Former Justice of Canada’s Supreme Court John Major headed a commission of inquiry into the bombing and submitted a comprehensive report in 2010. In an interview with this correspondent in 2017, he said, “No doubt that he was either the ­mastermind or one of the masterminds and the evidence we heard made him clearly a top person in that operation. Whether there was somebody who ­secretly gave him orders, we don’t know. What we know, Parmar was the leader.”

In an interview with the Canada government-funded outlet CBC News in March 2018, New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh also acknowledged that fact, as he said, “There was an inquiry that was conducted into this horrible terrorist act. The inquiry identified specifically Talwinder Singh Parmar, and I accept the findings of the investigation, of the inquiry. I accept them and I condemn all those responsible.”