KANISHKA 2 LST

Indian High Commissioner to Canada S M Gavai, Consul
General of India Preeti Saran, former Supreme Court judge and
Chairman of Air India Inquiry Commission Justice John Major
and Liberal leader Bob Rae were present on the occasion.
"Let me say that again; the finest memorial we can
build to your loved ones is to prevent another flight 182,"
Harper said.
He stressed that it is not enough to say the system
failed, as that would only "sanitise with words a succession
of woeful inadequacies."
The Prime Minister regretted the years of shabby
treatment the families faced at the hands of security agencies
and other government offices.
For too long, he admitted, the disaster was seen
wrongly by many Canadians as a foreign act with foreign
victims.
"This atrocity was conceived in Canada, executed in
Canada, by Canadian citizens, and its victims were themselves
mostly citizens of Canada. We wish this realisation had gained
common acceptance earlier," he said.
Harper said he makes no excuses for the "deeply
disturbing" findings released last week by the Air India
inquiry, which focused largely on bumbling by security
services.
Tributes were paid and wreaths were laid at the
Kanishka memorial by the Prime Minister Harper, Ontario
Premier Dalton McGuinty and Toronto Mayer David Miller and
families of the victims.
In a message Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
said: "This was a horrific incident which shook the world's
conscience. It is with a sense of deep pain and sorrow that I
join the families and friends in paying my homage to all those
who fell victim to this most barbarous act of terrorism."
"No religion, faith or cause can justify such violence
or inhumanity. On this solemn occasion, we must rededicate
ourselves to fighting and eliminating terrorism and
determination and joint action," Singh said.
Singh's message was readout by Bal Gupta, President of
the Air India victims' families association.
The bombing attack was blamed on Sikh militants
avenging Operation Blue Star of 1984.
Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only person ever convicted
in the case, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2003.
Suspected ringleader Talwinder Singh Parmar died in
India in 1991, and the two main surviving suspects — Ripudaman
Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri — were both acquitted in
March 2005 after a 19-month trial. PTI