Ottawa left Air-India families waiting, inquiry told

Ottawa: Political aides to former prime minister Brian Mulroney had to push federal bureaucrats to set up a telephone hot line to provide information to the families of Air-India victims, a commission of inquiry was told yesterday.
It took consular officials three days from the time of the bombing of Air-India Flight 182 on June 23, 1985, until they were able to publicize a hot-line number in Ottawa, former government officials said.
A declassified 1985 secret document says Fred Doucet, Mr. Mulroney's chief of staff and political troubleshooter, wanted the External Affairs Department to move more quickly to take care of the families.
The evidence yesterday sketched a picture of a stunned federal bureaucracy facing an unprecedented calamity, reacting slowly and only when the domestic political dimensions of the tragedy became apparent.
08/11/06 Jeff Sallot/Globe and Mail, Canada

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