Frustrated Canada judge may quit Air India case

Ottawa: The head of a Canadian inquiry into the 1985 Air India bombing threatened to quit on Monday unless the government declassified documents it has claimed must be kept secret for security reasons.
The commissioner, former Supreme Court Justice John Major, said the issue hampered his examination of the security lapses that allowed the explosion, which killed 329 people in history's deadliest bombing of a passenger airliner.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who appointed Major last year, told Parliament that federal law prevented the release of a limited number of documents.
But he said that, as a result of Major's statement, he had given instructions that government departments apply the law in as "non-restrictive" -- or uncensored -- a manner as possible.
Air India Flight 182, originating in Canada, blew up off the Atlantic coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985. A near-simultaneous attack aimed at a second Air India flight killed two Tokyo airport workers. Major's inquiry is not to find the perpetrators but to find out what went wrong to allow the bombings.
20/02/07 Reuters India

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