PM moves to resolve dispute threatening Air India probe

Ottawa: Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday he has stepped in to resolve a dispute that threatens to shut down the probe into the worst terrorist act in Canadian history.
He was responding to Air India Inquiry Commissioner John Major's stark warning that he might scuttle the inquiry into the 1985 Air India bombings due to a lack of public access to crucial documents.
Major warned earlier Monday that government secrecy - driven by national security fears - is trumping Harper's promise last year to ensure victims' families that the deadly attacks and its aftermath would be subjected to a public probe.
Harper appointed Major, a retired Supreme Court of Canada judge, last year to investigate circumstances surrounding the Air India bombings that left 331 people - mostly Canadians - dead.
Harper noted Monday that Major and commission lawyers had been given full-and-uncensored access to all documents related to the inquiry, of which roughly 10 per cent couldn't be made public under Canadian law.
But Major made clear the hearing of evidence, set to begin on March 5 after Monday's adjournment, can't proceed unless the government gives ground and makes public documents that "are needed but currently denied" by bureaucrats.
A spokesman for the Air India Victims Families Association said his group supports Major's stand to shut the inquiry if disclosure doesn't improve .
"What exactly is the government hiding?" said Dr. Bal Gupta of Toronto.
20/02/07 Canada.com

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Categories: air india feb 2007, foreign feb 2007, safety feb 2007