Prime Minister Stephen Harper today made the following remarks when meeting with members of the Air India Victims Families Association:
"I have here with me today representatives of the families of the victims of Flight 182, which we now know was the worst act of terrorism in Canada’s history, in which over 300 of our citizens lost their lives. This report has been a long time coming. It's now been almost 25 years since that tragedy, and I hope that we now finally have an analysis of those events and recommendations for a way to prevent such acts in the future. But first of all, our objective today is that today is a day of remembrance, remembering the losses, remembering the deaths of our loved ones who lost their lives, and thinking about and expressing our condolences to the families who have lived with this tragedy to this day.
“So just once again, we have Justice Major’s report. I’m sure it’s a bittersweet day for all of the family members who are with me today and the wider community that they represent.
“This worst act of Canadian terrorism in our history occurred almost 25 years ago. 300 of our citizens lost their lives. Their families have been living with that ever since and living without answers. Due to the work of Justice Major – I think it’s as thorough and complete a work as could have been done – we do now have an analysis of that, and we also have important recommendations about the way forward to avoid this sort of thing ever happening again. I’m not going to get into today addressing all of the recommendations. Obviously some of them are very sweeping and will require some analysis.
“Today is first and foremost a day of remembrance, to remember the victims who lost their lives and to express our condolences to the families who have lived with this ever since.
“I do want to say this, though, in terms of the recommendations. We take Justice Major’s report very seriously. It is a damning indictment of many things that occurred before and after the tragedy, that, as I say, we’re determined to avoid in the future. Issues are raised about apology, official apology and compensation to victims. Let me be clear unequivocally that the government will respond positively to those recommendations. Obviously other recommendations will require additional study, but the government is determined to act in a way that we avoid this kind of event ever occurring again on Canadian soil and never being perpetrated against Canadian citizens.
“I just want to end by expressing my condolences to all of you for your losses, but also to the wider community you represent for being so forceful over the years in insisting that we get to the bottom of this, insisting that this work be undertaken, and I think you’ve taken that tragedy and done a real public service. “I know we’re all very appreciative of Justice Major for his work, and are all determined to follow up on it. So thank you for being here and thank you for what you’ve done for your country in insisting that we get to the bottom of this.”
