World Sikh Organization to again request the Canadian federal government to establish a 'Royal Commission of Inquiry'

(Ottawa, Wednesday, March 16, 2005)   The decision rendered by the Supreme Court of B.C. today on the Air India trial prompted the World Sikh Organization to again request the Canadian federal government to establish a 'Royal Commission of Inquiry' that examines all the facts relating to the investigation of the tragedy that killed 329 citizens in 1985. 
 WSO of Canada President, Ajit Singh Sahota said "We hoped that today's court decision would begin the healing process for so many Canadians who have suffered from this tragedy.  Sikhs are acutely sensitive to issues of justice and peace, and we place a great deal of faith in Canada's rule of law, having experienced no such protection in our ancestral homeland of
India.  Believing that 'truth is the highest virtue, higher still is truthful living', Sikhs have for two decades continued to request a thorough reckoning of all the facts relating to the worst air disaster in Canada's history.

The WSO's director said that Canadians should have the opportunity to examine the facts that explain why a primary suspect in the Air India case was murdered and then cremated by Indian police, why important illegal tape recordings were erased, why documents were lost, and why taxpayer dollars were spent to reward testimony in a crime of such national and international
significance. 

Sikhs also want to know why the Air India case was not quickly and efficiently prosecuted and brought to a resolution that afforded survivors, and their families, some measure of peace and dignity, she said.  "There is no question amongst the Sikh community, home and abroad, that the investigation into our nation's most heinous crime, has been an unmitigated
disaster.  We continue to hope that some Minister of Justice will possess the temerity to begin the important reconciliation that is so necessary to the healing process, by immediately convening an official inquiry."

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For more information contact Anne Lowthian, Executive Director, World Sikh Organization, 1183 Cecil Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1H 7Z6, cell: 613-220-6214, email: wsopanth@trytel.com.