Deepak Khandelwal will never forget Air India bombing
· Toronto Sun
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Even with the passing of time, more than four-plus decades now in the rear-view mirror, Deepak Khandelwal will never forget the day his life turned upside down.
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“It is a daily thing,” Khandelwal told the Toronto Sun. “It is not something you forget or get over. You do think of them all the time. You don’t get over it but you learn to deal with it, is how I would say it.”
Khandelwal’s two sisters were killed in the Air India Flight 182 bombing, the deadliest act of aviation terrorism in global history prior to 9/11 and the largest mass murder in Canadian history. Two terrorist bombs brutally ended the lives of 331 innocent people, including 268 Canadian citizens.
Turned down again
And as much as the devastating event pains him emotionally to this very day, he’s offended that two well-known politicians have continued to forget the incident, which occurred off Ireland’s west coast on June 23, 1985.
“We got turned down again the year by Mayor Olivia Chow, who is not coming to the memorial service in Toronto, and Premier Ford is not going to come. They just don’t care, to be blunt,” Khandelwal said when asked for his opinion on both political leaders not making an appearance.
“They just don’t care and they don’t care about these Canadians who were murdered, they continue to think of it as a foreign tragedy because it happened to be an Air India plane and not an Air Canada plane.”
A recent Angus Reid Institute poll revealed that 90% of Canadians confess to knowing little to nothing about the Air India bombing.
“It has never been taken seriously and that is what offends the families, this neglect and disinterest in Canada’s largest mass murder from our elected officials,” he said.
There will be a ceremony to honour the victims next Tuesday at noon on the Queen’s Park Legislative assembly grounds. Later that same day, a second ceremony will be held at the Air India Memorial in Humber Bay Park East at 6:30 p.m.
Keeping the memory alive
Khandelwal would like to see two things change going forward so that the public can be reminded or introduced to the tragedy, instead of forgetting it all together.
“We would like to get this into the school system, so people are taught about this in Canadian history,” he said. “It is not talked about, and it is Canada’s largest mass murder. We have to make sure Canada never forgets this.”
Currently, the plane’s wreckage is housed in a B.C. warehouse. The Air India Flight 182 Victims’ Families Association is attempting to get a piece of the wreckage from the Indian government.
“We would like to be able to display that in a national museum,” Khandelwal said, noting the wheels of a foreign government turn slow on this particular topic.
The Canadian government officially recognized June 23 as the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism, a designation achieved through the tireless advocacy of the Air India families to ensure solidarity with all victims of terror worldwide.