The public inquiry into the Air India tragedy of June 23, 1985, that resumed after a two weeks break on Monday morning in Ottawa, has been delayed for reasons of national security and for technical reasons.
There will be some preliminary testimony this week (till Wednesday) of former officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Transport Canada, said Commission Attorney, Mark Freiman but detailed examination of witnesses won't begin until February.
Michael Tansey, spokesman of the Commission, headed by Judge John Major, told rediff.com: "The delay is related to the processing of documents. The Commission has requested the government for thousands of documents, many of which are related to national security."
"Each document must be reviewed by the Commission legal staff to determine if it is needed for the hearings," explained Tansey.
"If the document is needed, but must be returned to the Department of Justice, which then removes the portions of text that relate to national security. Once the documents are redacted, they are then returned to the Commission in electronic form, so that we can disclose them to the parties and interveners, who then must review the documents," he added.
"Besides the redacting process being slow, to add to their difficulties, 'a technical glitch' caused us to lose some material," Tansey went on to explain.
"Both the Department of Justice and the families requested additional time to prepare. Once this week's hearings are completed, the Commissioner (John Major) has agreed to adjourn the hearings until Feb. 5, 2007."
B'nai Brith Canada has an intervener status. In their testimony on Monday morning, they stressed the needs to protect citizens from terrorism. "We welcome Commissioner Major's commitment to ensuring a comprehensive review of all the factors that contributed to this major terrorist attack against Canadians," said Frank Dimant, Executive Vice-President of B'nai Brith.
According to the original schedule, Justice Major had indicated that he will release his final report on September 2007. It is not certain now, with this enormous delay, whether he would be able to stick to that date. The hearing commenced on September 25 this year.