Justice John Major, commissioner of Air India bombing public inquiry, has rejected three motions of the World Sikh Organization to call as witnesses authors Zuhair Kashmeri and David Kilgour and Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Gary Bass.
The Order in Council issued last week that Gary Bass, former head of the Air India task force, will appear before the commission. However, Major, in his order, said: "Commission Counsels have indicated that they intend to call Gary Bass as a witness. Accordingly, insofar as Gary Bass is concerned, this motion is superfluous."
With respect to Kashmeri and Kilgour, both authors on Air India, 'the affidavits submitted on behalf of the WSO indicate that the purpose of calling these witnesses is to deal with the allegation that the government of India may have been involved in the bombing of Air India Flight 182 and that this allegation was not investigated adequately in the aftermath of the bombing.'
In dismissing their request, Major has relied on the terms of reference of the inquiry explaining that the investigation 'is intended to serve as a backdrop and reference point for issues as to the degree of co-operation demonstrated between the departments and agencies of the government of Canada, including the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The investigation is also intended to presence a reference point for the issue of transforming security intelligence into evidence admissible in a criminal trial.'
In his order, Major goes on to argue that 'none of the terms of reference call for an inquiry into the issue of who was responsible for the bombing of Flight 182 nor of the role, if any, of the GOI, nor of the thoroughness of the investigation of any such role by the RCMP or CSIS. This contrasts with the mandate of the 1991-92 Security Intelligence Review Committee.'
He therefore, dismissed the WSO's motions to call oral evidence on that subject through Messrs Kashmeri and Kilgour. 'The subject matter of the WSO's request is not to be found in our terms of reference,' Major concluded.
In their submissions, the WSO had stated that 'the Sikh community has a direct and substantial interest in the subject matter of the inquiry, as the inquiry deals with the issues related to the alleged threat of 'Sikh' terrorism.