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* * * 2007 ANNUAL GOANETTERS MEET - GOA * * *
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WHERE: Foodland Cafe - Miramar Residency - Miramar, Goa
WHEN: December 27, 2007 @ 4:30pm
More info:
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2007-December/066098.html
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Race bias behind Kanishka crash?
By Gurmukh Singh
Toronto, Dec 14 (IANS) For long, many Indo-Canadians and families of the Air
India Kanishka crash victims have blamed Canadian agencies for letting the
tragedy happen and then botching the investigations, thus paving the way for
the acquittal of suspects.
This alleged race factor was put on record Thursday when a report tabled before
the ongoing Air India public inquiry hinted that "systemic racism" might have
contributed to the tragedy and subsequent failure of the criminal trial to nail
the suspects.Prepared by Toronto University sociologist Sherene Razack, who was
commissioned by the families of the crash victims, the report said that a
"powerful impression" prevailed among the Indo-Canadians that race might have
been contributed to the way Canadian agencies handled the case from the very
beginning - in assessing the terror threat before the bombing and then bungling
the investigations. The report referred to how Canadian agencies - the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security Intelligence (CSIS) -
never took seriously repeated warnings by India about a possible terror plot
against its national carrier. On the contrary, they questioned the very motives
of India's national carrier. They thought the airl
ine was raising the bogey of terror threat just to seek a way to avoid paying
increased security costs and thus pass them on to the Canadian government. The
report went on to add that since the officials didn't believe in the warnings
from India, they sent all sniffer dogs at Toronto airport, away for a training
course. Had these sniffing dogs been on duty, they would have detected the
bomb, which blew off Kanishka Flight 182, killing all 329 people on board in
1985. Raj Anand, a lawyer and former chairman of Ontario Human Rights
Commission, who presented the report to the inquiry commission, said it raised
a very relevant question and the panel should look into whether Canadian
agencies could have been racially biased. Government lawyer Barney Brucker
didn't take kindly to the report, saying that many points raised by the report
had no grounds. Inquiry commissioner John Major, who would file the final
report next year, said the government was free to file its reply.In fact,
Major himself has made this point in his interim report released this week,
saying that there was still an impression that "if Air India Flight 182 had
been an Air Canada flight with all fair-skinned Canadians, would the government
response have been different?" Many Indo-Canadians say that till 9/11, Canada
treated the crash as a "brown tragedy in which brown people were killed by
brown people on an airline owned by brown people."Indo-Asian News Service
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Spread the Christmas Cheer, even when you're not here!
Send classic greetings to your loved ones in Goa.
EXPRESSIONS - 2007 Christmas Hamper
Visit http://www.goa-world.com/expressions/xmas/
Or e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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