Air India bombing families told investigation ‘hit a dead end’ as calls grow for more RCMP resources

The Story

Families of victims of the Air India bombing, which killed 329 people on board while travelling from Toronto to London on June 23, 1985, say they have been told the investigation has reached a dead end after investigators exhausted their leads.

Sudha Berry’s brother Sharad was 16 when he died in the attack. Berry and other families met with the RCMP earlier this month, expecting further developments, but were told the investigative leads had been exhausted and there was no further avenue to explore, even though the case is not officially closed, Berry said.

Berry described the situation as a form of responsibility falling on families. She said the “organs of state” had “basically abdicated,” and that families were left to carry the burden themselves.

Along with others affected, Berry and family members wrote letters to the prime minister, the RCMP, and the federal minister of public safety, urging them to commit more resources to the case and to reinstate a cash reward for information, according to the account provided by families.

Dave Hayer, a former Surrey MLA whose father was murdered before he testified in the case, argued that the current police force is not equipped to move the investigation forward. He said investigators should bring in external expertise from jurisdictions such as the United States or England that he said have experience with terrorism-related cases.

Former B.C. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, who has spoken publicly against extremism for years, offered a more pessimistic outlook. He said resolution may no longer be possible and criticized what he described as long-standing failures, including destroyed evidence and a lack of cultural awareness at earlier stages of the investigation.

Dosanjh said early shortcomings stemmed from “ignorance” of language, culture, and how terrorism and extremists function within the communities involved. He said he could not fault current investigators for the earlier gaps, suggesting those issues were created in the investigation’s initial handling.

Even with the decades that have passed, the families described themselves as still hoping for justice. To date, the information provided in the discussion says only one person has been convicted for making the bomb and has since been released.

In a statement, the RCMP said there are currently no other suspects identified. It added that if new or credible information comes forward, it will be investigated, underscoring that while leads may have been exhausted, the case remains open to new developments.