Air India Flight 182 bombing: Montrealers to honour victims on 41st anniversary

Montrealers came together Tuesday evening to honour the victims on the 41st anniversary of the deadly bombing of Air India Flight 182.

Families and friends gathered at the Air India Memorial Site on Monk Island along the Lachine Canal to remember their loved ones lost in the bombing.

The tragic event occurred on June 23, 1985, when 329 people, including 268 Canadians, were killed when a bomb exploded aboard the aircraft en route from Toronto to Delhi. The plane went down over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland.

It was not only the deadliest terrorist attack on Canadian soil, but also the worst case of aviation terrorism in history before 9/11.

Remembering victims

The memorial site in Montreal was built by the victims’ families; the site stands as a lasting place of remembrance and a call for peace. Since 2005, the federal government has observed June 23 as National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism in memory of those who have lost their lives through acts of terror in Canada and around the world.

Among those keeping the memories of victims alive is 89-year-old Mahesh Sharma, a Concordia University professor who lost his wife Uma, daughters Sandhya and Swati, and mother-in-law Shakuntala in the attack. The family was heading to India for a summer vacation when their lives were cut short.

He says that he considered committing suicide during the aftermath of the bombing, before choosing to honour his family by creating scholarships in their names at McGill University, Concordia University, and Royal West Academy, ensuring the memory of his loved ones lives on through education.

Despite the scale of the tragedy, Sharma told CityNews at last year’s anniversary that the memorial and the event remain largely unknown.

“Ninety per cent of Canadians don’t know,” he said at the time. “Even in Montreal, people don’t know this site exists.”

Adding, “Sometimes I wish people should put in some history book that this was the biggest tragedy in Canadian history, and people don’t know that.”

“But then it came that why don’t I earn the money and put in their name? So their name will continue. So I have a scholarship with their name, Miguel Concordia, Wall West Academy, everywhere. So I feel really happy that their name will continue, you know,” said Sharma.

Tashmayee Mukherjee is one of the younger faces at the event — not even born when it happened — showing how the memory of those lost continues to be passed on.

“I’m going to listen, hear what stories happen. I’m going to also recite some poems,” said Mukherjee.

The ceremony was organized by Indo-Canadian groups in Quebec, with RCMP representatives and India’s High Commissioner, Dinesh K. Patnaik, taking part in a wreath-laying ceremony.

“Just in the memory of my friends. Actually, I had a lot of friends in this flight. Dr. Sharma’s family was also a family friend. And then there was one professor, Balveer Singh, the whole family they were going to visit India after. He was newly appointed in the economics department,” said Yogen Chaubey, a professor at Concordia University.

“In our Hindu philosophy, the world is considered to be one. And so there is a Sanskrit word which means the world is our family. And I think when we come here, feel that way, actually.”

Justice eludes

More than four decades after the tragedy, justice for the victims has eluded.

Family members like Raman Chopra, president of the National Association of Canadians of Origins in India (Montreal), have criticized the handling of the case and the broader response from Canadian authorities.

The trial began after nearly 18 years after the bombing, after what was the longest and most expensive investigation in Canadian history. 

Only one person was convicted. Inderjit Singh Reyaal was found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the construction of the bombs.

Two other men — Ripudaman Singh Malik & Ajaib Singh Bagri — who were charged for their involvement in this terrorist attack were found not guilty in 2005.

Malik was later shot dead outside his business in Surrey, B.C., in July 2022.

-With files from Johanie Bouffard