Air India bombing inquiry begins

Air India flight 182 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland

An independent inquiry has opened in Canada into the bombing of an Air India plane that killed 329 people in 1985.

Public outrage prompted the inquiry, after two Canadian men were acquitted for the crime last year as prosecutors failed to provide enough evidence.

The Supreme Court judge leading the inquiry called the case "the most insidious episode of cowardice and inhumanity in our history".

The attack, off Ireland, was the deadliest ever on a passenger airliner.

It has been assumed to have been carried out by Sikh separatists in response to the storming of the Sikh Golden Temple in the city of Amritsar by the Indian government the year before.

Questions

The inquiry will meet again only briefly now before September, when testimony from witnesses is scheduled to begin. The hearings are expected to last about a year.

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Major, who leads the inquiry, said he wanted it to find out where earlier investigations faltered, to give some comfort to victims' families and to prevent such an attack from happening in Canada again.

The families of many of the victims were present in the courtroom

He said the criminal justice system had so far failed the families of the Air India victims, and failed all Canadians.

"The personal losses and unspeakable tragedies are the most immediate and visible aspect of our loss.

"The systemic weaknesses that have been identified are less visible, but potentially as fatal as what happened," he wrote in a opening statement.

Families of the bombing victims began a campaign for a full independent inquiry from the moment the not-guilty verdict was delivered last year.

They wanted to know why, after millions of dollars and 20 years of investigation, Canada had failed to convict a single person for the bombing that killed more than 300 people.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, then in opposition, joined those calls. He instigated the inquiry after his election earlier this year.

Some family members of victims say they are delighted to finally see the start of the inquiry they have lobbied so hard for.

But a government report prepared last year warns against inflated expectations and questions whether an inquiry can provide justice and answers where an expensive and lengthy trial failed.