Speech: Motion to Authorize Committee to Hear Witnesses in Regard to Events Surrounding Prime Minister’s Trip to India

Senator Omidvar: I speak today as a Canadian and as a member of the 1.4 million Indo-Canadians. I have been a naturalized Canadian for far longer than I was a citizen of India, but I hope you will understand the ties of birthplace and mother tongue, and I hope you will appreciate the perspectives that I will bring to this, both from here and from there.

First, I’d like to thank Senator Dagenais for this motion, although I won’t comment on the motivations, because I think he has given me some space to voice not just my concerns but the concerns of many Indo-Canadians who have called me, emailed me, visited me and exhorted me.

Let me restate again why India is important to Canadians. India represents a very large untapped market for us. It has 1.3 billion people. It has a booming consumer market. It has a growth rate of 7 per cent. It has an expanding middle class. The uncertainty of NAFTA underlines, I believe, the urgency for Canada to develop new markets in a strategic and expeditious manner.

The paradigm of the earlier years of our relationship with India was based on aid, and I suggest it has to shift to trade.

I will move on to the concerns of the 1.4 million Indo-Canadians. It is perhaps an understatement, colleagues, that Canadians and, in particular, Indo-Canadians, look forward to better ties — trade, cultural, social, people to people — as a result of this trip. Sadly, we were all disappointed — and perhaps disappointment is not a strong enough word. I would share with you the disbelief, the dismay and even the anger of many of my friends and community members. Instead of better relations, I believe we have seriously damaged the relationships.

But most important, I believe — because I do think trade relationships and bilateral relationships can, over time, be addressed — it has created disequilibrium within and among Indo-Canadians. We are a very large and diverse community in terms of region, language and religion; there are close to 365 languages and many religions in India. In fact, many of us come to Canada to escape from these boxes and identities. Like other communities, over time, these differences are ameliorated, and we become a part of the great Canadian fabric.

However, all divisions seem to have burst open. Indo-Canadians feel maligned and painted with one brush as a people consumed only of diaspora politics. I know and I hope you know this is not true. In particular, I wish to voice a concern that moderate Sikhs and moderate Canadians feel particularly targeted.

I want to move to something that has created the greatest anguish for me, and that is the fallout of the trip, which has re-traumatized the victims of the largest terrorist attack on Canadians. On June 23, 1985, 329 people, of which 268 were Canadians, were killed when a bomb ripped apart an Air India flight over the Atlantic Ocean. We were a much smaller community then. There were fewer than six degrees of separation between us. I still remember the call I got at five o’clock that morning — one that I and many others got that morning. There was disbelief. There was horror and dismay.

Since that day, we have had an inquiry and an apology for the bungling of investigations. We’ve even had reparations. But as CBC journalist Terry Milewski has pointed out, justice for the Air India victims was not done.

Thirty-three years later, today, the wounds have now been reopened, because now we know and everyone else knows that our political leaders, parliamentarians at all levels — and I would suggest to all of you, of all political stripes are finding their way to events and places where two known perpetrators are glorified with posters and pictures. Colleagues, I respect freedom of expression, freedom of association, but I know we also have freedom of choice to make a point not to attend such events. If justice was not done to the Air India victims, let us at least ensure that respect is not denied.

What should be done? I will speak to a few of my ideas before I come to Senator Dagenais’ idea.

I believe every effort must be made to improve and grow our trade with India, not in big showy trips but in steady, disciplined, incremental ways. I believe the Prime Minister must ensure that he understands that Indo-Canadians are all important in our country. I hope that the Prime Minister will make a statement on June 23 of this year, which is the national day to remember the victims of terrorism, and will make a special effort to remember the victims of Air India, because I worry they will get lost in our history.

I would hope that members of all political parties respect the victims of Air India and exercise their freedom of choice as to where they will go.

Finally, I want to address Senator Dagenais’ specific motion. Again, I wish I had had more time, honourable senators, to prepare for this, but be it as it may, I am not sure that a Senate inquiry will uncover the truth. Many aspects of what the National Security Advisor may well have to say are covered under confidentiality, and I believe this is too important an issue to play political football. I would urge us to remember that we are the house of sober second thought. We are not the House of Commons; we do not mirror what they do.

We already have a mechanism, by the way. It’s called the National Security and Defence Committee. Three of our senators sit on that. It is supported by the national security agencies. These are the appropriate places to ask and answer your question.

I believe, Senator Dagenais, to get to the truth is appropriate, but to get to the truth appropriately is perhaps even just as important.