OTTAWA – Newton – North Delta MP Jinny Sims went to bat for families of the Air India victims who say that the Conservatives are making it difficult to collect payment.
“Mr. Speaker, it has been 26 years since the devastating Air India tragedy and the victims’ families are still waiting for justice and compensation from the Conservative government. Yet, another hurdle is in their way. They must now provide more proof that they were related to the victims,” Sims spoke in parliament this week.
“Is that a joke? What more can they do to show they were related? The families and the community just want this nightmare to end. Why is the government determined to extend this drama and humiliation?”
“In respect to the ex gratia payments, we are taking appropriate steps to ensure that the recommendation is followed and to ensure that we administer taxpayers’ money appropriately,” Public Safety Minister Vic Toews responded.
The Canadian government decided to provide a symbolic payment of $24,000 to the families of each passenger and crew member, even though it still denied any liability for the explosions.
Several families had already received payment in an out-of-court settlement a few years after the bombings and several years before the failings in the police investigation and in security were known, reported the Globe and Mail newspaper.
Government officials met in recent weeks with families in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver to provide information on the application process for the current payments. The families were told they had to provide documents that confirm their relationship to the victims.
Sudha Berry, the older sister of 16-year-old Sharad Berry, who was on the ill-fated Air India Flight 182, was at the meeting in Toronto. She said Ottawa’s request for more documents is a significant hurdle for some families.
“Where most of the immediate families were lost [in the bombing] and the next-of-kin were overseas in India – and that’s a huge pool of people there – how are they going to ascertain [the relationship,]” she told the Globe.
The federal rule may also pose a problem for the families of victims who had moved to Canada, she said. “A lot of the victims were born in India, and what would normally be quite ordinary evidence to obtain in Canada is not that easy in India. Not everyone has a birth certificate or marriage certificate,” she said.
