Harah Radhakrishna, whose wife and children were killed in the Air India bombing, views a memorial to the 1985 tragedy at Toronto's Humber Bay Park.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Two Harper government ministers are meeting privately with relatives of Air India victims in Toronto Friday, though the Conservatives refuse to divulge whether they'll provide more details of promised compensation during the get-together.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews will gather Friday afternoon with families of the victims of the 1985 airplane bombing that claimed 329 lives. The Conservatives were not saying where in Toronto.
Government officials would also not reveal whether the ministers would update relatives on compensation pledged by Prime Minister Stephen Harper four months ago.
"This meeting was never intended to generate any sort of announcement," one official said.
"It was always intended to be a private meeting between the ministers and the families."
Relatives of those killed in the bombing have been seeking justice for more than a quarter century. During a speech to security professionals last week in Ottawa, a lawyer who represented families during the Air India inquiry pointed out that at least three relatives of victims had died since June.
The government said only that the ministers are meeting to take advice from families on how to proceed.
The Tories are also seeking input on how to prevent another such attack.
"The prime minister has tasked them to go and listen to the families on what the next steps should be, and what more the government should do to avert another tragedy," the government official said.
It was June 2010 when Mr. Justice John Major released the findings of an inquiry into Canadian authorities' bungling of the Air India investigation.
The findings called for establishment of a powerful national security czar to mediate between the RCMP and Canada's spy agency, CSIS. An investigative turf war between the agencies led to the mishandling of valuable intelligence before and after the bombing.
Immediately after the report's release, Mr. Harper told the families his government would respond "positively" to a recommendation to compensate them, promising "unequivocal support."
Lawyers involved in the Air India inquiry have speculated the Friday meeting will not produce a final compensation package at the meeting, since none of the requisite consultations have yet been held between federal officials and families. Rather, they predicted, the meeting is more likely to discusss a formula for who will be paid and how much.
Most Air India families received compensation in the years immediately after the bombing based on what was known about the deaths at the time. The payments - which averaged $75,000 (U.S.) for each person killed - were not officially announced.
Judge Major nonetheless recommended further compensation for the families, who "in some ways, have often been treated as adversaries, as if they had somehow brought this calamity upon themselves," he said in June. "The time to right that historical wrong is now."