Canadian flags were flown at half-mast near an Air India Flight 182 memorial cenotaph at Humber Bay Park East and elsewhere as families mourned the 35th anniversary loss of their loved ones on the ill-fated flight that was destroyed in mid-air.
Many family members returned to place rocks on the spot on the Air India memorial to mark the names of their loved ones who died when a bomb exploded on Flight 182, off the coast of Ireland, on June 23, 1985.
Among the 329 victims, were 280 Canadians and 86 children.
This year due to COVID-19, victims mourned in small, private gatherings and online condolences as they remembered the worst mass murder in Canadian history.
Physical distancing rules and restrictions on gatherings of more than 50 people have resulted in a shift from the in-person memorial services that are attended by hundreds of families yearly in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver.
Only one man, Inderjit Singh Reyat, has been convicted in relation to the bombing and is now free, having served 30 years for lying at trial and for his role in the crime.
Crown lawyers alleged the bombing was a terrorist attack against state-owned Air India, an act of revenge by B.C.-based Sikh extremists against the Indian government for ordering the army to raid Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, in June 1984.
Reyat, a mechanic, pleaded guilty to reduced charges of helping to make the bombs at his home in Duncan, B.C.
He was also convicted of committing perjury at the trials of two other B.C. men, Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik, who were acquitted of murder and conspiracy charges in the two bombings.
The man who Canadian authorities suspected of being the mastermind of the bomb plot, Talwinder Singh Parmar, was killed in India by police.
In 2005, the federal government proclaimed June 23 National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism.
“The attack was an act of unspeakable malice and remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Canadian history,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement. “It was a shock to our country, and a threat to our collective sense of security.”