Loss of Faith
How the Air India Bombers Got Away with Murder

Bolan, Kim
Year Published:  2005
Pages:  380pp   Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX9326

An account of the Air India Bombing trial and investigations.

Abstract: 
This journalistic account of the Air India Bombing trial and investigations by Bolan, a Vancouver Sun journalist, pursues the facts on what is Canada's first and worst terrorist act. For twenty years Bolan uncovered the plot and conspirators' actions. The bombing resulted in the deaths of two baggage carriers in a Tokyo Airport and 331 innocent passengers on board the Air India flight from Toronto to Delhi, which crashed off the coast of Ireland.

Bolan urges Canadians to look at how we responded to the crime and to ask if our laws and policies, "including official multiculturalism," contribute to why these bombers got away with this brutal act of terrorism. For example, she raises how Canada failed to ban Sikh extremist groups until 2003, nearly 18 years after the Air India bombing. Furthermore, she outlines how anti-terrorism laws were created in response to September 11 instead of this act of terrorism which affected the Canadian nation more acutely. Meanwhile, suspects negotiated with Canadian politicians, founded charities and created a private school which receives government grants. Her book questions the accountability of Canadian policy makers and government leaders in delivering justice to the victims' families.

Bolan's investigative account draws on a variety of sources: interviews with confidential sources, trial and witness testimonies and documents used in accordance with Canadian Access to Information Laws. Over 20 years of uncovering the truth after the bombing, two journalists have died because of the dangerous reality of knowing too much. Despite this Bolan attempts to seek justice by taking trips to Punjab and meeting with crucial persons in both the Canadian and Indian governments and leaders of separatists groups allegedly involved in the bombing. Loss of Faith allows the reader to begin to understand what caused the twin bombings and the political uproar leading to this haunting tragedy.

[Abstract by Amanpreet Dhami]

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