VANCOUVER - More than 20 years after the 1985 Air India bombings, officials gathered with victims' families to open a waterfront memorial -- the second such Canadian tribute unveiled in just over a month.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and Vancouver's mayor opened a redeveloped playground in the city's famed Stanley Park.
The site honours the 329 passengers and crew aboard the Air India flight that exploded off the coast of Ireland, as well as two baggage handlers who died in a related bombing at Japan's Narita Airport.
The playground memorial offers a quiet space and a tangible reminder of the realities of hate and intolerance, Day said.
"We hope it provides a peaceful place for contemplation as well as a reminder of the very real consequences of terrorism.''
Last month a similar memorial was unveiled along Toronto's waterfront. A memorial was build in Ireland 22 years ago.
The Canadian families of the victims have applauded the tributes, but they remain skeptical that they'll ever see justice.
The bombing of Flight 182 has been widely blamed on Sikh separatists who used British Columbia as a base for their independence campaign in northern India.
Only one person has ever been convicted. Inderjit Singh Reyat was convicted of building the bomb that killed the two baggage handlers. He was recently denied parole from a B.C. prison.
Another suspect, Talwinder Singh Parmar, was reportedly killed by Indian police in 1992.
Two other men, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, were acquitted in Vancouver in 2005 after a lengthy and complex trial.
A public inquiry into the tragedy finally opened this year in Ottawa.
It has hit several major barriers as some witnesses refused to testify because they fear for their lives. One man had a heart attack just as he was about to begin testifying.
Still, the inquiry, headed by former Supreme Court justice John Major, has pointed to a Canadian intelligence failure of massive proportions.
Witnesses have pointed fingers at the RCMP, at politicians for handing the police force's security function to the civilian agency CSIS and at infighting between the two services.
Jayashree Thampi of the Air India Flight 182 Victims' Families said the Vancouver memorial is particularly a tribute to the 82 children who lost their lives.
"The children's playground symbolizes the innocence of those children who died in this tragedy,'' he said in a release. "This place offers a beacon of hope to the children of today and the future.''
Another memorial is to be build in Montreal and an existing one in Ottawa will be renovated.
