Former Ontario premier Bob Rae has said that revelations during the Air India public inquiry illustrate the communication problems existing between the police and the government.
"I think what the public is hearing, perhaps in an abrupt way, is what I think has been pretty clear to people who have studied this for a long time -- that there really was a problem of communication between different levels of government, different departments, agencies, the RCMP and CSIS," Rae told CTV's Mike Duffy Live on Friday.
Rae spoke a day after Ontario Lieutenant-Governor James Bartleman revealed he had received intelligence about the Air India bombing days before it occurred.
"We now hear from Mr. Bartleman about the Foreign Affairs situation, and that has really got to be of some great concern," Rae said. "If you go back to the 9/11 report, it talks about the silos between the FBI and the CIA and how certain information wasn't properly shared and I think, tragically, the Air India situation was a terrible precursor to that."
On June 23, 1985, Air India flight 182 exploded off the coast of Ireland, killing 307 passengers and 22 crew members.
Rae, a former Ontario premier, delivered a report on the Air India bombing in November 2005, urging an inquiry into the act of terrorism.
Rae's report had urged an assessment on whether the threat of Sikh terrorism was adequately measured and also whether the RCMP and CSIS had co-operated sufficiently in the investigation.
On Friday, Lieutenant-Governor Bartleman called a press conference and said that Rae's report prompted him to come forward. Bartleman said he was "deeply sorry" for the pain family members of victims are experiencing and that he wanted to publicly reiterate why he did not speak out for "so many years."
"I thought that as I was Director General of Intelligence Analysis and Security at the time of the terrible event, I believed I could be of assistance to the inquiry.
"I thought it was my civic duty to tell the commission what I knew, whatever the consequence."
Bartleman said that he thought the police had acted on the information he had provided.
He referred any further queries to his lawyer.
With new information emerging from the inquiry, critics have wondered if race played a part in how authorities handling the case.
Asked if she thought the information Bartleman provided to the RCMP would have been treated differently if the plane was filled with whites, NDP MP Alexa McDonough said she felt it was a factor.
"I wish it weren't true. But I do think it's true," McDonough told Mike Duffy. "I also think it's shocking that as we pushed and pushed for an inquiry...they kept saying there's no need for an inquiry there's no new information there's nothing more to be learned.
"That turns out not to be true. It's an utter horror story, and thank goodness there is now a full public inquiry underway that can get to the bottom of this."
Family members of those who died in the bombing have expressed their shock at Bartleman's testimony, but it has also helped to confirm some of their worst fears.
"I think Mr. Bartleman's testimony really speaks to the concerns that so many of these individuals have that lost loved ones, that there was perhaps evidence that the government was aware of prior to the bombings," said Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla.
"I know that in speaking to these individuals that they are glad that there is an inquiry in place, that some of these facts are coming out and that we prevent this type of tragedy in the future."
