Majority of Canadians say Air India bombing not treated like national tragedy: poll

Forty years after the Air India bombing, the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history, more than half of Canadians say that it has never been treated like a national tragedy. On June 23, 1985, Canadian Sikh terrorists blew up a bomb aboard Air India Flight 182, en route from Montreal to London, with a final destination of Mumbai. The plane exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 people aboard. The debris washed up in Ireland. Of those aboard the plane, most of them were Canadian citizens. Yet, 32 per cent of Canadians told the Angus Reid Institute that they had never heard of the attack. Just nine per cent said they know a lot about it. Among those who say they do know about the attack, 60 per cent say it hasn’t been treated as a national tragedy. “It continues to be not just a faded page in Canadian history, but almost a blank page, particularly among young people in this country, among young Canadians, the lack of awareness is really very stark,” said Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute. In fact, the pollsters found that if they asked Canadians what was the deadliest attack in Canadian history, only 17 per cent identified the Air India bombing. Twenty-seven per cent identified the Polytechnique massacre in Montreal in December 1989, which left 14 women dead, as the deadliest, followed by 18 per cent who said the mass shootings around Portapique, Nova Scotia, in 2020, which killed 22 people, as the deadliest. While one-third of Canadians say they’d never heard of the Air India bombing, a majority — 59 per cent — say they know the main details. However, the number of Canadians who don’t know about it has grown to 32 per cent from 28 per cent two years ago. “This has never actually been treated like a Canadian tragedy,” said Kurl. “The vast majority of victims were not white and or not of European descent. It was 1985; that absolutely plays a role, or is a factor, in the way this was handled.” Knowledge is particularly low among the youngest Canadians. Just five per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 34 say they know a lot about the attack, compared to seven per cent of those aged 35 to 54 and 15 per cent of those 55 and older. Those who say they know a little bit, just the main details, are concentrated in the eldest demographic too, with 74 per cent saying they know at least that much. “How have 40 years gone by? How have 268 Canadian citizens been murdered, and our country has not just forgotten this, the data shows us, for many, particularly for younger adults today, is they just never knew anything about it,” said Kurl. In the aftermath of the attack, only one person, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was convicted, and he pleaded guilty to manslaughter for a bombing that killed two Japanese airport workers at Narita International Airport; it was supposed to bring down a second Air India flight. Only 29 per cent of Canadians can report accurately that nobody was convicted; in 2023, when pollsters asked the same question, 34 per cent knew the truth. Seventy-one per cent believe there should be an exhibit about the bombing at the Canadian Museum of History and 65 per cent say it should be taught in schools. Fewer of those polled, just 41 per cent, support displaying wreckage from the bombed plane in Canada. There are a number of conspiracies about the Air India bombing, and the polling finds that 51 per cent of those polled believe there is too much disinformation about what really happened. One conspiracy theory blames the Indian government for the attack. In fact, 10 per cent of Canadians believe the Indian government was behind the attack, while 28 per cent correctly identify violent factions within the Khalistan movement. (Sixty-one per cent of Canadians say they don’t know who was responsible.) There will be ceremonies across the country to mark the anniversary of the bombing, and 13 per cent of Canadians say they would be interested in attending a memorial service, a number that holds roughly consistent across the country, except in Atlantic Canada, where 21 per cent say they would be interested. Such services have led to controversy as some attendees in the past have belonged to the Sikhs for Justice group, which supports the establishment of a Sikh homeland, and which believes one of the alleged architects of the attack is in fact innocent. Sixty-three per cent of Canadians say it is inappropriate for Khalistan supporters to attend such a memorial, including 69 per cent of those who say they know a lot about the Air India bombing. “It’s striking to see that in five or 10 years, a lot of the people who have tried to carry this torch of awareness while at the same time continuing to grieve for their loved ones, they’re going to be gone. They’re not going to be here anymore,” said Kurl. The polling was conducted online between June 13 and June 15, 2025, among a sample of 1,607 Canadian adults. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to region, gender, age, household income, and education, based on the Canadian census. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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