A monument built for the victims of the 1985 bombing of Air India’s Kanishka flight has been vandalised ahead of the event’s 25th anniversary, prompting the police to launch a probe.
Members of the Indo-Canadian community are outraged that someone has stolen earlier this month a stainless steel “gnomon” or “shadow caster” that produces a shadow on a memorial sundial when lit by the sun. The vandals also used black paint to spray graffiti on the face of the sundial.
The monument, located in Humber Bay Park East in Toronto, also features a wall naming the 329 people who were killed when a bomb exploded on Air India’s Kanishka Flight 182 as it travelled off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985. Two baggage handlers killed by an associated bomb at Narita Airport in Japan are honoured on the wall as well.
Officials are hoping to have a newly-built gnomon installed before the anniversary. —PTI