VANCOUVER - Some still want answers. Others just want to move on.
There were strong and conflicting emotions by family members and people affected by the Air India Flight 182 bombing following the screening Saturday of a documentary that recounts the events leading up to the biggest terrorist attack in Canadian history.
"Air India 182," directed by Sturla Gunnarsson, tells the story of what happened on June 23, 1985, when a bomb exploded on the plane off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people onboard.
The documentary is based on factual information from court transcripts and wiretaps and includes re-enactments and intimate interviews.
Family members recount waving one last time to their loved ones who were about to board the plane. The woman airline clerk who checked in the luggage that was carrying the bomb admits that scene frequently replays in her memory in slow motion.
After the Vancouver screening on Saturday, many people who had lost family members in the bombing praised Gunnarsson for vividly showing the pain they've experienced for the last 23 years.
However, during a question and answer session following the film, one audience member asked why the filmmakers didn't do more investigative reporting since what was screened in the film was information that was already known.
"We never saw this as an investigative film, as journalism," said Gunnarsson, who was raised in B.C.
"We felt this is one of the major moments in modern Canadian history and it's never really been embraced as a part of Canadian history."
He said the film was also a way to give the victims in the attack "a voice and a name."
"Because death through terrorism is meaningless."
Another family member in the audience spoke up during the session, saying that after 23 years, it was time for people to move forward.
But for some who have ties to the historic event, that has been incredibly hard.
Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who testified at the Air India inquiry and was in attendance at Saturday's screening, said some people are still trying to intimidate him for being critical of extremists.
The World Sikh Organization named Dosanjh in a multi-million dollar lawsuit against CBC regarding a documentary that featured an interview with him.
The lawsuit alleges the CBC documentary "Samosa Politics" by reporter Terry Milewski likened the Sikh separatist movement to terrorism and defamed members of Canada's Sikh community.
Some journalists who were at the screening and have closely followed the Air India trial said that they had also faced death threats and lawsuits.
Renee Saklikar lost her aunt and uncle in the bombing and was interviewed for the documentary, which she described as a skilled, multi-layered film that captures a major part of Canadian history.
"(The film) hopefully brings it home that sadly it's still an on-going story, it's not a closed story" she said.
"We do need to move on and we do move on...but it is psychologically implausible to just erase it."
"Air India 182" will air on CBC on June 22.
News from �The Canadian Press, 2008
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