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| Backgrounder(s) & FactSheet(s): | Factsheet |
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| Backgrounder(s) & FactSheet(s): | Factsheet |
VICTORIA – In keeping with the provincial government’s commitment to provide public disclosure of the costs of the Air India trial, Attorney General Wally Oppal today released a statement of expenditures.
Air India Flight 182 exploded in mid-air on June 23, 1985. All 329 people aboard died. Less than an hour earlier, a bomb exploded in Tokyo International Airport in Narita, Japan, killing two baggage handlers. The trial that followed was the largest in Canadian history with more than 90 witnesses testifying for the Crown.
Total costs shared by the federal and provincial governments were $57.8
million. Under the cost-sharing agreement, the provincial government provided
$30.27 million and the federal government contributed $27.51 million. The B.C. Auditor General's office and the
federal government's audit office audited the Air India trial expenditures
annually.
The costs outlined represent the expenditures to mount the Air India
trial, excluding police costs. They include funding for court construction and operation, prosecution
and defence, corrections and management services costs. The funding started
with preparations by a small
prosecution team in 1996, and includes pre-trial motions after charges were
laid in October 2000 and the trial itself, which began in April 2003 and ended
in March 2005.
Defence costs were provided under a funding agreement between the
governments and the co-accused. The Province took security against property
owned by each of the co-accused. The Province will seek reimbursement under the
terms of the agreement.
The federal government
share included a contribution of $1 million to B.C. in the early case
preparation phase. Starting in 2001, the federal government entered into an
agreement to contribute approximately 50 per cent of the costs of the trial,
including 100 per cent of victim services costs.
For more information please refer to the Ministry of Attorney General Air India Trial web-page at http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/courts/airindia/information/summary.htm .
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Communications Director 250 920-8500 |
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Visit the Province's website at www.gov.bc.ca for online information and services. |
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