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Ottawa: The Canadian government today rejected allegations of racism dogging the investigations into the 1985 Kanishka airliner bombing which killed all 329 people on board, mostly of Indian-origin. At a hearing of the Air India inquiry commission, sociologist Sherene Razack was grilled about a report she had prepared for victims' families alleging systemic racism led to Canadian officials minimising the warnings to Indian carrier and being slow to respond after the devastating bombing. In her testimony, Razack did not level charges of overt racism at individual bureaucrats, politicians or officers and even acknowledged that "there is evidence that some Canadian officials acted heroically." However, she said an overall structure tainted by systemic racism led people to ignore advance warnings of the attack and hampered the initial probe. Denying the allegations, federal government lawyer Barney Brucker said Razack selectively examined a fraction of the evidence and testimony at the inquiry before coming to her unsubstantiated findings. Razack has argued in her report that a racial bias, perhaps unconscious, affected the government's response to the bombing. But Brucker bristled at the suggestion, saying Razack based the report on selective documents given to her by lawyers of the victims' families. "You really don't know what happened in this case, Professor, other than what's been fed to you in these documents," Brucker said during cross-examination. | 
