Where Were You on June 23, 1985?

Perhaps because Canada itself struggled to see this as a Canadian tragedy. The victims had names that didn’t sound like those of majority Canadians. They belonged to faiths and cultures that most Canadians didn’t identify with. Many of them were flying ‘back home’–to India from Canada. And so when the news broke, it felt foreign to too many Canadians. Distant. Someone else’s problem.

And soon enough, the victims were quietly written out of our national story. Yet, they were our neighbors, classmates, coworkers, and friends. They were Canadians, like us, with dreams, families, and futures. People who looked like some of us, perhaps worshiped differently than others of us, but ultimately belonged to all of us—as the thoughtfully curated McMaster University Air India 182 Digital Archive reminds us today.

That’s exactly why this day matters so much. June 23rd is Canada’s National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism. This day exists because of Air India Flight 182, because of what Khalistani terrorists did to the 329 innocent people aboard that ill-fated plane. When Governor General Adrienne Clarkson proclaimed this day in 2005, 20 years after the bombing, she made the point in no uncertain terms: 23/6, the country’s bloodiest terror attack, was a wholly Canadian tragedy and it deserves the same place in our collective memory as any other national trauma.

That year, the federal government also launched the Kanishka Project—a major research initiative on terrorism—to ensure Canada would never again be caught unprepared by extremist violence. But institutional recognition is only the first step. The harder work is making sure every Canadian understands why this day matters.

For 40 years, the families of the victims have carried this memory largely alone. They’ve organized annual vigils and lobbied successive governments for justice; they have established scholarships and produced commemorative art and literature. Each year, they gather at the haunting sundial memorial in Ahakista, Ireland, where bodies first washed ashore. They also stand at monuments across Canada—in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal—keeping the flame of remembrance alive.

But this can’t be their burden alone. The memory of 23/6 belongs to all of us Canadians. It should make us more vigilant about the extremism and hate that still threaten communities today—including the ongoing threat of Khalistani extremism that claimed these lives and continues to target innocent people. It should remind us that Canadian victims of terrorism deserve the same recognition, the same mourning, the same ‘never again’ resolve that we extend to victims everywhere else.

And this is precisely why the designation of June 23rd as our National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism must not just be about looking backward. We must ensure that terrorism—whether perpetrated by Khalistani separatists or any other extremist group—has no place in Canada.