Angry in the Great White North

Liberal Bob Rae was clear in his report on the Air India bombing -- Sikh separatists were responsible for this terrible act of terrorism:

Let it be said clearly: the bombing of the Air India flight was the result of a conspiracy conceived, planned, and executed in Canada.… As Justice Josephson determined in his Reasons for Judgment, the conspiracy to bomb the two Air India flights involved individuals belonging to what became known as the Babbar Khalsa movement, a group of Sikh radicals determined to "purify" the Sikh religion and establish an independent homeland for Sikhs in Punjab, India.

The World Sikh Organization did not appreciate this candor:

But some Sikh delegates didn't like that speech. MP Ujjal Dosanjh and his wife, Raminder, were Bob Rae supporters at the convention.

"There's no question that WSO [World Sikh Organization] exercised a significant influence at the Liberal convention," Dosanjh said. "In fact, my wife was approached by a delegate who happened to be a Sikh not supporting Bob Rae — and didn't know who my wife was — who said, well, you shouldn't vote for Bob, because Bob expressed the issue of violence about Air India in his speech.

"It baffles me that you have delegates on the floor of a major political party to which I belong who do not want a reference to Air India in a candidate's speech," Dosanjh said.

Some 250 Sikh delegates followed Kennedy's decision to support the eventual winner, Stéphane Dion. Kennedy's campaign manager in Ontario was Sikh MP Navdeep Bains. Bains recently praised the high journalistic standards of Sanjh Savera, although the paper was recently accused by Bains's fellow Liberal, Dosanjh, of threatening him with a beating.

What did Ujjal Dosanjh say to earn a beating?  He criticized a parade in honour of one of the materminds of the 1985 bombing. That prompted an editorial by Sukhminder Singh in Sanjh Savera that suggested, alleged Dosanjh, that Dosanjh deserved a beating.

With all this background, check out this poster:

(click to enlarge)

Bob Rae to address the WSO this week?  So was there a shift in Bob Rae's position with regards to the responsibility for the bombing?  Had Bob Rae chosen Navdeep Bains over Ujjal Dosanjh with regards to the Sanjh Savera controversy?  Was Bob Rae looking to address one of the major issues that cost him the Liberal Party leadership?

Or was Bob Rae going to stand in front of an auditorium full of Sikhs and stick to his guns?

We'll never know, but I can speculate.  Give Bob Rae credit -- he came out forcefully on the question of the Air India bombing and there has never been a hint that his position changed even as the Liberal Party leadership slipped out of his grasp.

For some reason, he agreed to make an appearance at the WSO convention.  But maybe it was hinted that he would be asked to make some sort of concession on the Air India issue.  He decided he could not do it. 

Or maybe it occurred to him the question would inevitably come up.

Given that fellow Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh went as far as to lodge a complaint with the RCMP when he went head-to-head with Navdeep Bains' friends in the World Sikh Organization, Bob Rae decided that prudence was the better part of valour, and just dropped plans to make an appearance.

Can't say I'd blame him.  Did Bob Rae decide that Navdeep Bains' friends at the WSO were just too dodgy?  Especially with a by-election only a few days away?

Of course, if that's the way it played out, that would put him in Navdeep Bains' bad books.

On the other hand, maybe he had a scheduling conflict, like a promised appearance at a bowling alley to meet voters, or maybe he realized at the last minute that he had planned to wash his hair that day.