❝The Extremism That Killed My Family Still Thrives in Canada❞
- authored by CoHNA Canada Leadership
There’s a photo that Mahesh Sharma, an educator and philanthropist from Montreal, has carried with him for 40 years. It’s the last picture of his family—his wife Uma, daughters Sandhya and Swati, and his mother-in-law—taken at Mirabel airport before they boarded Air India Flight 182 on the night of June 22, 1985.
He was supposed to be on that plane too. But work held him back.
A friend’s phone call woke him up the next morning, asking if he had heard about “the plane.” He hadn’t. When he turned on the radio, he learned that AI 182 had exploded over the Atlantic. All 329 people aboard were dead. The bomb had been planted by Khalistani extremists right here in Canada.
It remains the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history.
In memory of his family, Sharma, a professor at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business, established the Sandhya & Swati Sharma Memorial Scholarship at Concordia, honoring his daughters while helping students who needed financial assistance. In 2025, he was made a member of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour.
You can hear his story in this powerful video:
But Sharma’s story isn’t just about healing and preserving the memory of his loved ones. In a recent interview with La Presse, he delivers a stark warning about how little we’ve learned from the 1985 disaster.
He raises alarm how Khalistani extremism continues to go unchecked in Canada. He talks about the photos of Talwinder Singh Parmar—the one who masterminded the bombing of AI 182—being displayed at pro-Khalistan rallies. “His picture is held up at demonstrations,” Sharma says, “displayed in giant format on some Sikh temples—the equivalent of displaying the photo of Osama bin Laden on mosques.”
A year before the AI 182 carnage, India had asked Canada to extradite Parmar. The government of then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau refused. Parmar stayed in Canada and orchestrated the bombing.
“Politicians never learn lessons. They just want votes,” Sharma adds while calling out the extremism that destroyed his family and, unfortunately, continues to fester in our communities.
Read his interview here: Lessons from Air India Flight 182 | The Press