Criminal Law

R. v. Malik and Bagri

In 1985, an Air India flight traveling from Canada to the UK was brought down by an explosion, killing all 329 people on board. A second bomb exploded in Narita, Japan before it could be loaded onto another Air India flight, killing two baggage handlers. Many years later, two Canadian men, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, were charged with multiple counts of first degree murder and related offences. The resulting "Air India" trial in British Columbia was the longest criminal trial in Canadian history.

Along with BC lawyer Richard Peck, Q.C., former SGM partner Michael Code (now a professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law) led Bagri's defence team; current SGM partner Jonathan Dawe was also a member of the team, working primarily on issues arising from the destruction of potentially exculpatory evidence by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Bagri was ultimately acquitted on all charges.

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