The inquiry into the Air India bombing will face more delays as the head of the probe has extended his deadline for the release of some secret documents.

Justice John Major said the commission will adjourn Friday until March 26, at which time he wants a progress report on the matter.

Former Supreme Court justice John Major, shown Friday, has said repeatedly that he wants most of the proceedings of the Air India inquiry he is leading to be accessible to the families who lost loved ones and to the media.
(CBC)

The former Supreme Court justice had hoped to start hearing testimony by March 19 on the activities of Canadian police and security officers in the weeks leading up to the 1985 bombing that killed 329 people, many of them Canadian citizens.

But it now appears those hearings will be put off until April 10 at the earliest.

Major has said repeatedly that he wants most of the proceedings to be accessible to the families who lost loved ones and to the media, meaning that documents from the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service would have to be made public.

But government lawyers have argued that certain documents should be kept from the public for continuing security concerns and that thousands must be vetted before public release.

Both federal lawyer Barney Brucker and chief commission counsel Mark Freiman acknowledged Friday that progress is being made. But Freiman said there are still hundreds of documents that need to be released by the government.

The issue over the documents led Major to suddenly halt proceedings on Feb. 19. He said they would not resume if portions of the documents remain secret.

But Major decided witnesses could be called for whom he did not require documents in hopes it would allow time to resolve the dispute.

Unlimited access

Major and his staff have unlimited access to call documents, but the government gets to decide which parts of the documents can be released publicly or can even be referred to when witnesses are questioned.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has instructed his officials to use the broadest interpretation of the law possible when releasing documents.

The long-delayed probe is looking into the worst mass murder in Canada's history. The 1985 bombing killed 329 passengers aboard Air India Flight 182, which exploded over the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Ireland. Of the passengers, 280 were Canadian citizens and 82 were children.

A separate luggage bomb destined for a second Air India flight killed two Japanese baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita airport.

With files from the Canadian Press