Air India probe to resume, but questions remain over secret evidence

Ottawa: The inquiry into the 1985 Air India bombing is set to resume next week, even though officials have yet to reach a final resolution of a long-running dispute over secret evidence.
Michael Tansey, a spokesman for the inquiry, says the public hearings will reopen Monday with testimony from present and former security and police officers, as well as academic experts.
But the witness list has been juggled so the inquiry can concentrate, for the time being, on background issues related to creation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in the early 1980s, and the general perception of terrorist threats at that time.
That means nobody will have to address the question just yet of sensitive documents that have been heavily censored by government officials on national security grounds.
John Major, the former Supreme Court justice who heads the inquiry, threatened two weeks ago to shut down proceedings if the officials didn't relent in their secrecy claims.
Major and his counsel have seen the material in question and have the legal power to deal with it behind closed doors. But the judge has repeatedly said he doesn't want to exclude the families of the bombing victims or the media if he can help it.
02/03/07 Jim Brown/CP/570 News, Canada

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Categories: Air India Mar 2007, Foreign Mar 2007, Safety Mar 2007