Police slow in launching Air India probe: inquiry

Ottawa: A former Vancouver police intelligence officer said he was frustrated with how long it took for the police investigation into the June, 1985, Air India bombing to get started, noting it took three weeks before key Sikh suspects were even questioned by investigators.
Axel Hovbrender, who is now a superintendent with the Vancouver police, told a public inquiry that the task force investigation into the bombing, which claimed 329 lives, was like an impressive battleship that is slow to get going.
"Remembering back, it took about two or three weeks for them to do the things that I thought should have been done in the first week. And that was to interview in the first week individuals who most of us knew or who were in the intelligence field believed - were responsible for that tragic act," Supt. Hovbrender recalled yesterday.
"In the initial phases, I was feeling frustrated in relation to the lack - my perception - of any sort of movement in any sort of enforcement activity against those individuals."
The inquiry has already heard evidence of poor intelligence work in tracking Sikh extremists before the bombing. But this was the first time Commissioner John Major has heard about the flawed investigation after the tragedy.
As a member of the Vancouver Integrated Intelligence Unit in 1985, Supt. Hovbrender worked closely with the RCMP and the newly formed Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Based on information gathered to that time, Supt. Hovbrender said that, in early 1985, he put together a report on key Sikh extremists.
When the bombing occurred in late June, Supt. Hovbrender said he briefed investigators and senior police managers on the "main players" who, he believed, were responsible for the bombing. Noting strained relations between the two federal agencies, Supt. Hovbrender said he believed that he acted as "a conduit" between the RCMP and CSIS.
The officer also told the inquiry that, in retrospect, more resources should have been used, not only by CSIS but by all law enforcement agencies to shut down the Sikh extremists.
24/05/07 Jack Aubry/CanWest News Service/National Post, Canada

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