Bureaucracy slowed info sharing in Air India probe, inquiry hears

A national police investigation into the Air India bombing was hindered by the creation of Canada's new spy agency a year earlier, a public inquiry heard Friday.
Chris Scowen, a former top counter-terrorism official at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, testified at the Air India Inquiry in Ottawa that the agency had not yet ironed out how and what information it could share with the RCMP at the time of the bombing in 1985, he said.
"No one really knew how the (CSIS) Act would impact our operations and it was a learning curve for everyone."
Because of that, "the RCMP's ability to respond in a law enforcement way appears to have been diminished as to prior to the creation of CSIS — that was just one of the costs, I suppose you'd say, of creating CSIS?" asked Norm Boxall, a lawyer representing the victims' families.
Scowen admitted that the agency was struggling with the new processes it was required by law to follow.
"If this entire thing had happened under the mandate of the RCMP security service, the direction would have come from the RCMP commissioner. That would have certainly cut down the bureaucracy. But that was not what the will of government was."
Commission chair Justice John Major interjected during Scowen's testimony, saying it appeared the splitting of the RCMP and CSIS came "at a bad time."
"You have this act of terrorism that destroys 331 people's lives, and CSIS and the RCMP appear to be at odds over what can be provided to whom on what basis," said Major.
Scowen briefly replied: "Yes, sir."
The inquiry is examining, among other things, how wiretap recordings of phone calls made by prime Air India suspect Talwinder Singh Parmar three months before the 1985 bombing were later erased by CSIS.
All 329 people on board Air India Flight 182 died when the plane exploded on June 23, 1985, while en route from Canada to India. Two baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita Airport died in another connected bombing.
Created by Parliament in 1984, CSIS is responsible for security intelligence — formerly under the watch of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Lawyers at the inquiry have focused this week on how information regarding national security and criminal investigations was shared between the organizations around the time of the bombing.
21/09/07 CBC.ca, Canada

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Categories: Air India - International Sep 2007, Foreign Sep 2007, Safety Sep 2007