Canada faces repeated threats like Air India

Urgent legislative changes are needed to improve the information flow between CSIS and the RCMP to keep Canadians safe from an increasing terrorist threat, former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli told the Air India inquiry Friday.
Zaccardelli said many of the same problems between the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP that existed when Air India Flight 182 was bombed in 1985 remain 22 years later.
In a frank assessment of Canadian law enforcement, Zaccardelli told the Ottawa inquiry that when CSIS was formed in 1984, it was supposed to work closely with the RCMP "to be the two sides of the same coin."
"That is not what happened," Zaccardelli testified.
"The legislation and the way it is interpreted have not enabled the agencies to effectively and efficiently carry out their mandates."
And while the Air India bombing was Canada's worst single act of terrorism, the threat today is even graver, he said.
"I realize that the Air India disaster was the one of the greatest tragedies that has ever taken place in the world, the most important, the serious crime that has ever taken place in Canada. That was one event. What we face today is a repeated series of threats."
Zaccardelli said the fundamental problem is a single word in the CSIS act that appears to make the sharing of information with the RCMP optional and not mandatory.
01/12/07 Kim Bolan/CanWest News Service/Canada.com, Canada

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Categories: Air India - International Dec 2007, Foreign Dec 2007, NACIL Dec 2007, Safety Dec 2007