Zaccardelli paints grim picture at Air India inquiry

Ottawa: Police and spies should be put back on the same team, former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli told the Air India inquiry yesterday, as he called for a major shakeup of Canada's approach to national security.
Returning to the public eye nearly one year after leaving the force, Mr. Zaccardelli spoke candidly about the problems he saw throughout his 36 years in the RCMP.
Turf wars and legal concerns have created a relationship between the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that is "almost unworkable," he said, and many of the problems that plagued the response to the 1985 terrorist bombing still exist.
"Unless you fundamentally change how they operate, or the structure under which they operate, the tendency is to continue to behave in the same way," said Mr. Zaccardelli, who was commissioner from 2000 to 2006.
The answer, he said, is for the federal national security response to be fused together under a single governing body.
"If you're on the same team, you tend to share and collaborate," Mr. Zaccardelli said.
"If you see each other as competitors for those scarce resource dollars … then to enhance yourself, you've got to put somebody down."
National security intelligence gathering was at one time handled by a division of the RCMP, but Parliament created a civilian spy agency with 1984's CSIS Act after a public inquiry found that RCMP spies were breaking the law and violating civil liberties.
01/12/07 Bill Curry/Globe and Mail

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