RCMP commissioner expects Air India bombing report to sharply criticize Mounties

Ottawa: Canada's top Mountie says he expects the coming report on the deadly 1985 Air India bombing to be highly critical of the RCMP.
But William Elliott says that's "fair and reasonable" given the problems plaguing the Canadian intelligence community at the time.
"I think there were a lot of things that were a long way from ideal," Elliott said in an interview.
A Boeing 747 carrying 329 passengers, most of them Canadian, was en route to New Delhi when it blew apart off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985.
Police have long believed Air India Flight 182 was destroyed by Sikh separatists who seethed with anger at the Indian government.
A federal inquiry led by former Supreme Court justice John Major examined whether there was adequate assessment of the terrorist threat, the relationship between the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and issues concerning Canadian aviation security.
The commission of inquiry said in July its report was ready to be reviewed by federal agencies to flag any information whose publication might compromise national security. The report is expected in coming months, though no release date has been set.
Elliott hasn't seen a draft, but he's not counting on bouquets.
"I would be shocked if it wasn't critical of the RCMP," Elliott said. "Because I think clearly that there were not good relationships between the (intelligence) service and the RCMP. I don't think there was sufficient information sharing."
The complex RCMP investigation of the bombing was hampered by turf wars between the Mounties and the newly formed CSIS, which took up national security duties just a year earlier.
Investigators also faced difficulties retrieving wreckage from the ocean floor and challenges persuading reluctant witnesses to come forward.
CSIS sparked additional concerns by erasing numerous audio tapes, including telephone intercepts of the now-dead Talwinder Singh Parmar, suspected leader of the bomb plot.
In addition, a backlog of telephone intercepts on Parmar's home were not reviewed until after the bombing.
Calls for an inquiry into the downing of Flight 182 were rebuffed for years by successive governments that insisted the crime was still under investigation.
23/11/09 Jim Bronskill/The Canadian Press

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Categories: Air India - International Nov 2009, NACIL Nov 2009, Safety Nov 2009