New security czar needed: Air India report
Last Updated: Thursday, June 17, 2010 | 8:00 AM ET
CBC News
Related
Internal Links
Retired Supreme Court of Canada justice John C. Major will soon make public his findings from the inquiry into the Air India bombing. (Dave Chan/Reuters) Canada's national security adviser should be given sweeping new powers to resolve disputes between the RCMP and CSIS, the head of the Air India inquiry will recommend.
CBC News has learned that in the long-awaited final report from the commission that investigated the bombing of Air India Flight 182, John C. Major will say that national security continues to be badly organized between the Mounties and Canada's spy agency.
The national security adviser, who currently provides advice to the prime minister on national security and intelligence issues, should also be the final arbiter where the two agencies disagree, Major will say.
The position would be similar to that of an American-style national security czar.
This recommendation means that the director of CSIS and the RCMP commissioner would effectively report to the national security adviser only in cases where the adviser needs to resolve national security issues. Marie-Lucie Morin currently holds the post.
The Mounties and Canada's spy service have been criticized for failing to work together on the Air India case, an issue that has always infuriated the victims' families.
Relatives of Air India bombing victim Sugra Sadiq react during a moment of silence at the start of an inquiry in Ottawa on June 21, 2006. (Chris Wattie/Reuters) Former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli testified before the commission that the two agencies are still different cultures defending their own turf. He said someone needs to be the boss of both.
The report will also come down hard on holes in aviation security, saying there is an over-reliance on technology, not enough intelligence and too many ground crew who never get searched, CBC News has learned.
Flight 182 went down in the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people aboard, most of them Canadians. A separate luggage bomb destined for a second Air India flight killed two Japanese baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita airport.
An inquiry into the bombing — how it occurred, why the authorities failed to find those responsible, and whether it could happen again — began on June 21, 2006.
Inderjit Singh Reyat was the only man ever convicted in the case after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2003.
Suspected ringleader Talwinder Singh Parmar died in India in 1991, and the RCMP's two main surviving suspects — Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri — were both acquitted in March 2005 after a 19-month trial. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Josephson ruled that the Crown's case against the two was too weak for a conviction.
Share Tools
Latest Toronto News Headlines
- Truck dangles on overpass after 401 crash in Ajax
- A section of Highway 401 is closed for hours after a tractor-trailer collides with an SUV, slides off the highway and hangs perilously over the roadway below. more »
- GO Transit train damaged by debris on tracks
- A GO Transit train is damaged after striking a short track section that appears to have been deliberately laid over the rails. more »
- Everest team unable to bring down Toronto woman's body
- Bad weather has hampered the recovery team that is attempting to bring down the body of a Toronto woman who died trying to climb Mt. Everest. more »
- Man shot dead in Oshawa
- A man in is mid-30s is dead after he was shot at a house in Oshawa on Friday night. more »
Top News Headlines
- Teen struck by lightning in Ottawa dies
- The victim of a Friday lightning strike during a storm in east Ottawa has died, CBC News has learned. more »
- Montreal protesters march in peaceful defiance
- The clanging of pots and pans sounded throughout Montreal's downtown core Saturday night and into early Sunday morning, as thousands of protesters marched on in peaceful — but loud — defiance of Bill 78. more »
- Syrian children massacred by the dozens, UN says
- More than 90 people have been killed by regime forces in a district of central Syria, with the head of the UN team in the country confirming at least 32 children and 60 adults were killed in an artillery attack. more »
- Missing Winnipeg children found in Mexico
- Two Winnipeg children reported missing and possibly in Mexico have been found alive, according to unofficial reports from an agency that works to find missing people. more »
- Truck dangles on overpass after 401 crash in Ajax
- Everest victim's husband says family not seeking government help
- Brampton family seeks woman missing since Thursday
- GO Transit train damaged by debris on tracks
- Everest team unable to bring down Toronto woman's body
- 'Save me' last words of Mount Everest climber
- Timmins fire crews aided by calmer winds
- Man shot dead in Oshawa
- Serial carjacker gets life term for fatal crash

