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.
It took another sorry episode -- the torture of Ottawa engineer Maher Arar in a Syrian prison over false allegations of terrorist involvement -- to prompt a review of national security operations.
Justice Dennis O'Connor made almost two dozen recommendations in 2006 to improve information-sharing practices and protect human rights.
Elliott, a former national security adviser to the prime minister, said implementation of changes proposed by O'Connor have created a national security landscape that's "vastly different" from when the Air India disaster took place.
"There's a lot of water under the bridge since then," Elliott said.
"The relationship between the RCMP and CSIS has never been better. I don't think that the investigation would unfold the same way today as it did all those years ago."
Still, Elliott believes Major's report will provide useful recommendations to help security services navigate the difficult questions that arise when secret intelligence must be used as evidence when terrorism suspects are brought to court.
An attempt to deport a Montreal man accused of terrorist links recently collapsed when CSIS withdrew information from a Federal Court case, saying its disclosure would jeopardize the service's operations.
Elliott has come out in favour of taking more terrorism cases to court as a means of stamping out the violent scourge that has gripped the western psyche since the 9-11 attacks on the United States.
"Certainly we're looking forward to the report, and there are some very current issues that we hope Justice Major will be able to help us deal with."
The federal government says Major's report will help decide how best to bolster oversight of the RCMP's national security activities - a key O'Connor proposal yet to be put in place.
There has been speculation Major will recommend creation of a national intelligence czar.
Elliott says he doesn't see a need for such a new position. But he allows that police and intelligence officials must work together effectively to help ensure more prosecutions take place.
