What did CSIS know?
In the Air India mystery, the questions about what Canada’s spy agency, CSIS, really knew about the conspiracy keep coming back. The opposition pounced on the government on June 2, demanding an inquiry into allegations swirling around the case. The solicitor general, who is in charge of the RCMP, dismissed RCMP claims that CSIS covered up its knowledge of the Air India plot. “To suggest that CSIS, for any reason, would pull back from an ongoing counter-terrorism investigation and jeopardize the lives of Canadians and others, Mr. Speaker, is absolutely absurd,” Solicitor General Wayne Easter told the Commons. But senior officers of the RCMP suggested exactly that in long secret internal documents now released as part of the Air India case. At issue is the fact that the suspects were under surveillance by CSIS before the bombing. 150 wiretaps were then erased. CSIS has always said they had no value. But the RCMP was furious. In an internal 1996 report marked “Secret,” Inspector Gary Bass
