Lawyer wants Ottawa to decide on Air India material
VANCOUVER (CP) - A lawyer for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
argued at a hearing Monday that it should be up to the Federal Court to
decide whether some pre-trial evidence in the Air India case should be
publicized.
Hans Van Iperen told a B.C. Supreme Court hearing dealing with a
publication ban leading up to Canada's biggest mass murder trial that
release of material involving Canada's spy agency would affect national
security and international relations. Van Iperen cited Section 38 of the
Canada Evidence Act in saying the matter should be referred to the Federal
Court because of its sensitive nature.
"The material should not be released to counsel for the media," Van Iperen
said of a report by the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the
civilian agency that oversees CSIS and reviewed its erasure of tapes
involving the Air India case.
"The jurisdiction to deal with this is the Federal Court," he said.
But Dan Burnett, representing CanWest Global Communications, the CBC and
Citytv, said he didn't understand how a provision by the federal attorney
general, invoked to protect material involving national security, national
defence and international relations, would affect the release of the report.
Justice Ian Josephson sided with Van Iperen, although the issue of the
erased tapes has long-ago been reported by the media.
"I have no discretion but to ensure that the information is not disclosed
other than within the accordance of the Act," Josephson said one month
before the start of a massive trial.
Ripudamin Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are charged with first-degree
murder and conspiracy in the deaths of 329 people aboard Air India Flight
182, which exploded over the Atlantic Ocean on June 23, 1985.
A third accused, Inderjit Singh Reyat, pleaded guilty Feb. 10 to
manslaughter and was given five years in prison on top of the 15 years he
had already spent in custody.
The former Vancouver Island auto electrician was convicted in 1991 of
manslaughter for his part in building a second bomb that killed two baggage
handlers at Tokyo's Narita airport within an hour of the Air India blast.
Media lawyers have been fighting a sweeping ban on publication that was
reinstated March 7.
Josephson adjourned further discussion of hundreds of documents in the
inventory to April 16, leaving just 12 days before the Air India trial is
set to begin.
The hearing has continued over several weeks as the RCMP and Crown lawyers
have sought to have some material sealed, banned or kept secret.
On Monday, RCMP lawyer Jeff Hayes asked for more time to review an
inventory of court exhibits and other materials from months of pre-trial
hearings released by the Crown.
Hayes told Josephson that the Mounties want to ensure the inventory has no
erroneous inclusions of material that should not be publicized through the
media.
The RCMP's resources are stretched so thin that there's only one person
available to review the inventory, which includes hundreds of items, Hayes
said.
He has already asked for, and received, more time to review material that
was to be included in the inventory before the court released it to media
lawyers last week.
Hayes has also requested, and been granted, the continuation of a
publication ban on pretrial evidence so the Mounties' ongoing investigation
of the case won't be prejudiced and their relationship with other
international agencies probing the matter will not be affected.
Burnett told the court that the RCMP's request for more time, along with
the Crown's order to seal material concerning 10 protected witnesses, adds
further unnecessary delays to the upcoming trial.
"That puts us in a very difficult position of being unable to fully argue
the application," he said.
Burnett suggested he get access to material that he could reveal only to a
senior editor of each organization he represents.
Crown prosecutor Arlene Loyst objected, saying documents the Crown wants
sealed should not be released because the material may not be kept
confidential.
Burnett said outside court that the issue of the publication ban has become
a waiting game as the RCMP and Crown decide what documents they don't want
released to the public.
"It's perilously close to the trial date and has the effect of running out
the clock," he said. "My concern is that once the trial date comes we don't
want to be in a position of interrupting the case to deal with this but
we're being forced into it bit by bit."
http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=bc_home&articleID=1301909
