TORONTO and VANCOUVER -- The Mounties accused Canada's spy agency of mishandling the Air-India case in 1985 to cover "their own backside" in the event that the case fell apart, the former head of a CSIS watchdog group said yesterday.

RCMP officer Gary Bass has said that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service destroyed evidence against several co-conspirators when it erased tape recordings of intercepted phone calls.

The RCMP did a good job in gathering evidence and could have solved the crime the year it was committed if CSIS had co-operated fully, he stated in a recently released court document.

However, Ron Atkey, who was chairman of the Security Intelligence Review Committee at the time of the Air-India disaster, said yesterday that CSIS did not have any information that could have prevented the two explosions that killed 331 people in 1985. The review committee was created to keep an eye on CSIS.

The spy agency might have been overzealous in erasing tape recordings of intercepted phone calls, but it did not sit on information or erase tapes to cover its tracks, Mr. Atkey said in an interview.

"[The RCMP] are, quite frankly, nervous and very worried that they are not going to get a conviction, because the evidence is circumstantial," he said.

The RCMP were "covering their own backside" in case the prosecution fails, Mr. Atkey said.

Within days of the tragedy, SIRC began interviewing CSIS agents who had been investigating Sikh terrorism.

Mr. Atkey said he felt CSIS made some mistakes, such as erasing the tapes prematurely, and had some bad luck, such as discontinuing surveillance of a prime suspect days before the bombings.

However the RCMP -- not CSIS -- may have had the biggest problems in 1985, he said.

The biggest hurdle in the police investigation was finding an informant, he said. "The Sikh community was tight as a knot and [the RCMP] could not get anybody to talk," Mr. Atkey said.

Several internal RCMP and CSIS documents from pretrial hearings in the Air-India case became available recently, after a court order prohibiting publication was lifted.

The documents show that the RCMP has been highly critical for years of CSIS involvement in the Air India case.

CSIS intercepted phone calls of suspected mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar for three months before the two explosions on June 23, 1985, on opposite sides of the world. However, they erased all but 54 tapes while negotiating with the RCMP on access to the materials and without telling the RCMP that they were erasing them.

CSIS officials stated in memos that the RCMP never specifically asked the spy agency to retain the tapes. RCMP officers dispute the CSIS statements.

R. I. MacEwan, a senior CSIS official, stated in a memo written in 1990 that staff were following the agency's policy on tape erasures and did nothing wrong.

Prosecutors, and possibly the RCMP, did not accept CSIS's reasons for erasing the tapes, he said. They were "looking for a fall guy" in case charges pending at that time against Inderjit Singh Reyat failed, he said.

Former CSIS head Reid Morden said in an interview he does not believe any CSIS agent would withhold information about a crime from the RCMP. "Virtually all the people who were there at the time were former policemen and understood the workings of law enforcement," he said.

Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are on trial for the murder of 329 people who were in a mid-air explosion aboard an Air-India flight, and of two people in an explosion of a bomb in luggage being transferred to an Air India flight at Tokyo's airport. Mr. Reyat was convicted of manslaughter for helping to make the two bombs.

After much wrangling, the Federal government has announced the name of an 'eminent' person to look into the shameful and painfully long saga surrounding the Air India tragedy. He is none other than Ontario's former Premier Bob Rae, a man much respected no doubt and also, according to many, close to the multicultural communities of Ontario during his stint as Premier. He would now meet with the families of the victims, talk to them, and then decided if there is a need to order a public inquiry. Of course, Ottawa's decision comes as the minority-Liberal government teeters on the edge of a precipice. It's not difficult to see why they have rushed with this announcement. The demand made by the victim families and of course, most reasonable people, was to look into what had gone wrong - before, during and worse after Canada's worst case of mass murder. Did Canada goof because we were a bunch of innocents. Of did it turn a blind eye because, as some have alleged, it was some brown people going after other brown people? It's not an easy answer to find. It is even more difficult for parts of the government to bring out the dirty linen and wash it publicly especially in these ultra-sensitive times of terrorism.

After all, it is Ottawa's total failure to bring to justice those who killed 329 innocent people that will be on scrutiny here. We may never know convincingly who did what? But we have a right to know whether or not, our own government stood by and merely watched the spectacle, first to propitiate powerful local interests, and then to play along with the US during the Cold War when India was most certainly in the Russian bloc and creating trouble within its borders was perhaps a good way to keep the Evil Empire contained. After all, it was the good old times when then Canada's Prime Minister Brian Mulrooney and President Ronald Reagan, the slayer of the Soviet monster were on the same bus.

And inquiry will likely touch upon these very deep secrets and who really wants to scratch over old wounds. Canada might be home to groups that once terrorized distant parts of the globe, but since Sept.11, there is at least official condemnation of using terror as a means to achieve political ends. Unfortunately, this was not quite what evidence shows from Canada's past. There was very little, if any, effort on the part of the government of the day to contain such sentiments or at least to send out a message that Canada frowned upon such violence.

A public enquiry is not meant to find the killers, but to put before the public all the relevant facts so that we minimize the possibility of it happening in the future.

Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan has reluctantly named Mr. Rae as an independent adviser to review the case and assess whether a public inquiry or some other measure might be warranted.

"The 1985 bombing was a horrible terrorist act," Mr. Rae was quoted in a report as saying. "There is a sense among Canadians this is a tragedy that needs to be fully understood."

Rae is not saying much but did seem to hint in his interview to a newspaper that some of the mysteries might never come out.

Rae is a much respected lawyer and also an insider who knows the Intelligence community well, as he has once sat on the Federal Security Intelligence Review Committee, that is a civilian oversight body watching over the CSIS.

The Liberal government's sudden reversal in the matter has not been a surprise since Opposition Leader Stephen Harper had made it crystal clear that he favoured a fully-fledged public inquiry. Even the Parliament had passed a non-binding motion two weeks ago calling on the government to establish an inquiry.

In the coming months, Rae will talk with the families, security agencies and others who might help him make up his mind. The RCMP says its investigation is ongoing.

The case is not closed yet. The RCMP is keeping the file alive. And BC prosecutors are studying the judgement to see if there could lauch an appeal that has a modicum of chance to succeed.

Some victim family members have already expressed serious reservation about Rae's mission.

"He's not an anti-terrorism expert, he's not an investigator," said Susheel Gupta, who has been vocal on behalf of the Air-India 182 Victims Families Association in Ottawa. He told the media, "It offends me and it angers me, but sadly we are used to being treated like this."

Mr. Gupta, whose mother was killed when the flight exploded off the Irish coast, said while family members will meet with Mr. Rae, many are questioning the former premier's initial comments that his first task is to ask what questions he should be tackling.

"That's just wasting our time. Some family members may not be willing to meet because they're angry. The questions are already out there. Why do we have to come up with the questions?"

In the meanwhile, NDP MP Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster) is calling once again on the Martin government to respect Parliament's democratic wish for an independent public inquiry into the Air India tragedy.

Julian's demand comes in response to the appointment of the Bob Rae by Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan to advise her on the need for an inquiry.

"This move stalls the possibility of a public inquiry until after the next federal election. It does not address what the victims' families and Parliament have been asking for," said Julian. "The Liberal government is stalling and has once again failed to show leadership and respect for Canadians when dealing with this enormous tragedy. What are the Liberals afraid of?"

"The Liberal government must follow through on the motion passed by Parliament which calls for an inquiry into the Air India disaster. The case has already been made for an inquiry, and the House of Commons is supporting it. Let's not waste any more time. Stop the stonewalling", said Julian.