CSIS notes stolen, ex-spy says at Zundel deportation
hearing
By KIRK MAKIN JUSTICE REPORTER Saturday, September 18,
2004 - Page A6
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPPrint/LAC/20040918/
ZUNDEL18/TPNational/
A former Canadian Security Intelligence Services agent's
detailed notes about his experiences at the spy agency were stolen soon
after he went public about his employer's shortcomings in 2000, the
ex-agent testified yesterday.
Testifying at the deportation hearing of Holocaust-denier
Ernst Zundel in Toronto, former agent John Farrell said that both his
computer and a collection of hard-copy notes disappeared. He said the loss
has left him unable to answer many of the questions posed by Mr. Zundel's
lawyers.
The material disappeared from a friend's home where he had
left it for safekeeping, Mr. Farrell said.
At the time, Mr. Farrell testified, he was working with
former Globe and Mail reporter Andrew Mitrovica to write articles about
CSIS not having paid him $72,000 in overtime pay, as well as about dubious
practices at the agency.
Mr. Farrell eventually collaborated with Mr. Mitrovica on
a book -- Covert Entry -- which details alleged underhandedness,
incompetence and illegal activity by CSIS.
Mr. Zundel's lawyers -- Peter Lindsay and Chi-Kun Shi --
have been trying to erode the spy agency's credibility as a supplier of
reliable information, hoping it will rock the faith of Mr. Justice Pierre
Blais of the Federal Court in secret evidence the agency is using to
justify deporting Mr. Zundel as a national-security risk.
In contrast to his first day in the witness box, Mr.
Farrell frequently said yesterday that he could not recall what lay behind
book excerpts.
"It's all escaped your memory?" Mr. Lindsay
asked at one point.
"I did have nine years of detailed notes in a
computer, but that computer was stolen," Mr. Farrell replied. "I
reported the computer because it had money value. The notes, on the other
hand, were the property of the government."
Much of the session was consumed by arguments over whether
Mr. Lindsay's questions were sufficiently connected to the Zundel case
itself. Eventually, Mr. Lindsay gave up altogether and ended his
examination.
Judge Blais repeatedly disallowed questions aimed at
discrediting CSIS and the Security Intelligence Review Committee in a
general way, saying they did not probe directly into Mr. Zundel's
treatment by the agency. He also refused to let the defence call Mr.
Mitrovica as a witness.
"CSIS is not on trial here," Judge Blais said.
"SIRC is not on trial, either. I think this is a waste of time."
