RCMP Watch

Jim Brown, Ottawa (Canadian Press) - A Mountie who left the force seven years into the Air India investigation complained the RCMP weren’t doing enough to cultivate a key witness who could shed light on the 1985 bombing, a public inquiry has heard.

Fred Maile, in an exit interview after his retirement in May 1992, suggested a “major breakthrough” was achieved days before his departure but his former colleagues weren’t following up properly.Maile has since died, but a summary of his 1992 remarks to an officer in the personnel section were tabled at the inquiry yesterday.

Although other investigators interviewed the source, Maile contended they made “no progress whatsoever” and hadn’t worked as hard as he had to “gain the confidence of the individual.”

The woman, identified only as Ms. E., was considered a potential witness against Ajaib Singh Bagri, a prime suspect in the downing of Air India Flight 182 that cost 329 lives.

Ms. E. finally gave in to pressure and appeared as a witness when Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik went to trial years later, but testified she couldn’t remember much.

Bagri and Malik were acquitted in a 2005 verdict. This inquiry has no power to revisit that verdict.