Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (A1) Dec. 17, 1994
SPY AGENCY
‘Lapdog’ report, Christie charges
By Richard Watts, Times-Colonist Staff
The Canadian spy agency is guarded by a ‘lapdog’ not a watchdog,
said Doug Christie the controversial Victoria lawyer who complains
he was spied on himself.
“It’s worse than I expected. They call it the watchdog report I
consider it a lapdog report,” said Christie.
“It’s really disgusting that these people either deliberately or
accidentally missed the point that CSIS should not be spying on
lawful domestic activity,” he said.
A report on the activities of the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service was released Thursday in Ottawa exonerating the spy agency
for targeting right-wing and racist groups.
The report said CSIS was justified in spying on Canadians, although
the spy may have gone too far on occasion and new guidelines are
needed.
The report failed to name the spy, although the investigation was
initiated after news reports identified, Grant Bristow, one of the
founders of the Heritage Front, as a CSIS agent when he founded the
white-supremacist party.
Christie has said Bristow, and a fellow founder of the Heritage
Front came to Victoria about four years ago and tried to recruit the
lawyer into a violent harrassment campaign against prominent
Canadian Jews.
Christie, who has made a name for himself by defending people
charged with hate-mongering-type crimes, turned the two down flat
and forgot about it.
But when the news stories surfaced that Bristow was a CSIS agent he
remembered the visit and complained to the service. Christie said
initially the CSIS watchdog was not interested.
But he eventually received a call from a man who said CSIS had a
report, from a source they refused to name, that Christie had
counselled Holocaust-denying author, David Irving, to commit perjury
at his 1992 hearing in which he was deported.
“I lost my temper and I said ‘you people are nothing but a bunch of
political hacks,'” said Christie.
“I knew what he was doing. He was threatening me. He was basically
saying “you said nasty things about us, now we have something on
you,” said Christie.
He complained the watchdog report paints the agent as a hero saving
Canadians from racism, and ignores the fact he was spying on
Canadians engaging in lawful activity.
Racism “is not illegal. It’s a state of mind. It’s a belief. It’s an
opinion,” said Christie.
“CSIS is being used as political police force and the Liberals
aren’t going to do anything about it because they did it against the
right people,” said Christie.
=30=
Last-Modified: 1994/12/20
