Thomas D'Arcy "Ted" Finn (July 5, 1939 – December 20, 2007)
was the first director of the

Canadian Security Intelligence Service The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; , ''SCRS'') is a Intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service and security agency of the Government of Canada, federal government of Canada. It is responsible for gathering, processing, a ...

(CSIS), serving from 1984 until 1987. He resigned after it was revealed that CSIS had filed an "inaccurate and misleading" affidavit to acquire a warrant for a wiretap.Mitrovica, Andrew. "Covert Entry", 2002. pp. 131 Finn was born in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

and grew up in the Sandy Hill neighbourhood. He attended

Lisgar Collegiate Institute Lisgar Collegiate Institute is an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board secondary school in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The school is located in downtown Ottawa by the Rideau Canal. History In 1843, a grammar school with 40 paying students was ...

and then received a law degree from the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

. Finn was called to the bar in 1967, working as a criminal lawyer and assistant Crown prosecutor before serving as assistant secretary to the federal cabinet for security and intelligence matters during the 1970s. Finn was Director when 156

wiretap Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...

s related to the

Air India bombing Air India Flight 182 was a passenger flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi–Mumbai route that, on 23 June 1985, disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean as a result of an explosion from a bomb planted by Canadian Sikh terrorists. I ...

were erased. Justice Ian Josephson described the erasures as "unacceptable negligence". Of the 210 related wiretaps that were recorded by CSIS, 156 were erased. These tapes continued to be erased according to CSIS policy even after the alleged terrorists had become the primary suspects in the bombing. CSIS claims the wiretaps contained no relevant information. A memo from the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

(RCMP) disputes this, stating that "There is a strong likelihood that had CSIS retained the tapes between March and August 1985, that a successful prosecution of at least some of the principals in both bombings could have been undertaken."CBC News In Depth: Air India
/ref> Finn resigned as Director of CSIS in 1987, accepting responsibility for the court-filing of an error-ridden and unsubstantiated affidavit in support of a wiretap in relation to the attempted murder of Malkiat Singh Sidhu.Farson, Anthony Stuart. "Security and intelligence in a changing world: new perspectives for the 1990s", p. 191 After his resignation, he returned to private practice.

References

1930s births 2007 deaths Directors of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service 20th-century Canadian lawyers University of Ottawa alumni Air India Flight 182 Lisgar Collegiate Institute alumni {{Canada-gov-bio-stub