Canadians fail to find passport link

By FRAN O'SULLIVAN


Ottawa authorities have reached a "dead end" in their inquiry into the use of Canadian passports by suspected Israeli spy ringleader Zev Barkan and Uriel Kelman.

Canadian Foreign Affairs spokesman Reynald Doiron said last night that "unsubstantiated rumours" that Barkan was allegedly travelling in North Asia on a stolen Canadian passport issued in the name of Kevin Hunter had been proved false.

"The passport reported stolen hasn't resurfaced, so there is no way in any shape or form based on the various verifications that we ran that that man was travelling on the passport reported stolen," said Mr Doiron.

Barkan - a former official in Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs - is being sought by police for his role as the alleged ringleader in the passports affair.

He fled the country at the time of the police sting that netted Kelman and Eli Cara as they attempted to illegally gain a New Zealand passport.

Kelman - then a serving member of the Israeli Defence Force - used his Canadian passport to visit New Zealand in 1999.

Mr Doiron said Kelman's actions were "not to our liking" .

"But at the same time we will never know if he acted on his own, or on instructions."

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff discussed the affair with his Canadian counterpart, Pierre Pettigrew, in a "vibrant meeting" at the United Nations in New York last week.

Canada got an undertaking from Israel that its passports would not be used for undercover purposes after a botched attempt to target a top Hamas official in Jordan in 1997 in which Mossad agents were found to have used Canadian passports.