VANCOUVER -- Canada's spy agency could not pick out radical Sikh priest Talwinder Singh Parmar from a group of similarly dressed Sikhs months after the agency fingered the activist as a man worth watching, documents obtained by The Globe and Mail show.

"Trying to identify these people while they are in a vehicle is very difficult," a Canadian Intelligence Security Service agent wrote in a surveillance report, marked secret.

"Anyone in the back seat of a car wearing a beard and turban looks like the next guy," the agent stated.

In startling revelations that CSIS has kept secret for 19½ years, the surveillance reports show:

Mr. Parmar often slipped away while the agents were following him in the days leading up to the Air-India disaster. On occasions, the spies did not know where he was.

The secret service was routinely caught spying by Mr. Parmar's neighbours, who reported the activities of CSIS agents to the RCMP. CSIS on several occasions had the embarrassing problem of explaining to RCMP investigators why they were outside Mr. Parmar's house.

Surveillance teams assigned to Mr. Parmar were shifted to different targets hours before two bombs were allegedly loaded on aircraft in Vancouver.

Canada's spy agency has a lot to answer for, Reg Whitaker, a University of Victoria professor who specializes in security issues, said.

The spy agency must be held accountable even though those working at the agency in the 1980s may no longer work for CSIS, he said in an interview.

"The truth is the truth, and it should come out," Prof. Whitaker said.

CSIS spokeswoman Nicole Currier said the agency would not speak about the Air-India case until the courts deal with outstanding criminal charges.

The Globe and Mail obtained the 19 ½-year-old documents after initiating legal action. CSIS released the reports with some portions blacked out, saying restrictions on access remained necessary for reasons of national security.

CSIS agents were assigned to keep tabs on Mr. Parmar in the spring of 1985 after he was identified as a possible participant in a plot to kill Rajiv Gandhi, prime minister of India at that time.

The surveillance was conducted "to ascertain the associates, contacts, movements and activities of Mr. Parmar and obtain photos of Mr. Parmar and all those he was in contact with," the documents state. The agency conducted surveillance on Mr. Parmar on 39 occasions between April 6, 1985, and the date of the disaster, June 23, 1985.

Authorities alleged Mr. Parmar was the mastermind behind the horrific bomb explosions that resulted in 331 deaths almost immediately after the bombings occurred. The killings, inspired by politics and religion, remain the deadliest crime in Canadian history and without precedent in world aviation history.

Police say a group of Sikh terrorists put two bombs on aircraft in Vancouver connecting to Air-India flights. A bomb explosion in baggage being transferred to an Air-India flight at Tokyo's Narita airport killed two people. An explosion 54 minutes later aboard an Air-India flight over the Atlantic Ocean killed 329 people. Despite the high-profile allegations, Mr. Parmar was never charged in the case. He was killed in 1992 by police in India. Two British Columbia men are currently charged with first-degree murder in the bombings.

The documents show the spy service hit a low point in the month before the Air-India disaster.

CSIS had followed Mr. Parmar to Kamloops on May 15, 1985. But by 8 a.m. on May 16, 1985, CSIS realized they had a problem. They saw people moving about but they could not tell whether or not they were seeing Mr. Parmar. Making matters worse, their activities drew the attention of the local RCMP detachment.

At 1:20 p.m., a tall blond RCMP constable approached CSIS agents parked on the street, a CSIS officer wrote. "Member not aware of our presence, even though the duty NCO [non-commissioned officer] advised by [named blacked out] on the evening of 85/05/15, when he promised to leave a note for each shift." The agents followed several different vehicles with turbaned men during the day. In some instances, they could not keep up with the vehicle they were following. At 3 p.m., they abandoned surveillance of an Oldsmobile after the vehicle drove to a pulp mill outside Kamloops and five men carrying lunch pails left the vehicle to enter the mill.

At the end of the day shift, the agents frankly admitted they did not know Mr. Parmar's whereabouts. "Afternoon shift continued checking the known addresses, where Parmar had spent some time and surveilling the vehicles from those addresses in the hope that they would lead surveillance to Parmar," an agent wrote. The evening shift also ended with Mr. Parmar's whereabouts unknown.

CSIS remained in the dark for two more days. Finally, in the afternoon of May 19, 1985, Mr. Parmar was seen on the sun deck of his Vancouver home.

They continued to have problems in Vancouver. At 7:46 p.m. on May 19, 1985, one of Mr. Parmar's neighbours approached the agents, irate with their parking in front of his house. While talking with the neighbour, the agents did not see a vehicle that was to be watched drive away, the surveillance report stated. The reports also show that Mr. Parmar's neighbours were watching the spies, as the sleuths were spying on their subject. It's not clear what the CSIS agents were doing on May 24, 1985. But whatever it was, Mr. Parmar's neighbours didn't like it. A resident approached CSIS agents sitting in a car outside Mr. Parmar's house in the late afternoon. The resident "ask[s] us why and what we are surveilling, and states he has called the police."

A Burnaby RCMP officer approached them moments later, saying police had received two complaints from curious residents. "The [RCMP] member does not ask us for identification and seems to know who we are, as she leaves it to our discretion to handle the situation as we see fit," the CSIS agent reported back to the office.

"At this point, we moved from Howard Street," the second agent in the vehicle wrote, without further comment.

The police were called again on June 5 by concerned residents. "Resident . . . told police she thought we were police or some other agency. She wanted us checked out, just to ease her mind," the CSIS agent reported.

The surveillance reports show CSIS lost track of Mr. Parmar for long periods of times. On several occasions, agents followed someone they thought was Mr. Parmar, but turned it out to be someone else.

On the morning of June 9, 1985, agents began the day following a man they "strongly believed" to be Mr. Parmar. They saw the man and an unidentified woman leave Mr. Parmar's house, go to another house, go shopping, drive to a farm outside Vancouver and then head out west along the Trans Canada Highway.

By mid-afternoon, they abandoned the chase. They decided the man was a lot heavier and older than Mr. Parmar and his beard was shorter.

Surveillance reports also include accounts that played a prominent role in the current Air-India trial, including surveillance of a test blast of a homemade bomb on June 4, 1985; an alleged meeting of conspirators on June 18, 1985, at Mr. Parmar's house; and the arrival of defendant Ajaib Singh Bagri's car outside Mr. Parmar's house at 9:20 p.m. the night before the bombs were allegedly loaded on the planes.

CSIS discontinued surveillance of Mr. Parmar's house 25 minutes after Mr. Bagri's car arrived. At that time, the agents attached no special significance to the arrival.

However, the CSIS surveillance teams were rushed back to Mr. Parmar's house hours after the explosion.