https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/a430c42714d5de36d358ec054e01c5bf.pdf f61867c67d4558591344bfb6b12ffd56 PDF Text Text /v y EXTERNAL AFFAIRS TO File A FROM D. Ambassador REFERENCE O u r T e l e g r a m 3H-9 o f D e c e m b e r 7 suBJEa i' » Cross Kidnapping: Conversation v/ith Noel Dagg on December 8 ENCLOSURES Annexei DISTRIBUTION SECURITY SacuHH CONFIDENTIAL DATE December 8, 1970 ' NUMBER Numiro . ufiranca Su e AFFAIRES EXTERIEURES ! 20-1-i+~CDii-1 - Noel Dagg asked to see me today. It was clearly evident that he was suffering from an acute attack of conscience for any trouble that he may have caused the Canadian Government by the remarks attributed to him in the Irish newspapers as reported in our telegram under reference, i.e. that he had information to the effect that M. Laporte died from injuries suffered in an attempt to escape his captors. Ue proceeded over an hour to give me a detailed account of what had happened. 2. He was asked on Friday, December h9 to do an interview for Hadio Telefis Eireann as part of its coverage of the Cross release. Much of the taped interview was concerned with Mr. Cross's character and vdth the admiration which Dagg had for the action by tiie Canadian Government which had secured the release of Cross without giving in to the demands made by his captors. Towards the end of the taping he was asked whether his admiration for the Canadian Government's course of action did not have to be tempered by regret that ii. Laporte had been murdered. Without thinking, he said that it was bad luck that M. Laporte's death had come accidentally. He v/as then "trapped" into defending the theory of the accidental death of M. Laporte, widch had come to him from a good friend in Canada. The taping was supposed to be a trial run and he said after a few minutes thought he had made a strenuous effort to get RTE to expunge the last part of the tape. They were not prepared to do so and he was horrified • • • later to find that it had been taken completely out of context in the use made of it in the two Irish newspapers. J 3. Within hours he had calls from almost all of the major British newspapers, Life and Time magazines, etc. and at 2*30 a.m. Saturday morning from the CBC in Toronto. With all these callers, he alleges, he made the most strenuous effort to backtrack on his story and to put it as a holdable theory and nothing more. The call from the CBC came to him in the middle of the night and he again attempted to downgrade the importance that journalists had attached to v/hat he had said. The CBC Representative said if in fact it v/as the case that he had been misquoted, would he not v/ish to set the record straight. They would call him back v/ithin ten or fifteen minutes and give him Exl. 407C/BII. (Admin. Services Div.) ^-001628 2 �CQ^FIDi^IIAL ¥ • - 2 - the opportunity, if he wished, to set the record straight on a trans-Canada broadcast. He decided, rightly or wrongly, that this v/as the best course of action and followed it. He was questioned closely, both in the advance call and on the programme, on his earlier criticisms of the Canadian Government's actions. He said he denied vehemently that he had ever criticized the Canadian Government and brought his questioners to admit that they v/ere talking about the criticisms on record made by his brother Trevor Dagg, k. He called his brother at this stage, in the middle of the night, only to find that Trevor had, within the hour, given very critical comment to a representative of the ^anadian press (I believe he meant the CP service) calling from Canada. This, incidentally, led to a violent argument between the two brothers with Noel arguing that his brother should have had more sense than to give vent to ills personal emotions, no matter what they x/ere, at a time v/ieen, by reason of their connection with Mrs. Cross, they happeaed to be newsworthy. He told me, incidentally, that a few weeks ago Trevor had written a long and highly critical letter to the London Times which, fortunately, he had passed to his sister for comment; she had been successful in urging that he not take such an unhelpful line and the letter v/as never sent to the Times. 5a Dagg said he hoped I could accept that he had made a mistake out of inexperience at being the centre of press interest aind could believe that he waspersonally full of admiration for the "guts" shown by the Prime Minister in nis handling of the case. His "Bolshy" brother was a different problem but it v/as a problem that he, Noel, had had to live with most of his life. Dagg said he felt slightly, but only slightly, relieved to read in the London Observer and the London Sunday Times reference to evidence which had indicated that M. Laporte did try to^^gt through a window covered v/ith x/ire mesh and that he could havenswrangled inadvertently when his captors attempted to pull him back. Certainly he,Dagg, had said nothing or known nothin^, about v/ire mesh. The mitigation to his own error arose, in his mind) from the belief that others besides himself had given credence to the possibility of an accidental death. So far as he was concerned personally, he still believed it accurate to say that H* Laporte had been murdered as a result of the activities of his captors, 6. I simply Indicated that I had brought to Ottawa's attention the report of his views as carried in the Irish newspapers and that I had no information whatsoever to support his theory. He went on at lengths to tell of the various states of mind he had gone through in the course of^ihe tv/o months and of the indications he had had from his sister of^many changes of mind in the same period. These v/ere interesting but add nothing of substance to the case. We left it that I v/ould let him know v/hat coverage was given to v/hat he had said when Canadian newspapers arrive at the Embassy. At the time of our discussion the latest Globe & Mail we had was for Thursday, Dec. 3* i.e. prior to all that is dealt with above. J.J. MoOARDLE Ambassador 001629 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CDTF00095 Title A name given to the resource Memorandum for File Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 8-Dec-70 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Political Affairs - Internal Security - Task Force on Kidnapping - Policy, RG25, vol. 25741, 20-22-TFK-1, part 5, Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Department of External Affairs Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Canadian Crown Subject The topic of the resource October Crisis, TFK Description An account of the resource Cross Kidnapping: Conversation with Noel Dagg on December 8 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Canada Declassified Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource en