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The next day, the Friday, he did not appear at work. He had arranged to go to a conference on ”Fusion Energy”, in Montreal on the Saturday, and told me he intended to travel to Montreal on the Friday afternoon, but I discovered later that he didn't go there until the Saturday morning, Where he was on the Friday remains a mystery.
I received yet another bottle, this time Cherry Brandy for my wife, on the following Monday. That day he mentioned the papers again, saying he really wanted that Internal Report. He was not at all happy with the External Report, because it was unspecific and out of date, He seemed to be getting more “pushy” about it now, again as predicted by the RCMP officers, since more money and a receipt had changed hands. It appeared he felt he now had a hold over me.
On the morning of Wednesday February 23rd, I received a call from one of the officers. "Is he in?" he asked. When I said that he wasn't, the officer said "No, that's because we've got him. He's under arrest and will be deported tomorrow."
I was boggled. It had been planned that I should pass him the Internal Report on the Friday, so I was quite unprepared for this abrupt action, (I later learned that the Internal Report was a classified document, presumably containing detailed information on all the secret defence research, so I guess they didn’t want to risk its getting lost.)
That evening, the RCMP men came round to explain the sudden change of plan. Apparently the Minister had decided it had gone far enough, so it was decided to deport Lev, rather than waiting until there was enough evidence to take it to court. This decision was disapproved of by some opposition MPs of course.
The arrest hadn't gone as smoothly as hoped, by all accounts. The had intended to arrest Lev as he got off the bus at NRC, but he hadn't got off where expected, so the RCMP officers, the Immigration official and the interpreter had to chase after him, over rather icy ground. At one stage, one of the officers had to catch the interpreter, as he skidded past him. When they caught up with Lev, he asked why they were chasing him. They told him they wished to talk to him, and he asked "Why didn't you telephone?" I don’t know if they managed to control their laughter.
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