Robert J. Currie: DEA agents operating in B.C. not only broke the law, they also violated Canada’s sovereignty. It was the latest example of a troubling trend — and foreign police seem to keep getting away with it.
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Last Wednesday, the B.C. Supreme Court quietly published a decision that was rendered in April. In the heavily redacted United States of America v. Named Person, the judge declined to order committal of a “Named Person” for extradition to the U.S. to face drug charges — an unusual ruling, but not unheard of.
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As first reported in The Vancouver Sun last week, the judgment contained an extraordinary finding: extradition was being denied because the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had been using Named Person as an informant, and later as an operative, in Canada — without the permission or supervision of the government of Canada. The relevant protocols for police co-operation were ignored. In fact, the DEA agents involved had committed crimes on Canadian soil, specifically by counselling and assisting Named Person in a conspiracy to launder drug money.
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Sunrise
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Not only was Canadian law broken, but Canada’s sovereignty was violated.
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Justice Catherine Murray described this as “shocking and flagrant.” And it was that, but what might also shock Canadians is that this is only the latest instance of foreign police violating Canadian law and sovereignty. And they seem to keep getting away with it.
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To back-up a bit, many countries co-operate with each other in suppressing transnational crime, and that is a good thing. Historically, Canada and the U.S. have had quite a successful policing partnership. But international criminal co-operation is an area of international law that has red lines, not to be crossed and the main one is this: Police from one country can’t engage in policing activities in a foreign country without permission to do so.
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From the point of view of a country like Canada, this international law rule has good policy behind it. Policing is an extraordinarily intrusive activity, and police are authorized to use violence, to break-and-enter and do things that would otherwise be crimes. This is only legitimate and acceptable in Canada if it’s done under the authority of Canadian law, and conducted or closely supervised by Canadian police.
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Here, DEA agents did surreptitious policing on Canadian soil. This is literally an international incident. Or, at least, it should be. But will it be?
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As Murray noted in her decision, this isn’t even the first time the DEA has scotched an extradition by illegally operating in Canada. In a similar 2002 case, an extradition was quashed because the DEA had been running a sting operation in Canada — after being denied permission to do so. And there are other examples of foreign police breaching Canadian sovereignty by, for example, absconding with evidence gathered by Canadian police in a joint investigation.
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More recently, in a low-key immigration hearing in Toronto, it came to light that Italian police had sought permission to do wiretap surveillance on two Italian nationals who travelled to Toronto, and when permission was denied, they did it anyway. Wiretapping by anyone other than Canadian police with court authorization is a criminal offence, but there was no investigation of the Italian police — who, it turned out, had secretly been assisted by the York Regional Police in Ontario, who were also unauthorized to do so.
