The top federal Mountie in B.C. says Canada’s justice system is not keeping up with increasingly sophisticated transnational criminal networks importing and exporting drugs and precursor chemicals through the province.
“It is time for our justice system to catch up to the reality of the danger of these drugs,” said Assistant Commissioner David Teboul, Commander of the RCMP Federal Policing program in the Pacific region, on Oct.31.
Teboul was fielding questions during a news conference at BC RCMP headquarters in Surrey after parading a record seizure of drugs and weapons in what Mounties have alleged to be the “most sophisticated drug superlab in Canada” ever uncovered.
Altogether, police estimate the seized drugs are worth $485 million, to say nothing of the precursor chemicals for MDMA and fentanyl production, cache of weapons and bomb-making material discovered in multiple B.C. locations.
Teboul said the drugs were poised for export and the superlab in Falkland was tied to transnational organized crime networks, including suspected links to Mexican cartels.
Canada's disclosure laws a 'burden' on international crime investigations, critics charge
But, reporters asked Teboul, why only one person had been arrested and charged at this stage; Gaganpreet Randhawa of Surrey has been charged with six counts of weapons and drug-related offences.
Teboul would only say that the investigation is ongoing.
Could this be another case of Canadian police being handcuffed by disclosure laws, as they say they are?
A clear dearth of prosecution of B.C.-based individuals associated with transnational organized crime networks involved in local and international drug markets was raised several times as an issue in the Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering.
For example, former Federal Serious and Organized Crime Unit (FSOC) superintendent Calvin Chrustie chalked part of the problem up to disclosure laws, in testimony to the commission March 29, 2021.
Chrustie referred to the 1991 precedent-setting case of Canada versus William B. Stinchcombe that has evolved to mean law enforcement must produce robust disclosure of anything that may remotely be relevant to a criminal prosecution.
Chrustie said this high threshold of disclosure, unique among Five Eyes partners (United States, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom), is hindering transnational investigations on Canadian soil.
“Stinchcombe precludes working with our international partners due to disclosure issues and non-congruent legal systems with our allies and partners,” Chrustie told Glacier Media this week.
“Canadian courts do not provide our global partners a high degree of confidence their witnesses, cooperating witnesses, intelligence, investigative techniques and other ongoing operations will be protected — including the safety of those involved such as foreign police officers,” said Chrustie.
Glacier Media put this matter to Teboul, who echoed Chrustie’s concerns.
“If I'm going to be truthful with you, I'm going to tell you that the disclosure case law in Canada is very burdensome and, of course, we embrace it as law enforcement, all of us, because it's tied to fundamental principles of justice that we all embrace,” said Teboul.
But, said Teboul, “the burden of disclosure is extremely heavy on our investigators. So what you see in front of you is the result of a lot of good investigative work, but it also requires weeks, if not months, of continued work by our investigators to meet the standards of the Supreme Court of Canada case in Stinchcombe.”
Commissioner Austin Cullen acknowledged the barriers in his 2022 final report, but ultimately sided with the case law as it stands, noting that before Stinchcombe, “there were no uniform rules governing pre-trial disclosure and there were cases where prosecutors used the element of surprise to their advantage or did not disclose exculpatory evidence to the accused. Such practices have repeatedly been identified as one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions.”
Cullen said police need the “necessary infrastructure” to investigate and disclose.
However, doing so still would not change the concerns over disclosing aspects of international partner investigations, leading former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German to suggest, in his 2018 “Dirty Money” report to the B.C. government, that a solution “would appear to be the development of carefully balanced requirements in the Criminal Code, not unlike the disclosure requirements which all lawyers are familiar with in the rules of civil courts.”
German also testified at the commission, on April 12, 2021.
German’s views there were challenged, however, by criminal defence lawyer Marie Heinen: “The comments about Stinchcombe being an impact or Jordan being an impact on deterring the investigation of any crime, much less this sort of crime, is not only an area that this witness has no expertise in, it's just wrong," she told Cullen as counsel for an intervenor at the inquiry.
Chrustie suggests that “the public concerns about fentanyl need to be directed at the courts and politicians as neither have supported the police in terms of modernizing the legal system.
“They talk but don’t do and the result is thousands of deaths — kids, the mentally vulnerable — and we just watch as a nation,” said Chrustie.
B.C.’s unpoliced ports a key concern for Teboul as Mounties probe international networks
Another concern of Teboul's is a lack of designated police at B.C. ports.
Teboul describes this as a national security gap.
“Yes, I am concerned about the enforcement at our ports. I've said before that we can't talk about and be serious about our national security and our fight against transnational, sophisticated, organized criminality, if we don't talk about the integrity of our border,” said Teboul.
“So I am concerned about the integrity of the borders. I mentioned that before, and the ports, particularly for me, are an element of responsibility that belongs to all three levels of government,” said Teboul.
“I would like to see a lot more investments from these levels of governments into assisting us and partner agencies in the policing at the ports to prevent these things from coming in or coming out,” said Teboul.
Glacier Media raised the fact Delta Police have been barred from accessing Deltaport at its discretion and officers there have reported being hindered by authorities at the port.
In response, Teboul said he is in discussions with Transport Canada “to step up the enforcement,” adding: “Of course, these discussions are ongoing, but the ports are of significant concern for me and to partners of the CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency).”
