Bob Mackin
The RCMP’s warrantless arrest at Vancouver International Airport in 2023 of a former inspector suspected of working for the Chinese government violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In a March 26 ruling, published April 17, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Martha Devlin found the Mounties breached Bill Majcher’s constitutional right against arbitrary detention, because a police officer relied on a “hunch or generalized suspicion.”
Bill Majcher (IPI)
“Put more simply, I find that the decision to arrest Mr. Majcher came, in S. Sgt. [Nicolas] Ferland’s own words, at a time when the investigation was still ‘premature’,” Devlin wrote. “The investigation simply had not collected sufficient credible and compelling information upon which a reasonable person, equipped with the knowledge, training, and experience of S. Sgt. Ferland, could objectively believe in the probability, rather than simply the possibility, that Mr. Majcher had conspired to commit offences under [the Security of Information Act].”
Devlin said that the parties did not address what consequences, if any, would result from an unlawful arrest ruling.
Spoke openly about work for China
Devlin’s ruling said Majcher is scheduled to go on trial beginning April 20 for the alleged foreign interference. Specifically, he is accused of preparing to induce by threat, accusation, menace or violence Sun Commercial Real Estate founder Hongwei “Kevin” Sun in order to convince him to return to China with his assets in May and June 2017.
Devlin’s ruling said the totality of information available to Ferland as of July 16, 2023, two days before the arrest, indicated Majcher was engaged in work to recover assets for the People’s Republic of China and associated entities.
“Indeed, Mr. Majcher spoke openly with his former RCMP colleagues and with the [Canada Border Services Agency] about his work for the PRC.”
Information also suggested that China’s Fox Hunt/Sky Net anti-corruption campaigns could employ coercion to convince targets to surrender themselves and their assets to China.
“However,” Devlin wrote. “I find that the information could not reasonably support the belief that Mr. Majcher had entered into an agreement with the PRC or its entities to conduct asset recovery work in relation to persons in Canada which Mr. Majcher contemplated would involve, either at his hand or that of a conspirator, the sort of threats, accusations, menace or violence necessary to constitute an offence,” under the Act.
Law Courts Vancouver (Joe Mabel)
Government officials briefly went missing
Devlin’s ruling states that the Project Severo investigation found Sun was wanted by China for financial crimes involving hundreds of millions of dollars. There was an INTERPOL red notice in 2016 relating to Sun, but it was cancelled as of March 2018, apparently in connection to attempted negotiations between China’s Ministry of Public Safety and Sun.
The investigation, led by the RCMP’s Quebec division and Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, began in September 2021 when Majcher was living in Hong Kong, where he co-founded EMIDR Ltd. (which stands for Evaluate Monitor Investigate Deter Recover). The corporate risk advisory firm is focused on asset recovery and cybersecurity and helping governments to tackle financial crime, money laundering and tax evasion.
Detectives were also interested in Majcher’s two 2019 trips to Canada in relation to the U.S. extradition proceedings against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver.
Project Severo also learned that a delegation from the Ministry of Public Safety visited Canada in February 2018. They had come to discuss five fugitives, whose identities Ferland did not know, but went missing in an unspecified place for 12 to 16 hours.
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