Police officers targeted by investigation | Mole hunt from China to the RCMP

In 2021, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) began to fear that a network of influence serving Beijing was developing within its ranks. Betrayals, double agents, secret missions, weapons caches: allegations were flying from all sides. Unpublished documents reveal how several active and retired police officers found themselves in the sights when a group of Montreal investigators took action to “neutralize” the threat.

The underside of the mole hunt in the ranks of the RCMP is recounted in sworn statements presented to a judge at the Montreal courthouse in order to justify various investigative steps. They were sealed until Tuesday. But a magistrate has just made them public in anticipation of the trial of a former RCMP inspector, William Majcher, who was accused in July 2023 of conspiracy and of having carried out “preparatory acts” on behalf of China.

The allegations in the documents have not been tested in court. William Majcher maintains his innocence, and has already told CTV that he never betrayed Canada. He faces prison if found guilty.

The former RCMP executive left to found his own private investigation firm in Hong Kong after his retirement. Its main client was the Chinese government. He helped find fugitives and embezzled sums of money all over the world, particularly in Canada, where he often returned. He also provided information and advice on hot issues, such as the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada.

Canadian weapons caches in Hong Kong?

According to documents filed at the Montreal courthouse, RCMP investigators based in Montreal obtained personal notes from Mr. Majcher, which had been entrusted to a vice-president of the federal police union.

In them, he says he worked secretly for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) while he ran his private investigation firm in Hong Kong.

Mr. Majcher says he was committed not to cross certain lines, not to provide overly sensitive information to his Chinese clients, and to keep Canadian intelligence services informed of what China asked him to do. .

He even claims that CSIS asked him for help to set up weapons caches in Chinese territory and to bring across the border the pistols of certain people who worked for Canada there. He claims that CSIS was working jointly in Hong Kong with MI6, the British intelligence services, to circumvent the law which at the time prohibited Canadian spies from operating abroad.

“The veracity of Majcher’s account regarding any former relationship with CSIS is currently unknown,” says Corporal Gabriel Lemaire, one of the police officers who investigated Mr. Majcher, in documents dated 2023 obtained by The Press.

CSIS declined to comment on the allegations about its possible relationship with Mr. Majcher on Tuesday. The organization emphasizes that its investigative techniques must remain secret. “Disclosure of these techniques, methods and intelligence sources can put lives at risk and seriously compromise national security investigations,” said John Townsend, CSIS spokesperson.

In a civil suit filed in Federal Court against the Canadian government, two former colleagues of Mr. Majcher who were targeted by China’s mole hunt also claim that the former inspector was a double agent, who worked under on one side for the Chinese government, while on the other hand feeding Canadian intelligence services.

Several former colleagues in the viewfinder

This defense did not convince the Canadian authorities to give up. Court documents filed at the Montreal courthouse also show that it was CSIS which initially alerted the police to the potentially illegal actions carried out by Mr. Majcher on behalf of China in Canada.

As the retired inspector had spent his career in British Columbia, he had many contacts and friends within the RCMP in Western Canada. The investigation into its links with China was therefore entrusted to investigators from Montreal, a region where several police officers had experience in counter-espionage and the fight against foreign interference, without having any links to China. friendship with Mr. Majcher.

“It is known that Chinese agents have carried out unauthorized actions inside Canada,” writes Corporal Lemaire in his statement. The police officer cites cases of threats, pressure, surveillance of fugitives on Canadian soil, in relation to cases of repatriation of suspects or sums of money by Chinese authorities. At least 25 priority targets of the Chinese authorities have taken refuge in Canada, according to the RCMP. Exactly the type of files William Majcher worked on.

In an email obtained by Montreal investigators, Mr. Majcher wrote to one of his collaborators that the Chinese authorities were preparing to issue an arrest warrant against a suspect that his private firm was tracking in Canada.

“I hope to have a copy of the warrant before it is issued, so we can show the crook that we hold the keys to his future,” he wrote.

“I’m meeting with a Target partner tomorrow in Hong Kong to see if we can help negotiate a settlement, because the Chinese want to use this as a precedent to resolve financial crimes discreetly and expeditiously,” he adds. .

“If the target cooperates, I hope this will be resolved over the next few weeks. If he fights, then there will be an extradition request and a longer process, but we believe he is motivated to cooperate, because we can guarantee him his passport and no prison time,” continues the former Canadian police officer. .

Other documents obtained by the RCMP show that Mr. Majcher would have hired a firm of American private detectives to place a Chinese fugitive who had taken refuge in New York under surveillance and report his movements to the Communist Party regime.

Former colleagues splashed

Montreal investigators noted that even after moving to Hong Kong, William Majcher continued to maintain relationships with serving and other retired police officers. He called a former colleague stationed in Nunavut to offer him “opportunities” regarding his retirement. He convinced another to send him federal police training manuals on complex investigations and handling informants. At another, he asked for information on an international fraudster.

Several active and retired police officers thus found themselves the subject of an investigation, show court documents filed in court. The affair cast suspicion on many of them, sometimes over a simple email discussing a retirement party. Each time, they found themselves obliged to explain the nature of their ties. Some have had their phones or emails scrutinized.

Several of the witnesses interviewed during the investigation denounced the methods of Mr. Majcher or other retirees who became high-level private investigators. Others defended them. The allegations went in all directions and it sometimes became difficult to disentangle fact from fiction, in the opaque world of private firms which place themselves at the service of great foreign powers, court documents show.

Kim Marsh, another retired RCMP in British Columbia who also worked as a consultant for law firms seeking to find Chinese fugitives, was the target of a search, without being charged.

Peter Merrifield, who until recently was vice-president of the RCMP police union, was also investigated and even lost his security clearance, prompting him to file a lawsuit for damages against the Canadian government. He has not been charged with anything to date.

Paul McNamara, another former colleague of Mr. Majcher’s who became head of security at the U.S. Embassy after his retirement, also lost his security clearance and his new job in the same way. He is also suing the government, and is not accused of anything.

Mr. Majcher did not wish to comment on the matter on Tuesday. His trial will be held in British Columbia at a later date.

For the investigators on file, his behavior amply justified all the investigative means deployed. They express it clearly in the documents obtained by The Press.

“Majcher’s activities are a threat to Canada’s sovereignty,” it reads.

Measures were therefore taken to “investigate and neutralize this threat,” the text continues.