RCMP Watch

Greg McArthur, Globe and Mail

Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day has ordered his staff to look into the case of an RCMP informant who concocted a phony crime to satisfy his police handlers and was admitted to the witness protection program, only to kill someone under his new identity.

“The minister’s looking into these reports and asked for a full briefing on that,” said Melissa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for Mr. Day. “He wants to know more about this in order to make a decision.”

Mr. Day’s inquiry deals specifically with this case, Ms. Leclerc stressed, and he stands by the witness protection program as a whole.

“We know that a strong and effective witness protection program is critical to fighting organized crime,” she said.

On Thursday, The Globe and Mail, in conjunction with the Ottawa Citizen, published a story that chronicled the law enforcement career of Richard Young, an unemployed Victoria man who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the RCMP in return for evidence that he manufactured. In 2002, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Dean Wilson called Mr. Young’s evidence a “cruel charade.”

Despite that assessment, Mr. Young was admitted to the federal witness protection program, all $130,000 of his debt was paid and he was given a new identity. Then he went on to kill someone, but because of stipulations under the Witness Protection Program Act, The Globe is forbidden from telling anything more about that homicide.

The act, created in 1996, was designed to offer security to witnesses who might be reluctant to co-operate with police because of repercussions from organized criminals. It is a offence to knowingly, indirectly or directly, disclose information about a protectee or former protectee’s status. Anyone convicted of such an offence faces a maximum prison sentence of five years and a $50,000 fine.

Yesterday, Globe and Mail editor-in-chief Edward Greenspon wrote to Mr. Day, suggesting that a civilian body needs to oversee the program and monitor how many protectees have gone on to commit serious crimes. He also called upon Mr. Day to explain why, given the seriousness of the alleged police negligence and the press freedom enshrined by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the media can’t explore Mr. Young’s case more thoroughly.

“As the Minister responsible for the RCMP, we look forward to an early response from you as to whether you are prepared to recommend and sponsor legislation to set up a Civilian Overview mechanism for the Witness Protection Program and, if not, why. In addition, we would like to know whether you believe that the public has a right to know in a free and democratic society about the breakdown in administration of this program.”