Canadian Sues Own Government Over Thai Imprisonment

[sriracha john]

RCMP erred in sting, trial told

MONTREAL -- Even before an undercover RCMP *Royal Canadian Mounted Police* team took Alain Olivier to Thailand to buy heroin, at least one Mountie knew that the man they had enlisted wasn't a major drug trafficker, a Montreal court heard yesterday.

And years later, as Mr. Olivier languished in a Bangkok jail, Canada's solicitor-general was still mistakenly told that he had gone to Thailand as a hardened criminal.

Those allegations of wrongful police behaviour were heard at the start of testimony yesterday in Mr. Olivier's $47-million suit *1,535,496,009 Thai Baht* against the federal government.

Two decades after his arrest, Mr. Olivier got his day in court and recounted the tale of how the RCMP confused him with his twin brother, a drug-dealing biker, and got him sentenced to death in a Thai court.

Now back in Montreal on parole, the 47-year-old says he was the victim of an unfair entrapment operation.

As early as July, 1988, RCMP Staff Sergeant Jack Dop knew there had been a case of mistaken identity but kept it secret from his superiors, one of Mr. Olivier's lawyers said yesterday. "This shows you to what extent the RCMP covered this up," Reevin Pearl said.

Government lawyer David Lucas said the issue is irrelevant because Mr. Olivier nevertheless took part in a drug deal.

"You could present yourself as Britney Spears, what matters is that at the end of the operation you are the person the RCMP dealt with," he told reporters.

Code-named Deception, the operation ended with RCMP Corporal Derek Flanagan dying accidentally in a scuffle during a botched heroin purchase that Mr. Olivier set up in Chiang Mai in 1989. *Are there any old-timer CM'ers familiar with this occurrence?*

The RCMP handed over Mr. Olivier to Thai police, and he was sentenced to death on drug-related charges. He eventually received a pardon and his sentence was commuted to 40 years. After eight years, he was transferred to Canada.

In past court filings, an RCMP officer conceded that, in doing a background check, he punched only Mr. Olivier's family name and birth date into police databases, getting instead the record of his twin, Serge.

As late as 1997, then-solicitor-general Herb Gray mistakenly described Alain Olivier as someone with prior convictions in Canada when he authorized his transfer back from Thailand, the court heard.

"I'm not proud of what I've done ... I was a fool. But I never hurt anyone," Mr. Olivier told Mr. Justice Michel Caron of Quebec Superior Court yesterday.

In rambling testimony, Mr. Olivier recalled his cocaine-sniffing, pot-smoking life in Gibsons, B.C.

He said he got hooked on heroin during a trip to Thailand and Nepal, coming back to British Columbia in February, 1987, with 10 grams for personal use. Hanging out with expatriate Quebeckers on the Sunshine Coast, Mr. Olivier was introduced to a boat operator named Glen Barry, alias Jean-Marie Leblanc.

Mr. Barry boasted that he was a tough guy involved in the cocaine trade, the court heard. In the summer of 1987, Mr. Barry introduced Mr. Olivier to two fellow drug dealers.

They were in fact RCMP undercover officers and Mr. Barry an informant who was paid $80,000.

Mr. Olivier said Mr. Barry wrongly told the two men that the Quebecker had a heroin connection in Thailand. Mr. Olivier testified that he was intimidated into going to Thailand, not realizing that it was a police sting operation.

In a court filing, the government argues that Mr. Olivier was just trying to make money. He wasn't a junkie "who was addicted to such a degree that he could not otherwise manifest/pursue his own free will," the filing says.

- Toronto Globe and Mail

Edited September 6, 2007 by sriracha john

[cdnvic]

This isn't the first time some cowardly mountie has neglected to own up to a mistake and let someone suffer for it instead.

PM promises to probe RCMP chief's flip-flop

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 5, 2006 | 3:31 PM ET

CBC News

Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed "concern" over RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli's conflicting Commons committee testimony Tuesday about the Maher Arar affair.

Harper's comments during question period came amid calls by Opposition parties for Zaccardelli to resign or be fired.

Harper acknowledged his surprise at Zaccardelli's change of story about his knowledge of the Arar affair, and promised an "objective, professional and dispassionate" investigation

Arar, an Ottawa engineer born in Syria, was detained in the U.S. in September 2002 during a stopover in New York City while returning from a family vacation. Within days, he was deported to Syria, where he was held and tortured for months. U.S. authorities claimed he had links to al-Qaeda.

n September, Zaccardelli told the committee he got involved in the case before Arar was detained, but on Monday and again on Tuesday, he insisted that he learned a lot more about the involvement of the RCMP after a public inquiry report was released by Justice Dennis O'Connor this fall.

The commissioner acknowledged he gave a conflicting timeline in his testimony to the committee about what the RCMP knew about the case and when, and he said he regrets making those mistakes, but he was in a rush to give testimony in September.

Edited September 6, 2007 by cdnvic

[Heng]

Well that's one way to get your LOS retirement funds.

[Big Guy]

From what I can see he still came to thailand of his own free will to purchase drugs, got what he deserved. I do not believe in prisioner exchage though, broke the law in Thailand so should have done the time here.

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time !!!

[Jimjim]

Prisoner exchange is plenty fair when someone gets 99 years for intending to distribute ecstacy.

[Scott]

It's always sad when the police are involved in something that results in even greater criminal behavior. This case might be interesting to follow.

[mark100]

RCMP erred in sting, trial told

MONTREAL -- Even before an undercover RCMP *Royal Canadian Mounted Police* team took Alain Olivier to Thailand to buy heroin, at least one Mountie knew that the man they had enlisted wasn't a major drug trafficker, a Montreal court heard yesterday.

And years later, as Mr. Olivier languished in a Bangkok jail, Canada's solicitor-general was still mistakenly told that he had gone to Thailand as a hardened criminal.

Those allegations of wrongful police behaviour were heard at the start of testimony yesterday in Mr. Olivier's $47-million suit *1,535,496,009 Thai Baht* against the federal government.

Two decades after his arrest, Mr. Olivier got his day in court and recounted the tale of how the RCMP confused him with his twin brother, a drug-dealing biker, and got him sentenced to death in a Thai court.

Now back in Montreal on parole, the 47-year-old says he was the victim of an unfair entrapment operation.

As early as July, 1988, RCMP Staff Sergeant Jack Dop knew there had been a case of mistaken identity but kept it secret from his superiors, one of Mr. Olivier's lawyers said yesterday. "This shows you to what extent the RCMP covered this up," Reevin Pearl said.

Government lawyer David Lucas said the issue is irrelevant because Mr. Olivier nevertheless took part in a drug deal.

"You could present yourself as Britney Spears, what matters is that at the end of the operation you are the person the RCMP dealt with," he told reporters.

Code-named Deception, the operation ended with RCMP Corporal Derek Flanagan dying accidentally in a scuffle during a botched heroin purchase that Mr. Olivier set up in Chiang Mai in 1989. *Are there any old-timer CM'ers familiar with this occurrence?*

The RCMP handed over Mr. Olivier to Thai police, and he was sentenced to death on drug-related charges. He eventually received a pardon and his sentence was commuted to 40 years. After eight years, he was transferred to Canada.

In past court filings, an RCMP officer conceded that, in doing a background check, he punched only Mr. Olivier's family name and birth date into police databases, getting instead the record of his twin, Serge.

As late as 1997, then-solicitor-general Herb Gray mistakenly described Alain Olivier as someone with prior convictions in Canada when he authorized his transfer back from Thailand, the court heard.

"I'm not proud of what I've done ... I was a fool. But I never hurt anyone," Mr. Olivier told Mr. Justice Michel Caron of Quebec Superior Court yesterday.

In rambling testimony, Mr. Olivier recalled his cocaine-sniffing, pot-smoking life in Gibsons, B.C.

He said he got hooked on heroin during a trip to Thailand and Nepal, coming back to British Columbia in February, 1987, with 10 grams for personal use. Hanging out with expatriate Quebeckers on the Sunshine Coast, Mr. Olivier was introduced to a boat operator named Glen Barry, alias Jean-Marie Leblanc.

Mr. Barry boasted that he was a tough guy involved in the cocaine trade, the court heard. In the summer of 1987, Mr. Barry introduced Mr. Olivier to two fellow drug dealers.

They were in fact RCMP undercover officers and Mr. Barry an informant who was paid $80,000.

Mr. Olivier said Mr. Barry wrongly told the two men that the Quebecker had a heroin connection in Thailand. Mr. Olivier testified that he was intimidated into going to Thailand, not realizing that it was a police sting operation.

In a court filing, the government argues that Mr. Olivier was just trying to make money. He wasn't a junkie "who was addicted to such a degree that he could not otherwise manifest/pursue his own free will," the filing says.

- Toronto Globe and Mail

Oops explain that

[geriatrickid]

This self confessed druggie's civil suit has been floating around for 5 years or so. Back in 2003 it was a $28million suit. Perhaps the OP can clarify a few things for me;

1. The police officer that died in the "scuffle", didn't he in fact have a cracked skull with severe cranial trauma? Sort of odd to describe it as a scuffle.

2. True or false? The plaintiff admits to being a junkie and that he had previously smuggled heroin into Canada.

3. True or false? The plaintiff knew the informant because the informant was in debt to the plaintiff. The informant was a drug dealer. The supposition being that the plaintiff was financing the informers drug sales.

4. True or false? The plaintiff associated with a certain motorcycle gang that is well known for its connections to heroin trafficing.

My understanding is that this guy could have said no, could have backed out at any time and could have gone to the police. He knew what he was doing and did so to gain a big cash payout. What puzzles me is that considering the fact that he never contributed to Canadian society during his depressing life, why the Canadian government repatriated him and stuck its taxpayers with his long term medical care and housing costs.

[GuestHouse]

Drug Traffickers - They’re scum, so it doesn't matter what happens to them - Right?!

Let's take another view.

The police operation, perhaps referred to as 'a set-up' or 'a sting' - might also rightly be referred to as 'entrapment' or 'soliciting a crime'.

Let's go with 'soliciting a crime' for a moment.

We, anyone of us, might argue that soliciting a crime as a means of breaking a large crime ring, or capturing a major criminal might be a good thing. But to do so we'd first have to put aside the 'moral ambiguity' of the police soliciting crimes - There may also be legal ambiguity in the police being involved in the perpetration of a crime.

Perhaps/Perhaps not - But in the case of HM Royal Mounted Police (ever eager to get their man) doing these things in Canada, all this would be according to Canadian Law - Morals - Let's not go there for now.

However, if the Canadian Mounties 'solicit a crime' in another country, then things get very questionable.

I presume drug trafficking is not a capital crime in Canada - It is a capital crime in Thailand.

Canadian Police officers, soliciting a Canadian Citizen to commit a capital crime in another sovereign country (a crime which is not a capital crime in Canada) and it seems directly and actively taking part in those crimes themselves.

Are you still saying that 'The Ends Justify the Means'?

Do you have a problem with the right of Thailand to Sovereignty?

Do you have a problem with the duty of a government and government agencies not to place civilian citizens at risk of imprisonment and execution by foreign governments and/or their agencies?

I would imagine, like the man or not, that the plaintiff in this case has a very good chance of getting a settlement against the Canadian Police.

If I were a Canadian I'd be wanting to know what my police force was doing soliciting Canadian Citizens to commit capital crimes in other people's countries.

And if I were Thai I'd be wanting to know what the Canadian Government were up to bringing Canadian Citizens and Canadian Government Agents to my country to commit crimes.

What a mess.

….. If you now tell me the Canadian Mounties paid this man’s air fare and expenses to go commit this crime – I’ll not view this any less seriously but I will fall about laughing, in recognition for the farce that this mess is.

Red faces to match those jackets methinks.

[ColPyat]

The police operation, perhaps referred to as 'a set-up' or 'a sting' - might also rightly be referred to as 'entrapment' or 'soliciting a crime'.

And i believe that many countries in Europe have clear laws against such police entrapment tactics.

[Tony Clifton]

This isn't the first time some cowardly mountie has neglected to own up to a mistake and let someone suffer for it instead.

PM promises to probe RCMP chief's flip-flop

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 5, 2006 | 3:31 PM ET

CBC News

Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed "concern" over RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli's conflicting Commons committee testimony Tuesday about the Maher Arar affair.

Harper's comments during question period came amid calls by Opposition parties for Zaccardelli to resign or be fired.

Harper acknowledged his surprise at Zaccardelli's change of story about his knowledge of the Arar affair, and promised an "objective, professional and dispassionate" investigation

Arar, an Ottawa engineer born in Syria, was detained in the U.S. in September 2002 during a stopover in New York City while returning from a family vacation. Within days, he was deported to Syria, where he was held and tortured for months. U.S. authorities claimed he had links to al-Qaeda.

n September, Zaccardelli told the committee he got involved in the case before Arar was detained, but on Monday and again on Tuesday, he insisted that he learned a lot more about the involvement of the RCMP after a public inquiry report was released by Justice Dennis O'Connor this fall.

The commissioner acknowledged he gave a conflicting timeline in his testimony to the committee about what the RCMP knew about the case and when, and he said he regrets making those mistakes, but he was in a rush to give testimony in September.

[sriracha john]

The trial has begun...

RCMP officer denies plot to scare drug sting target into Thai deal

MONTREAL - The boat with the spent 9-mm shells, the smears of blood and the missing passenger may have looked like the scene of a mob hit to Alain Olivier, but a retired undercover cop offered simple explanations for it all on Tuesday.

Retired RCMP officer Barry Bennett, who was then posing as a criminal boss in an attempt to lure Olivier into an international drug deal, blamed it all on a misunderstanding.

Normal West Coast leisure pursuits, a coincidental encounter with Olivier and the wicked sense of humour of a paid informant converged to leave the scary false impression, Bennett testified.

But a draft of an RCMP Public Complaints Commission report from 1991 found the murder scenario was a key part of an RCMP plot to entrap Olivier.

Olivier, a recovering heroin junkie, is suing the RCMP for $47 million. He alleges undercover agents bribed him with drugs, scared him and nagged him into taking part in the heroin deal that landed him in a Thai prison for eight years.

In 1987, Bennett's RCMP undercover team was fishing for West Coast drug kingpins and their international connections. Informant Glen Barry introduced them to Olivier.

Barry described Olivier to his police handlers as a man with major Thai heroin sources. Olivier's legal team has described him as "a penniless, blue-collar worker, a junkie who spent all his money on drugs."

A few weeks after the introductions, Bennett says he just happened to borrow Barry's seven-metre boat for a personal trip from Gibsons, B.C., to Vancouver Island.

Olivier was staying on Barry's boat at the time. He also had a job cleaning boats docked there.

Olivier saw Bennett leave with a man and return a couple days later without him, in a boat with splatters of blood and a couple of spent shell casings in it.

Barry, a paid RCMP civilian agent, told Olivier that Bennett had murdered the man for "talking too much."

Olivier has testified the incident left him scared to death of Bennett and Barry.

Bennett testified that he ordered Barry to tell Olivier that the story was an invention, "because that's not the way we do things." The alleged misunderstanding was never cleared up.

Bennett testified that the 9-mm shells were just the brass remnants of a little off-duty target practice and joy-shoot in the middle of the Georgia Strait with his brother.

Bennett was sure he cleaned up blood which may have been spilled from the fish they hooked that weekend.

The passenger who was missing upon his return to Gibsons was just the brother. Bennett said he left him behind with relatives on Vancouver Island to avoid having him vomit or go overboard in rough seas on the return voyage.

Running into Olivier was just a coincidence, Bennett said.

"We didn't intend to meet Alain Olivier," Bennett testified. "It was just bad timing, bad luck."

Olivier's incredulous lawyer, Francois Audet, suggested that blasting away in the middle of the ocean sounded like something a 15-year-old would do, not a police officer who was 36 at the time.

He pointed to previous testimony by Barry, who said the murder scenario was set up "as a little play for Olivier's benefit."

Audet then needled Bennett about the weather from the weekend in July 1987, which showed the winds were calm. He reminded Bennett he was under oath and that he should tell the truth.

"Don't go there," Bennett replied, glaring at the lawyer.

Bennett insisted Olivier boasted about his drug sources in Columbia and Thailand, making him an excellent target for the RCMP undercover sting dubbed Operation Deception.

He added that Olivier immediately stood out among the many drug dealers operating in Gibsons when Barry suggested Olivier had Asian heroin connections and cocaine sources in Columbia.

Bennett said Olivier confirmed his connections during that first meeting.

"If he had said, 'No, no, no. There's been a mistake,' we would have walked away," Bennett testified in Quebec Superior Court.

"He was very forthright, he went right to the point, he made no bones about it."

Bennett said the RCMP wanted to clean up Gibsons because it had become a tourist destination as the set of the longtime CBC program, The Beachcombers.

- 680 News (Canada)

[sriracha john]

Man suing RCMP over Thai drug bust wasn't main target: officer

MONTREAL — A retired undercover cop says a Montreal man who spent eight years in a Thai jail after an international drug bust wasn't the real target of the operation.

Retired RCMP officer Barry Bennett testified today in Montreal that his undercover operation was aimed at the major Thai heroin source that Alain Olivier claimed to have, not Olivier himself.

Olivier is suing the RCMP for $47 million claiming Bennett's undercover team entrapped him into taking part in a disastrous Thai drug deal in 1989, when he was a struggling labourer and addict.

One RCMP officer died under mysterious circumstances in the raid that was designed to net a major Thai drug supplier.

After months of stalling, Olivier led the officers to a rickshaw driver who had previously sold him a few ounces of heroin.

Olivier claims he arranged the deal out of fear and the desire to obtain drugs to feed his own addiction.

- The Canadian Press

==============================================================================

Ex-addict suing RCMP, claims he was entrapped

Alain Olivier was a small-time drug addict who alleges he was used by the RCMP to set up a drug deal in Thailand, then was sentenced to life in prison for his deed. Now, almost 20 years later, he's suing the RCMP for $47.5 million for entrapment.

The suit contends the RCMP "relentlessly hounded Olivier through ... threats and intimidation" for 20 months - a charge the RCMP's Public Complaints Commission later supported.

Olivier, a Drummondville resident with no previous criminal record, finally obliged because he was afraid he'd be killed.

In 1987, he'd been identified to the RCMP as a possible drug importer by informant Glen Barry, who had a charter boat company in Gibson's Landing, B.C. Olivier was working at Barry's firm.

In Quebec Superior Court yesterday, retired RCMP Cpl. Barry Bennett acknowledged that Barry was motivated by money and would get paid only if he connected the police to targets.

In July 1987, Bennett testified, he borrowed one of Barry's boats to go fishing with his brother and fired a few rounds from his service revolver into the Georgia Strait for target practice.

The next day, Bennett said, he returned the boat to Barry, but without his brother because the waters were too rough for him to travel. Two shell casings were in the boat, as was fish blood, although Bennett claimed yesterday he would have cleaned the boat before returning it.

Olivier contends the message was clear: If he didn't co-operate and import heroin, he'd end up dead, like the boat passenger.

On Feb. 11, 1989, Olivier flew to Bangkok and made contact with a local taxi driver. The cabbie agreed to supply heroin to Olivier's contacts, who were undercover RCMP police officers.

As the deal was being made between the undercover agents and the supplier, Thai police arrived. An undercover Canadian officer, RCMP Cpl. Derek Flanagan, was shot and killed.

Olivier was arrested and charged on several drug counts and with the murder of Flanagan. All charges carried the death penalty in Thailand.

The murder charge was dropped in April 1989, and Olivier escaped the death penalty only by pleading guilty to the other charges. He spent 8-1/2 years in a Thai prison before being transferred to a Quebec jail. He's now on parole until 2029.

- Montreal Gazette

[sonnyJ]

The police operation, perhaps referred to as 'a set-up' or 'a sting' - might also rightly be referred to as 'entrapment' or 'soliciting a crime'.

And i believe that many countries in Europe have clear laws against such police entrapment tactics.

True but who's following these laws, not the police in many places.

Any day I would trust the "dealer" more than "the police". Well, have to say it's a good job by the police for someone to think they are someone else.

[sriracha john]

UPDATE... seems it's a no go

Man caught in Thailand drug sting can't sue Mounties, judge rules

MONTREAL -- A judge has dismissed a civil suit by a Montrealer who wanted $47-million in damages after an RCMP drug sting operation landed him in a Bangkok jail for eight years.

In a ruling yesterday, the judge acknowledged that Alain Olivier endured tough conditions in Thailand, but he said the 48-year-old waited too long to sue and wasn't convincing when he claimed he was the victim of unfair entrapment.

The 1989 operation in which Mr. Olivier was involved was controversial because an RCMP officer, Corporal Derek Flanagan, was accidentally killed during a botched undercover heroin transaction in Thailand.

A small-time junkie living in Gibsons, B.C., in 1987, Mr. Olivier was approached by RCMP officers posing as drug dealers looking for someone to procure them heroin in Thailand.

Mr. Olivier testified that he was intimidated into going to Thailand, not realizing that it was a sting operation.

But in his 48-page ruling, Mr. Justice Michel Caron of Quebec Superior Court was skeptical. He noted that Mr. Olivier was able to work and travel during the 18-month operation. Nor did Mr. Olivier sound anguished on wiretaps taped at the time, the judge added.

"His behaviour isn't compatible with the behaviour of a person living under the grip of threats and constant fear," the judge said.

He noted that the RCMP conceded that, while doing a background check, its officers mistook Mr. Olivier, who didn't have a criminal record, for his twin brother, a hardened criminal.

Nevertheless, the judge said Mr. Olivier was targeted because, having travelled in Asia and brought back small amounts of heroin, he was a potential source of the drug.

The judge also said Mr. Olivier waited too long to sue the government.

Mr. Olivier came back to Canada in 1997 and is on parole. He filed his lawsuit in 2000.

- Globe and Mail (Canada)

[Dupont]

Prisoner exchange is plenty fair when someone gets 99 years for intending to distribute ecstacy.

As 99 years is a fair sentence for intending to distribute a dangerous drug, the contents of which you don't know and the effects of which you certainly don't (even clever liberals don't know everything).

Don't know who got the 99 years, but if enforced, he/she wouldn't do it again ever! Unlike in the west where a slap on the wrist is the harshest possible treatment most drug scum can expect and the vermin are back dealing within the hour.

[Buchholz]

Montrealer trying to sue RCMP for entrapment

MONTREAL — A Montreal man who spent years in prison in Thailand is trying once again to sue the RCMP. Alain Olivier first became involved with the RCMP in 1987, when he was a down-and-out drug addict living on the B.C. coast.

At the time he crossed paths with apparent crime boss and drug trafficker known as Barry Bennett.

However Bennett was actually an undercover police officer, and acting on a tip the RCMP did a criminal background search on Olivier and the results were astounding.

The RCMP found 11 convictions including armed robbery and trafficking in narcotics. But someone had made a mistake, and it was nearly a year before officers realized the lengthy criminal record did not belong to Olivier, but to his twin brother Serge.

Continues:

http://montreal.ctv....ub=MontrealHome

CTV News (Canada)

[geriatrickid]

And his appeal will be dismissed just like his original case.

IMO he's on a fishing expedition for some taxpayer money. Hopefully HM Solicitor General hangs tough.

Edited February 21, 2012 by geriatrickid

[JurgenG]

RCMP erred in sting, trial told

Montrealer trying to sue RCMP for entrapment

If after that one doesn't believe in reincarnation ...

Edited February 21, 2012 by JurgenG