Police officer Reid

The cop's name is Robert Allan Read. He was a 26-year-veteran of the RCMP.

This month, as newspapers around the world and in Canada began retelling stories of an international espionage network reporting back to Big Brother in Beijing, the Federal Court of Canada condemned Read for trying to expose Ottawa's criminal nonchalance in the same area.

The court said Read violated the RCMP's code of silence when he exposed his investigation to the Canadian public through the pen of journalist Fabian Dawson, who is now the deputy editor-in-chief of The Province newspaper in Vancouver.

Read was then investigating government corruption involving the Canadian High Commission in Hong Kong. In the course of his investigation he uncovered evidence of the corruption and what appeared to him to be a massive cover-up of that evidence.

Read's investigation involved very rich and powerful members of the business community in Hong Kong, political connections in the People's Republic of China and the Liberal government of Jean Chretien.

One of the cases Read pursued involved three Taiwanese brothers who brought 3,000 Asian families into Canada under our much maligned immigrant investor scheme. The trio was linked to fraud, bribery and the Chinese mafia.

But all the cases against the brothers-one of whom was photographed on Feb 28, 1996 talking to Chretien about a hotel deal in the prime minister's riding-have died mysteriously.

Read, at the height of his investigation, was also on the periphery of another controversial Canadian secret project called Sidewinder.

Sidewinder was trying to alert the Canadian government 10 years ago to a Chinese military intelligence apparatus that sets up businessmen, gangsters and diplomats overseas as part of an elaborate spy network--a story not unlike what is being heard now.

Like the people involved in Sidewinder, Read was ostracized for being a whistleblower. He was fired from the RCMP for disgraceful conduct.

But Read refused to back down.

An RCMP external review committee later vindicated Read saying the Mounties had seriously mishandled investigations into complaints that Asian triads had infiltrated the embassy.

The committee also found that the national police force was reluctant to investigate foreign affairs employees who were suspected of taking bribes from China's rich and powerful, many of whom are widely known to be part of the communist spy network.

In its ruling, the committee said that Read was justified in taking his concerns to the media and ordered him reinstated.

The RCMP refused. Read had to take his case to the Federal Court of Canada.

This month Judge Sean Harrington condemned Read for "a lack of loyalty to the government," reaffirmed his firing and effectively took away the brave Mountie's pension and benefits.

There was no mention anywhere in the judgment that what Read and others around him were trying to do years ago was prescient and that their warnings had become the alarming realities of today.

In the wake of recent claims by top Chinese defectors that Beijing has thousands of spies in Canada, Prime Minister Paul Martin has vowed that he will take tough measures to protect our national interests.

We can only conclude that this involves shooting the messenger and destroying the lives of Canadians brave enough to speak out.

"For more on Cpl. Robert Read, and on this topic, click here