In Part Three of our RCMP Project Severo series, a foreign interference case once framed as a major national security prosecution for Canada has collapsed, leaving behind an acquittal, unlawful police findings and urgent questions about how the case was built.

By Fabian Dawson
Mata Press Service
 

Retired RCMP officer Kenneth “Kim” Marsh is calling for an inquiry into the spectacular collapse of a foreign interference case that wrongly cast him as a co-conspirator and exposed serious flaws in one of Canada’s most sensitive national security prosecutions.

The botched prosecution, which cost Marsh his privacy, damaged his reputation and dragged his name into a national security case dubbed Project Severo, ended today in B.C. Supreme Court with the acquittal of former RCMP inspector William Majcher.

Majcher had been charged under Canada’s national security laws with allegedly helping Beijing identify and pressure a fugitive Chinese businessman living in Canada.

Marsh was publicly identified by the RCMP as an alleged co-conspirator, although he was never charged. His Vancouver home was searched by a team of about 15 police officers, his private records were seized, and his global reputation as a due diligence expert was dragged through a national security case that has now fallen apart in court.

“This cannot end with an acquittal and everyone walking away,” Marsh said. “My home was searched, my name was publicly tied to a national security case, I was described as an unindicted co-conspirator, and the courts have now found that key steps in this investigation were unlawful. Canadians deserve to know how this happened.”

The acquittal has turned Project Severo from a headline foreign interference case into a test of police conduct, Crown disclosure and accountability inside one of the country’s most sensitive national security investigations.

The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada have opened files on Marsh’s complaints, while the Quebec Bar is reviewing the conduct of federal Crown prosecutor Marc Cigana, who also led a similar China-linked prosecution that collapsed in court.

Marsh was listed as a Crown witness but never called to testify. According to his complaint, neither his statement to police nor a later proffer sent to the Crown was disclosed to the defence, raising new questions about whether evidence that could have weakened the prosecution’s theory was kept from the accused.

The Crown also did not call former RCMP Supt. Calvin Chrustie, whose comments had been used by investigators to help support parts of their theory linking Marsh to Majcher.

Even before today’s ruling by Justice Martha Devlin, the court had already delivered two stinging findings against the investigation.

In December, she ruled the warrant used to search Marsh’s home was invalid because police had not shown a proper basis to believe an offence had been committed. Then in March, Justice Devlin ruled that Majcher’s arrest at Vancouver International Airport was unlawful because police did not have reasonable and probable grounds to arrest him.

Earlier, a Quebec court had also found the original case lacked a sufficient jurisdictional connection to Quebec, forcing the Crown to abandon that prosecution and refile a narrower charge in British Columbia.

Those findings now sit alongside today’s acquittal, with Justice Devlin finding the Crown had not met its burden of proof.

Project Severo began in Quebec and was led by the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team.

Court records show the investigation examined whether Majcher, with Marsh’s help, was facilitating efforts by Chinese authorities to locate and target Chinese nationals in Canada for repatriation as part of Beijing’s global anti-corruption operations.

The case stemmed from allegations linked to China’s so-called Fox Hunt campaign, Beijing’s global effort to track down and repatriate people accused of economic crimes, sometimes through pressure outside formal legal channels.

Majcher pleaded not guilty to one count under the Security of Information Act. The Crown alleged that in May and June 2017, he acted for, or in association with, Chinese authorities in an effort to pressure Vancouver-area businessman Hongwei “Kevin” Sun to return to China with his assets.

Sun has publicly said Majcher never approached or pressured him, and that he had no connection to Majcher in that context.

In her ruling today, Justice Devlin said the Crown had not proven that Majcher’s words and actions, collated to form the bulk of the prosecution’s case, crossed the line from asset recovery work into criminal preparation.

The Crown relied on four alleged preparatory acts, including emails about locating more than $100 million in assets, discussions with Chinese officials, references to a possible global arrest warrant, and a planned meeting in Hong Kong with an associate of the target.

Justice Devlin found those details raised questions, but they did not prove the crime charged. The same evidence, including media interviews in Australia, could also support lawful explanations, including civil recovery, negotiation or settlement.

Her ruling was clear. Strong language, pressure tactics and links to Chinese officials were not enough. The Crown had to prove a concrete step toward an extortive offence and a clear criminal purpose. It failed to do so.

The judgment echoed another China-linked prosecution handled by federal Crown counsel Marc Cigana, involving former Canadian Space Agency engineer Wanping Zheng, who was acquitted after the court found the evidence did not prove a crime.

Majcher, speaking outside court, said the ruling ended a case that should never have reached trial.

“I have always maintained my innocence,” Majcher said. “Today’s ruling confirms what we have said from the beginning. This prosecution was built on assumptions, not proof.”

He said the case had taken a heavy toll on his family, his reputation and his life.

“I spent years under the weight of a national security accusation that was never proven,” he said. “There has to be accountability for how this case was investigated, authorized and prosecuted.”

For Marsh, Majcher’s acquittal reinforces what he has argued in complaints to oversight agencies.

“This was never just about one accused person,” Marsh said. “It was about how a theory was built, how evidence was handled, how lawful conduct was turned into suspicion, and how people were publicly damaged by a national security investigation that the courts have now repeatedly criticized.”

The acquittal, he said, does not erase Canada’s concerns about foreign interference. It does, however, raise a harder question about whether those concerns were used to push a weak case beyond what the evidence could support.

He wants the inquiry to examine the conduct of prosecutors and investigators who advanced the case after the courts had already found serious flaws in the search and arrest.

“This investigation damaged lives,” he said. “A public inquiry is the only way to get the full truth.”

Read Part 1 - SPECIAL REPORT - Inside Project Severo

Read Part 2 - SPECIAL REPORT - Disclosure Cloud Hangs Over RCMP’s Project Severo