Canada's spy agency accused of negligence and defamation in $5.5M lawsuit
An RCMP sergeant and a former Vancouver detective have filed a lawsuit that accuses Canada's spy agency of wrongly linking them to an ex-Mountie who is charged with being an agent for China.
Paul McNamara and Peter Merrifield claim that "inaccurate, incomplete, misleading and/or false" information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) cost them the security clearances they need for their jobs.
"To say I'm a national security threat – that makes me angry," McNamara said in an exclusive interview with CTV National News. "I'll challenge you here. And I will go to my grave to prove I'm not a national security threat."
McNamara is a former Vancouver Police Department detective. After retiring he was hired as the program director at an American security firm called VXL Enterprises, and put in charge of uniformed security at the U.S. Embassy and its consulates across Canada. He lost his security clearance and job in 2021, and has not been able to find work since.
Before becoming the vice-president of the RCMP union, Merrifield was a supervisor in the RCMP's protective policing unit. His responsibilities included providing security for the prime minister, the Royal Family and other heads of state.
When he was in that position, Merrifield says he was one of a few Canadians who had "higher than top secret clearance." Merrifield's clearance was suspended for nearly a year between 2022 and 2023.
"The difference between intelligence and evidence boils down to the burden of proof," Merrifield said. "There is no accountability of intelligence."
Peter Merrifield, left, and Paul McNamara. (CTV News)
Filed in Federal Court, their statement of claim includes accusations of defamation and conducting a negligent investigation.
"Unfortunately for McNamara and Merrifield, CSIS pursued a politically motivated agenda designed to show that it was taking a hard line on foreign interference from China, and cast a wide net, pulling in multiple people with some form of connection to individuals with business in that country," the pair claims in court documents.
"Rather than examining and verifying actual information, CSIS simply made incomplete, inaccurate, misleading and false assertions about the Plaintiffs, and provided them to the Plaintiffs' employers, knowing full well the harm that would follow."
The two are seeking more than $5.5 million in damages for loss of income, mental anguish and damaged reputations after CSIS allegedly flagged them during routine security clearance reviews.
"If we don't have a robust, well-run intelligence service, we are doing more harms to Canadians than the foreign state actors are," McNamara said. "China's done nothing to me … but my own internal national security service, it has."
CSIS declined to comment on the lawsuit.
"It would be inappropriate for CSIS to comment on matters currently before the courts," a CSIS spokesperson said in an email to CTV National News.
The lawsuit comes after two weeks of hearings at the public inquiry into foreign interference. In testimony, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his cabinet and his staff repeated a common refrain that "intelligence wasn't evidence," as they pushed back on CSIS intelligence about Beijing's meddling in the past two elections.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trudeau said, in response to a question about his confidence in Canada's intelligence apparatus, that he has "of course tremendous confidence in the extraordinary women and men who serve in our national security institutions."
"It is extremely important work that's getting more and more difficult every day. But no government and no leader should simply be a passive receiver of information and intelligence," he said.
"We have a role to play in asking questions, on thinking critically, around encouraging further work on questioning sources and pulling out contradictions. That actually is part and parcel of the work that we all need to do to make sure that everything is done to keep Canadians safe."
William Majcher speaks to CTV News in an exclusive interview. (Chris Gargus)
McNamara and Merrifield say their problems stem from knowing and speaking with William Majcher, a former Mountie now facing foreign interference charges. Merrifield says he was subjected to a six-hour interview with CSIS agents with "more than three hours" spent on questions about Majcher.
McNamara and Merrifield claim they had nothing to do with Majcher's work in China.
Majcher was as an undercover officer and investigated money laundering for the RCMP before retiring in 2007. Moving to Hong Kong, he co-founded a corporate asset recovery company that reportedly dealt with Chinese investment banks and law firms to recover stolen assets that were being laundered overseas.
Security experts say this could have involved official anti-corruption programs like Operation Fox Hunt, which the Chinese government has used to "involuntarily" return suspects and fugitives. Rights group Safeguard Defenders claims such programs also target dissidents.
Majcher was charged in July with two counts under the Security of Information Act, which covers crimes pertaining to national security and espionage.
"Majcher allegedly used his knowledge and his extensive network of contacts in Canada to obtain intelligence or services to benefit the People's Republic of China," the RCMP said in a July press release. "It is alleged that he contributed to the Chinese government's efforts to identify and intimidate an individual outside the scope of Canadian law."
In an exclusive interview with CTV News while on bail awaiting trial, Majcher denied the allegations.
"I'm a patriot, not a traitor," Majcher said in March. "I'll stand in a courtroom. I'll take a polygraph and I'll challenge any of these people making the accusations to take a polygraph."
Majcher believes he came under suspicion when he was hired by a Chinese think tank to gather information about the Canadian extradition process in the case of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who was detained in Vancouver in December 2018 on a U.S. extradition request.
Majcher describes himself as a capitalist, not a criminal.
"The fact is, unless you're a government lawyer or a government accountant or working for a corporation, everybody else is freelancing out there," Majcher previously told CTV News. "Everybody's working and hustling for business."
Peter Merrifield, left, and Paul McNamara. (CTV News)
IN DEPTH
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
'Democracy requires constant vigilance' Trudeau testifies at inquiry into foreign election interference in Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified Wednesday before the national public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada's electoral processes, following a day of testimony from top cabinet ministers about allegations of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Recap all the prime minister had to say.
As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he's 'playing with fire'
Siding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her proposed restrictions on transgender youth, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed Wednesday that he is against trans and non-binary minors using puberty blockers.
Supports for passengers, farmers, artists: 7 bills from MPs and Senators to watch in 2024
When parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks to kick off the 2024 sitting, there are a few bills from MPs and senators that will be worth keeping an eye on, from a 'gutted' proposal to offer a carbon tax break to farmers, to an initiative aimed at improving Canada's DNA data bank.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about Plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall Plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Construction begins on LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa
Shovels have hit the ground for constuction on Canada's LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa.
B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-it-kind intimate image case
In a first-of-its-kind case, a B.C. tribunal has ruled on a dispute involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, awarding damages and issuing orders that the photos be destroyed and taken offline.
Local Spotlight
Here's how one of Sask.'s largest power plants was knocked out for 73 days, and what it took to fix it
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
Quebec police officer anonymously donates kidney, changes schoolteacher's life
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Canada's oldest hat store still going strong after 90 years
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Road closed in Oak Bay, B.C., so elephant seal can cross
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
B.C. breweries take home awards at World Beer Cup
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Kitchener family says their 10-year-old needs life-saving drug that cost $600,000
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
Haida Elder suing Catholic Church and priest, hopes for 'healing and reconciliation'
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Fergus, Ont. man feels nickel-and-dimed for $0.05 property tax bill
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.