Entrapment in Canada

“Simply put, the world has enough terrorists. We do not need the police to create more out of marginalized people who have neither the capacity nor sufficient motivation to do it themselves.” 

In Canada, the defence against entrapment, when the police are actively involved in influencing a defendant into committing a crime that they would not have done otherwise, is rarely heard in court. In contrast to the United States where a jury will consider if entrapment is part of their verdict, the defence against entrapment is only heard by a judge after the defendant has been found guilty either by a judge or jury in Canada. The defence against entrapment was first raised in 1988 in a drug trafficking case.

“Simply put, the world has enough terrorists. We do not need the police to create more out of marginalized people who have neither the capacity nor sufficient motivation to do it themselves.”

Justice Catherine Bruce

Supreme Court of British Columbia

In terms of terrorist-related cases, the defense of entrapment has been used unsuccessfully in three instances it was brought to Canadian courts until the fourth case in 2016. After John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, a couple, were found guilty by a jury, a B.C. Supreme Court decided to overturn the verdict on the grounds that the RCMP took advantage of their vulnerabilities and induced them to commit the offence. A B.C. Appeal Court unanimously upheld this decision. Although the police were justified on reasonable suspicion to investigate the couple, the Court of Appeal found that they had overstepped their role, as Justice Elizabeth Bennett, a judge at the BC Court of Appeal wrote “The police did everything necessary to facilitate the plan.”

“Once it was determined that these two individuals weren’t capable of doing this particular crime without totally being led around by the nose by the undercover operators, who were, in fact, RCMP — that right there should have set off signals that we are overstepping our boundaries here.

Al Haslett

Former RCMP inspector who helped develop the “Mr. Big” sting tactic (entrapment)

“They were clearly overzealous and acted on the assumption that there were no limits to what was acceptable when investigating terrorism. Within their ranks there were warnings given and ignored.”

Justice Catherine Bruce

B.C Court

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"What makes this story even more disturbing is that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) knowingly participated in this sting with the FBI. They unlawfully obtained Abdulrahman’s medical records that described his mental health vulnerabilities and provided them to the FBI to better manipulate this damaged youth.

This raises serious human rights concerns of discriminatory investigations, targeting vulnerable youths such as Abdulrahman, who had no previous history of violence or criminality, until drawn in by a U.S. government actively involved in developing the plot, persuading and pressuring the target to participate."

Dennis Edney

Canadian Defence lawyer