Former RCMP officer William Majcher, who was accused of a security offence in relation to his alleged work for the Chinese government, leaves B.C. Supreme Court after his trial was abruptly adjourned on Wednesday.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Federal prosecutors have abruptly closed their foreign-interference case against former RCMP officer William Majcher on the third day of a B.C. Supreme Court trial slated to last much longer.
Prosecutor Charles Hough announced the decision Wednesday morning, just minutes before another former Mountie and associate of Mr. Majcher was set to testify for the Crown.
Mr. Majcher is charged with violating the federal Security of Information Act for allegedly helping Chinese police in 2017 prepare to threaten Hongwei (Kevin) Sun, a Vancouver-area real estate investor accused of a massive fraud in China.
Justice Martha Devlin noted that the prosecutors’ decision to close the Crown’s case was unexpected. She adjourned the hearing until Thursday morning so the defence could have time to decide how to proceed before she retires to make her decision.
Mr. Majcher’s lead lawyer, Ian Donaldson, said he needed the time to decide on his next move.
“I’m not faulting anyone, I’m only saying I only learned this within the last hour and it’s a very different case now than I was expecting,” Mr. Donaldson told the court.
Over two days, the court heard testimony from two Mounties, as well as former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German and a civilian digital forensics examiner with the force – but very little evidence that was tied directly to Mr. Majcher’s alleged crime.
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Prosecutors signalled in pretrial motions that they would focus on an e-mail he sent to an associate detailing how he would use as leverage an Interpol “red notice,” a request to police forces around the world to arrest someone pending legal action in another country – in this instance, China.
Mr. Majcher was arrested amid reporting and a national debate on rising foreign interference in Canada that eventually resulted in a national public inquiry.
Justice Devlin had already narrowed the scope of the Crown’s case in pretrial hearings over the past six months that were just made public last week after Mr. Majcher elected to be tried by judge alone instead of a jury.
She ruled that Mr. Majcher’s Charter right to be safe from unreasonable search and seizure was violated when Mounties executed a June, 2023, warrant on the Vancouver home of his colleague – the same man who was slated to testify Wednesday before the Crown wrapped its case.
Justice Devlin found that Mounties again violated Mr. Majcher’s constitutional rights a month later when he was arrested at Vancouver International Airport. She ruled that the arrest was premature and based on an RCMP “hunch or generalized suspicion” that Mr. Majcher was conspiring with the People’s Republic of China to hunt down white-collar criminals who had fled that country.
She also rejected an application by prosecutors to introduce evidence from Mr. Majcher’s e-mails about a second job he had involving another Chinese fugitive living in New York and she rejected the Crown’s attempt to have an expert testify on China’s pursuit of its financial fugitives.
Mr. Majcher was investigating commercial crime for the Mounties in Vancouver before retiring about 20 years ago to start a new career in Hong Kong as a private financial investigator.
According to one of Justice Devlin’s rulings, the RCMP’s national-security unit in Montreal began the investigation into Mr. Majcher in the fall of 2021 after it received information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that he was possibly involved “in covert extrajudicial activities undertaken in other countries on behalf of the Chinese police.”
Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Mr. Hough declined to comment on his team’s decision to close their arguments. The Public Prosecution Service of Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Mr. Donaldson also declined to comment. Around the time his client was charged, Mr. Donaldson told The Globe and Mail: “The theory of this case, to the extent that it can so far be discerned, is misguided and erroneous.”
Paul McNamara, a retired Vancouver Police detective and friend of Mr. Majcher who attended every day of his hearings over the past 18 months, said outside court Wednesday that there was something fundamentally wrong with the prosecution.
“This was the biggest fishing expedition by the police that you could imagine,” he said.