William Majcher’s charge sheet by the RCMP alleges offences happened in Vancouver, Toronto, Hong Kong and other unnamed places in Canada, China and 'elsewhere in the world.'Supplied
The RCMP filed 78 judicial authorizations to obtain banking, phone and social media records in its investigation into William Majcher, the retired Mountie charged with conducting foreign interference on behalf of China.
Authorities allege Mr. Majcher, a resident of Hong Kong, used his network of Canadian contacts to obtain intelligence or services that benefited the People’s Republic of China. He faces two charges under the Security of Information Act.
Mr. Majcher’s charge sheet alleges the offences happened in Vancouver, Toronto, Hong Kong and other unnamed places in Canada, China and “elsewhere in the world.” He was arrested in July, 2023.
The Globe and Mail obtained 71 recently unsealed authorizations from the Montreal courthouse. The remaining seven are forthcoming, according to the court and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
The records, which include allegations that have not been tested in court, are mostly made of authorizations for “general production orders” and were filed between March, 2022, and August, 2023. The documents include an affidavit by RCMP officer Gabriel Lemaire detailing the reasoning behind the force’s document and data requests. In its latest version, the affidavit is 52 pages long.
The RCMP requested e-mails and other information from accounts tied to Mr. Majcher, financial information about his accounts at Toronto-Dominion, Royal Bank of Canada and HSBC banks, his current and former passports and passport applications, phone records for numbers tied to Mr. Majcher and his acquaintances and information about Mr. Majcher’s social media accounts and communications on LinkedIn and WhatsApp.
Mr. Majcher “continues to have ongoing interactions with current and former law enforcement and private security/investigation personnel over social media,” Mr. Lemaire said in his affidavit.
Mr. Majcher’s lawyer, Ian Donaldson, did not immediately reply to a request for comment but has previously denied the charges and described the allegations as “misguided and erroneous.” Mr. Majcher told CTV earlier this year that he is a “patriot,” not a “traitor,” and was ready to challenge the charges.
The RCMP investigation into Mr. Majcher was based in Montreal, which is why court proceedings were initiated in Quebec, but Mr. Majcher obtained a change of venue to Vancouver in August.
As The Globe reported last year, the RCMP believes Mr. Majcher was targeting a wealthy Vancouver real estate entrepreneur named Kevin Sun as part of his alleged activities for Beijing.
The RCMP believe Mr. Majcher used contacts and expertise to help the Chinese Ministry of Public Security in support of its Operation Fox Hunt and Operation SkyNet projects: efforts cast by Beijing as global anti-corruption campaigns, but which Western security agencies have said have also been used to target and silence dissidents.
The RCMP Integrated National Security Enforcement team in Montreal alleges that Mr. Majcher collaborated with another former RCMP officer, Kenneth Marsh, to compel Mr. Sun to co-operate with China’s MPS and Public Security Bureau, according to the investigation called Project Severo.
Mr. Lemaire’s affidavit says that Mr. Majcher claims to have worked for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service against China. “He is ‘livid’ that CSIS depicted him as a Chinese agent,” the document says.
With reports from Jill Mahoney and Kathryn Blaze Baum