Mounties in masks: A spy story

Undercover tactics go too far, critics say

Jim Bronskill and David Pugliese

The happy-go-lucky band of protesters wore masks and colourful costumes as they paraded about the University of British Columbia campus on a memorable autumn night in 1997.

After all, it was Halloween. And dressing up lent a festive air to the anti-APEC march just weeks before leaders of Asia-Pacific countries would assemble on the university campus.

But one member of the group had another reason to wear a disguise: he was an RCMP officer. Const. Mitch Rasche, his face hidden by a Star Trek alien mask, accompanied about 30 protesters as they toured the grounds, stopping to place hexes on corporate-sponsored summit sites and even casting a spell on a Coca-Cola machine.

Such spy tactics worry demonstrators and experts on the RCMP, who argue civil rights are being trampled when Canada's national police use undercover techniques to compile information on the anti-globalization movement.

The roving clutch of Halloween demonstrators included several members of APEC Alert, a group concerned about the effects of the Asia-Pacific alliance's policies on human rights and the environment.

APEC Alert embraced non-violent protest but sometimes advocated civil disobedience.

At the new campus atrium, where world leaders would soon gather, the marchers used washable markers to write "Boo to APEC" and "APEC is scary" on the windows.

Standing six-foot-four and weighing a hefty 240 pounds, Const. Rasche, a 17-year RCMP veteran, had trouble blending into the crowd of mostly young, underfed students.

"That's what made him stick out," recalls Jonathan Oppenheim, a physics student who took part in the march. "He was just kind of standing there slightly off to the side, and not really talking to anyone."

Suspicions were further aroused when Const. Rasche's cellphone rang. "I think we have a spy amongst us," said one of the protesters.

Months later, as an inquiry into RCMP actions at the APEC meetings unfolded, the amazed activists would read Const. Rasche's police report on the march and hear his testimony about the escapade, confirming their suspicions.

Indeed, the Halloween episode was part of a much broader surveillance effort. Police documents and inquiry hearings would reveal the RCMP infiltrated anti-APEC groups to gather intelligence about the November 1997 summit, and planned to arrest and charge high-profile members of APEC Alert to remove them before the international event.

The trick-or-treat surveillance of APEC Alert was one of the more striking -- albeit comical -- intelligence-gathering tactics employed by the Mounties in connection with the summit. The RCMP, sometimes in conjunction with Vancouver police, also sat in on protest meetings, interviewed activists about their intentions, photographed participants at events and assigned undercover officers to blend in with protesters, learn their plans and report the findings to central command posts.

Many Canadians are under the mistaken impression the Mounties hung up their spy gear in 1984 when the Canadian Security Intelligence Service assumed most of the duties of the RCMP Security Service, disbanded in the wake of widespread criticism for infringing on civil liberties.

However, the RCMP's National Security Investigations Section (NSIS) probes ideologically motivated criminal activity related to national security such as white supremacy, aboriginal militancy and animal rights extremism.

NSIS, which conducts investigations under the Security Offences Act, is intended to complement CSIS, whose agents also examine and assess security threats, but have no authority to conduct criminal probes or make arrests. NSIS also carries out threat assessments -- analyses of the potential for violence at public events -- in support of the force's protective policing program.

But during the APEC summit, it appears NSIS strayed beyond the confines of preserving national security. An operational plan tabled at the APEC inquiry says the duties of NSIS's B.C. branch included conducting follow-up investigations on information that indicated a potential threat of not just harm, but "embarrassment" to visiting leaders.

Other documents filed with the inquiry show police closely monitored the plans, meetings and events of protesters in the weeks leading up to the summit.

One typical entry noted a rally to be held in Vancouver the evening of Nov. 4, 1997.

"NSIS members plan to provide surveillance coverage at this event to gauge the level of support for the anti-APEC cause at this late stage, and to identify some of the key people attending," wrote an NSIS constable. "Attempts will be made to photograph participants."

The RCMP has adopted the dubious tactic of gathering intelligence on non-violent public interest groups that have nothing to hide, says Wesley Pue, a UBC law professor and editor of the book, Pepper in Our Eyes: The APEC Affair.

"It seems to me the police are routinely crossing the line and forgetting the distinction between legitimate democratic dissent and criminal activity."

Police surveillance of individuals in an academic milieu is particularly troubling because campuses are intended to be places where unpopular ideas are debated, says historian Steve Hewitt, author of the forthcoming book, Spying 101: The Mounties' Secret Activities at Canadian Universities, 1917-1997.

The involvement of NSIS in such activities raises special concerns in that the RCMP spies are subject to less oversight and scrutiny than CSIS agents, he adds.

The Security Intelligence Review Committee, which reports to Parliament, examines CSIS operations to determine whether the spy service has adhered to the law. CSIS also submits a detailed annual report to the solicitor general, and prepares a public version for presentation in Parliament.

There are no such checks on the NSIS.

A classified police report tabled at the APEC inquiry describes the behind-the-scenes tactics police employed during the summit and provides a rare look at the inner workings of a Canadian intelligence operation.

"State-of-the art covert/overt intelligence gathering methods were used which provide very accurate intel on anti-APEC gatherings, protesters both pre and during APEC," says the debriefing report.

Police, with help from CSIS, compiled a computerized database on hundreds of people and groups. Officials worked around the clock to produce threat assessments and each morning a secret bulletin was distributed by hand to co-ordinators, site commanders and a special team assigned to infiltrate crowds.

The infiltration team was designed as "an intelligence gathering unit and as such provided timely, accurate and pertinent information about the crowds protesting various aspects of APEC," the report reveals.

"Members were able to assess the crowds, identify the ring leaders and determine the goals of the crowd."

On one occasion, unit members passed on intelligence about the intentions of 75 demonstrators who blocked the road leading out of the UBC campus.

The crowd infiltration team was sufficiently large that members could be rotated from one area of the campus to another, "in an effort to avoid familiarity" and reduce the chance of their cover being blown.

Scrutiny of the anti-globalization movement by the intelligence community has almost certainly intensified following violent acts, committed by a relatively small number of protesters, at international meetings during the last four years.

However, Wesley Wark, a University of Toronto history professor, suspects Canada's intelligence agencies are placing too much emphasis on broad-brush investigation of the movement and not enough on determining which groups and individuals pose actual threats.

Unless the balance shifts, adds Mr. Wark, security services are never "going to have the capacity to distinguish genuine threats from peaceful dissent."

This is the fifth and final instalment in the Citizen series on "the criminalization of dissent."

Special Report: Criminalization of Dissent