RCMP national security officers were waiting for William Majcher when his flight from Hong Kong landed at Vancouver International Airport on July 18, 2023.
Inside an airport interview room, they questioned the former Mountie for five hours, and when they were done, Majcher said he still wasn’t sure what it was about.
“I can’t say it was well articulated,” Majcher told Global News in an exclusive interview, his first since his high-profile espionage trial ended last month.
“None of it made sense to me.”
On May 13, a B.C. judge agreed, acquitting Majcher of a charge alleging he was part of a Chinese government foreign interference operation.
What began with sensational claims — that Majcher was helping Beijing secretly extend its long reach into Canada — ended with a whimper.
And as Prime Minister Mark Carney courts Beijing amid a U.S. trade war, the botched case has raised questions about the strength of Canada’s defences against China.
The investigation targeted former police officers whom the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP suspected were offering their services to Beijing.
It revolved around Majcher, a former RCMP inspector who left the national police force in 2007 and moved to Hong Kong to work in banking and private security.
As a retired Mountie in business in Hong Kong, Majcher said he thought he had done everything possible to keep on the right side of Canada’s laws and interests.
While he took jobs from Chinese state-owned enterprises, he said he never knowingly worked for the Chinese state, its public security bureau or police.
He helped CSIS when asked, and made sure the agency knew what he was up to. When he returned to Canada on business, he disclosed his work to border officials.
His candour, however, worked against him.
Amid politically damaging allegations in Ottawa about Chinese foreign interference, Majcher was branded a Chinese asset and a threat to Canada.
He became one of the few ever arrested over allegations of Chinese meddling in Canadian affairs. But the case left a key question unresolved: what is foreign interference?
With the trial now behind him, Majcher told Global News he believes the RCMP and CSIS are right to be worried about the activities of foreign governments, whether China or India. But as a veteran RCMP officer, he expected better from Canada’s national security system, and said the case raised broader concerns.
“Canada should be very concerned that this is the level of investigative quality that we can expect from our national police force in something as vital as national security,” Majcher said.
He said Canada needs competent intelligence and law enforcement. “And from where I sit, we have neither. That is the greatest national security threat facing Canada.”
CSIS declined to comment. The RCMP said in a statement that it would be reviewing the court’s decision on Majcher. Last week, federal prosecutors appealed Majcher’s acquittal.
But thousands of pages of documents reviewed by Global News show how a major investigation involving at least three federal departments and almost 80 search warrants came up short.
Former RCMP officer William Majcher, during interview with Global News following acquittal on allegations he was Chinese foreign interference agent.
Global News
An expert in financial crimes, Majcher joined the RCMP in 1985 and went undercover inside drug cartels, posing as a banker who could launder their profits.
He retired in 2007 and moved to Hong Kong to work for a merchant bank, and then an investment fund, before starting his own firm, EMIDR, in 2015.
A cybersecurity company, EMIDR got involved in asset recovery when a client asked Majcher to track millions stolen in a Bitcoin hack, he said.
As a former police officer who had segued into private security, he exchanged information about stolen assets with colleagues on the same career path, but it wasn’t a big part of his business, he said.
Mostly, he provided procurement, logistics and advisory services, helping banks and governments understand financial crime. “I’m a Jack-of-all-trades kind of guy,” he told the RCMP following his arrest.
William Majcher at RCMP training depot, Regina, 1986.
Majcher also did more secretive work. In 2011, CSIS approached him for help in Asia, according to a 13-page document he wrote that became part of the RCMP’s investigation.
A covert operations officer asked Majcher if he could set up weapons caches for moving sidearms across borders for the agency, the document said.
Majcher thought it was possible and suggested a location on the Indian Ocean, possibly Sri Lanka, but CSIS did not raise the topic again.
A few months later, Canadian intelligence contacted him again, the document said, this time about inserting CSIS personnel into Hong Kong businesses.
The officer asked if Majcher would consider employing CSIS operatives to bolster their cover stories, according to the document.
But CSIS decided it didn’t have anyone qualified, and recruited Majch…
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