OTTAWA STRANGELY SILENT ON DEA

Maybe they just don't care up in Ottawa that U.S.
agents feel free to enter Canada illegally, break our laws and then
conceal the evidence from the courts here.

For a week I've been trying to get someone -- anyone -- in the federal
government to describe Canada's response to a B.C. court ruling that
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency operatives knowingly broke our laws.

B.C Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon found the Americans knowingly
snuck into Canada, ran an illegal operation and then tried to conceal
their activities from the court -- a shocking abuse of Canadian law,
she called it.

"The illegal conduct is extremely offensive because of the violation
of Canadian sovereignty without explanation or apology," she wrote.

Talking to the federal government from B.C. is generally like shouting
down a long, hollow tube to a deaf man.

But Ottawa should have a response when a foreign government walks all
over its police and laws, especially when that foreign government is
seeking to have more and more of its agents operating in Canada.

Dillon was ruling on a U.S. bid to extradite Brent 'Dave' Licht to
California to face cocaine charges, the end of a saga that wanders a
long, winding path from the DEA office in Los Angeles to a White Rock
pier.

The DEA plan originally targeted would-be Canadian cocaine importers.
Two paid informants were told to pretend to be Colombian drug dealers
in Los Angeles with lots of cocaine to sell. They found some
interested buyers, and set off on a trail that led to Vancouver. They
wanted to follow that trail across the border.

The rules governing a DEA operation in Canada are clear. A U.S.-Canada
agreement requires the DEA to get RCMP consent. They also needed a
special permit from the immigration minister because the undercover
agent had a criminal record.

And they needed approval from the RCMP's top narcotics officer to
pretend they had drugs for sale. The tactic is illegal in Canada
except under tight controls, because of the risk of injustice. When
police approach potential buyers, they may be creating a crime that
would never have happened without their instigation The Mounties said
yes and the phony dealer and his DEA handler came up. But his efforts
bombed; no big drug dealers were discovered.

The DEA wanted to try again, but the RCMP said no. They had higher
priorities. The DEA seemed to accept the decision. But a month later
one of the undercover agents entered Canada illegally, and ignoring
our law and agreements signed by his country, tried to make a drug
deal.

Eventually a pretend deal in California was arranged, with Licht. He
wasn't there for the buy, so the U.S. set out to extradite him on
conspiracy charges. That's what led to Dillon's ruling. The Americans
knowingly broke Canadian law and violated international agreements,
she found. They conducted an illegal reverse sting operation. They
tried to conceal the information from the court. And they never
offered any explanation for the illegal acts. (This wasn't some fluke.
Documents showed that the RCMP felt pressured to approve the first
operation quickly, because they feared that the DEA would just go
ahead illegally.) I expected a run-around from American officials. But
surely the Canadian government would have a response to the damaging
findings.

But it took two days for a spokesman for Justice Minister Martin
Cauchon to say he had no comment, although he was considering an
appeal -- on behalf of the Americans. After more than a week of calls,
Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay's staff still haven't explained
whether the case is an aberration, whether it will affect future DEA
activities in Canada, how many legal DEA operations are conducted in
B.C. -- or even whether they've asked the Americans for an accounting
for the illegal acts.

Our law should matter more than that.