[frontline-news] RCMP, Canadian and U.S. Justice Depts. suffer total defeat in Barbarash case

[frontline-news at lists.resist.ca]

Frontline Information Service   -   Update 03/24/2003
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RCMP, Canadian and U.S. Justice Depts. suffer total defeat in Barbarash case

After 7 months, RCMP forced to return property after search warrant quashed

Matthew Williams, crown counsel acting on behalf of both the Canadian and U.S.
Justice Departments, abruptly dropped all further proceedings against former
Animal Liberation Front spokesperson and veteran political activist David
Barbarash. Williams filed a 'Notice of Abandonment' in BC Supreme Court on
March 17, 2003.

All property seized in the July 30th raid will be returned to Barbarash this
week.

"The RCMP have completely given up and admitted total defeat in this case," a
jubiliant Barbarash said last week. "Another chapter of police and government
harassment against me has concluded."

This marks the conclusion of the latest chapter of police and political
harrasment Barbarash has been subjected to from the RCMP, CSIS, and various
other law enforcement agencies since 1994. It is unclear how many thousands of
taxpayer dollars were wasted in this latest police campaign.

The RCMP, acting on a search warrant issued by Justice Dohm in July 2002,
raided and seized property belonging to Barbarash in the case of a Maine law
enforcement investigation into minor criminal acts commited by the Animal
Liberation Front in 1999. Barbarash spoke to Maine media in support of the ALF
actions.

That search warrant was issued by request of the U.S. Dept. of Justice to the
Canadian Justice Dept. several times in 2000 and 2001, and finally signed by
Justice Dohm in 2002, amidst the post-Sept. 11th hysteria. Total damages from
the Maine incidents amounted to no more than $8700.

The warrant was quashed by Madame Justice Elizabeth Bennett on Dec. 15, 2002.
Bennett stated that the information the search warrant was based upon, a single
photocopied newspaper article from Oct. 1999, was "unreliable" and that the
Information To Obtain the Search Warrant was based upon "triple hearsay."

Barbarash was neither charged nor under investigation for any of the alleged
offences.

The RCMP's new anti-terrorist unit INSET (Integrated National Security
Enforcement Team), headed by Cpl. Derrick Ross, were utilized publicly for only
the second time in this raid against Barbarash, enforcing a request made under
the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty betwen the two countries.

Established in June 2002, INSET "will help ensure early detection and
prevention of any potential threats to national security," according to an RCMP
press release. The mandate of INSET is "to work with their partners nationally
and internationally towards the common goal of detection and disruption of
potential terrorist threats." (RCMP press release, June 18th, 2002)

Barbarash is still wondering how speaking with the media, the reason he was
targeted, was a "potential terrorist threat."

Property seized from the raid included two computers, dozens of computer disks,
many videos on environmental, alternative media, and alternative news issues,
and misc. files. It was destined for law enforcement authorities in Maine as
well as the FBI. All of it will be returned this week to Barbarash.

"The dropping of all proceedings and an agreement to return all the property
seized was the only resolution I ever saw happening," comments David Barbarash.

"This whole ordeal, everything from the door they smashed when they raided my
home, to the wholesale seizure of my property, to the reliability of the entire
campaign on a photocopied newspaper article from Maine three years ago, was
just outrageous. This was pure harrasment and it reeks of rot and decay. Law
enforcement the world over suffer from an inherent ethical bankruptcy and the
RCMP are no exception."

B.C. Civil Liberties Association spokesperson Murray Mollard has commented on
the raid: "It raises the question what is terrorism? This would not be the kind
of action we consider terrorism. (The raid) appears to be using a criminal
matter to permit the United States to come into Canada. Its an expansion of
authority on what is essentially a criminal issue." (Comox Valley Echo, Aug.
09, 2002)

Further information and interviews are available. Contact David Barbarash at
604-645-3101.

Background information:

Canadian Secret Police Raid Anarchist Activist's Home for U.S. Authorities
http://www.ainfos.ca/sup/ainfos00247.html

Anti-terrorism police harass island activists
http://www.mondaymag.com/monday/editorial/43_2002/news.htm  (scroll down)

RCMP anti-terrorism team faces hearing in BC Supreme Court
https://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/van-announce/2002-September/000124.html

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