Doubt cast on police technique in Canada

I have been waiting for a study of this technique for some time, and to see that it is associated with Unger ...

Study casts further doubt on 'Mr. Big' technique
Confessions gained by cops posing as violent gangsters opposed by critics, but lauded by police
By Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver SunOctober 7, 2009

The RCMP's "Mr. Big" stings have been slammed by a Simon Fraser University study looking at the likelihood they nab the innocent as often as the guilty.
There's nothing new in the complaint.
Not only have those caught in these controversial snares howled in outrage, but also West Vancouver's Tiffany Burns produced a fine documentary in 2007 about the problem this technique poses to the justice system.
Her brother, Sebastian Burns, was convicted of murder in the horrendous slaughter of a family in the suburbs of Seattle in 1994 largely because of a Mr. Big operation.
He and Atif Rafay, who were living in North Vancouver at the time, are imprisoned in the U.S. for slaying Rafay's parents and sister for a substantial inheritance.
Burns, a former model and TV anchor, thinks they were railroaded because of the weight given a Mr. Big scenario.
Kouri Keenan, an SFU criminology student from Fredericton, N.B., who graduates on Thursday to begin his PhD, analysed 63 cases in which the scams were utilized and thinks they need to be reconsidered.
In the Mr. Big ruse, undercover police pose as criminals to trick suspects into confessing crimes to a fake mob boss.
Like Burns, Keenan said he has serious misgivings about the technique, which is not allowed in the U.S. or the United Kingdom.
I can understand why, having sat through a handful of these cases and witnessed the Hollywood-like performances by police portraying "gangsters."
In these situations, suspects are frightened by choreographed beatings, kidnappings and murders. Their confessions are extracted using intimidation, psychological manipulation, threats and promises of wealth and protection.
Many, many critics have called for the courts in Canada to prohibit these tactics.
There were renewed calls in February for them to be reviewed after the prosecution of two men in Mayerthorpe, Alta., convicted of manslaughter in the death of four Mounties gunned down by weirdo James Roszko.
But the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that since criminals don't play by the rules, the police can be excused the occasional subterfuge.
Lawyer Daniel Brodsky, of the Toronto-based Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, puts it this way: "The question we have about Mr. Big is: 'Is it a dirty trick?' How do you tell whether it is somebody who has made up a statement in order to win a king's ransom?"
The association has been reviewing Mr. Big cases with an eye on the reliability of statements made to undercover police.
Keenan said in his study that confessions in Mr. Big cases "are inherently unreliable because they're being made to undercover police officers who portray themselves as members of a sophisticated and wealthy criminal syndicate ... these role-playing scenarios undermine many of the fundamental principles of justice and exceed professional, ethical and even moral boundaries."
The RCMP claim Mr. Big operations cost anywhere from $100,000 to $300,000, but Keenan said he found several operations that exceeded $2 million.
His thesis, which he has adapted into a book, recommends a number of legal reforms but they are unlikely to be adopted -- the Mounties celebrate Mr. Big as one of the most successful techniques ever.
"What's going to have to happen," Keenan said, "is a wrongful conviction directly attributable to a Mr. Big operation."
He thinks that will come soon in the case of Kyle Wayne Unger, who spent 14 years in jail after being convicted in the brutal 1990 murder of a Manitoba teen, largely as the result of a Mr. Big confession.
Unger was released last March after DNA cast doubt on his guilt and federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is reviewing his case.
"It's likely the case will be overturned," Keenan said, "which will have serious ramifications for all Mr. Big cases where only a confession led to a guilty conviction."
imulgrew@vancouversun.com
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