How much did it cost taxpayers to take down two would-be terrorists in a massive RCMP investigation that lasted months?
After a two-and-a-half-year fight, the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) has uncovered part of the bill for the investigation into John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, who were suspected of planning a terror attack in Victoria in 2013.
The RCMP spent over $900,000 on overtime for more than 200 staff. They also dropped more than $90,000 on expenses like clothing, food and trips for Nuttall and Korody, according to FIPA. Total expenditures came out to more than $1 million.
WATCH: Crown appeals case of B.C. couple acquitted of planning terror attack
FIPA’s numbers don’t even include the cost of court time, which sources told Global News works out to about $5,000 a day.
The jury trial was five months long, then there was the entrapment hearing, and now the appeal.
Get daily National news
The judge threw out the terror convictions against Korody and Nuttall, concluding the RCMP entrapped the couple and essentially lured the pair into committing a criminal offence by spending thousands of dollars on them.
“It was pretty obvious that these people were not able to do this on their own,” FIPA’s Vincent Gogolek said.
“But for the intervention of the RCMP, they might not have even gotten out of their basement apartment.”
Crown is appealing the judge’s decision.
As the case drags on, FIPA says it won’t stop until RCMP reveal the full cost of the investigation.
“We needs those numbers, but it’s in the millions,” Gogolek said.
- B.C. judge rules plaintiffs did not do enough to identify hit-and-run driver
- B.C. customers find packages discarded like ‘garbage’ when they are marked as delivered
- B.C. family outraged at man with Stage-4 cancer’s 14-hour ER wait, discharge
- 16-year-old international student dies after North Vancouver collision
Comments