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.
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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.
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.
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