Pastor Daegun Chun was arrested in 2015 and was accused of being the ringleader of a country-wide human sex-trafficking network by the Quebec Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Years later, in 2018, Daegun Chun's charges were quietly stayed, but he's recently come out to say his life has already been "destroyed."
He now wants an apology and is suing for $100 million.
Back in 2015, Chun was taken into custody in Toronto and flown to Montreal, where he was paraded in front of television cameras during a press conference, accused of orchestrating a trafficking ring responsible for coercing up to 500 women into prostitution across multiple Canadian cities.
When filing charges, the Quebec Crown prosecutor asserted the presence of "overwhelming evidence" in the case, but we recently learned that was not true.
Two weeks ago, The National Post broke the story that Chun's case never even went to trial.
Chun told the CBC that the RCMP just "wanted to save face."
When they arrested me they have some big show. And when they finished the case, nobody said anything.
They wanted to save face. They don't want to admit their mistake.
Before Chun was granted bail in 2017, he spent 32 months in detention in Montreal.
He arrived fully prepared for his trial in Montreal in March 2018, only to discover that Crown prosecutors had quietly stayed all charges against him a few weeks prior without informing him and offering no explanation.
The lawsuit states:
To protect its own interests and those of the RCMP, the Crown did the only thing it could in the circumstance, order a stay of charges, thereby denying Mr. Chun his day in court and the opportunity to have a court make a finding of not guilty.
...
The RCMP's shoddy handling of the Project Confidence investigation, and the self-congratulatory grandstanding that followed, irreparably damaged Mr. Chun's professional and personal reputation by mistakenly branding him a major threat to civilized society.
Chun initially submitted his lawsuit without a lawyer in 2019, but it faced multiple delays as the RCMP and the Quebec attorney general tried to dismiss it on procedural grounds.
In the 2021 ruling, Judge Fred Myers of the Ontario Superior Court recognized mistakes and legal issues in the statement of claim but decided they weren't enough to throw out the case.
Given that the first statement of claim was drafted by non-lawyers and tells such a clear factual story, in my view, the plaintiffs ought to have one more chance to try to plead proper claims.
I am not much moved by the RCMP's desire to get on with its life as opposed to Mr. Chun's claim for recompense for the loss of his life as he knew it.
Uncharitably viewed, the RCMP could be said to be grasping at technical straws to avoid having to account for its remarkable conduct.
Chun has now got himself a lawyer who's put together a fresh statement of claim. That lawyer, Marshall Reinhart, told CBC News that both the RCMP and the Quebec attorney general are once again trying to shut down the case. One of their arguments is that the new statement of claim missed the court deadline.
Currently, Chun is living back in Toronto and doing volunteer work. He says he's been getting financial support from his family but continues to struggle to receive bank loans or employment due to the case.
He also hasn't been fully welcomed back into his church community.
Nobody wants to talk to me even though the criminal case is stayed. They don't trust me.
I hope my story contributes to more democracy in Canada, and that some systems change.
Chun has maintained his innocence from the start and wants his day in court.
With no explanation from the RCMP, it's tough to believe he was some sex-trafficking kingpin.
Is this just an example of shoddy police work? Or is it even more nefarious than that?
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