2012-04-25
Julian Ichim, the anti-poverty activist once accused of being a G20 co-conspirator, has filed a notice of claim to sue the Crown, Toronto police and his former “good friend” who was actually an undercover officer tasked with infiltrating activist groups.
In a notice filed with the Crown’s office Wednesday, Ichim alleges Ontario Provincial Police Const. Bindo Showan — who went by the name “Khalid Mohammed” — overstepped his lawful authority by encouraging criminal acts and driving drunk while working as an undercover police officer ahead of the June 2010 summit in Toronto.
Ichim claims his Charter rights were violated and that Showan provided “false and misleading information” that resulted in his unlawful arrest. He also alleges he was beaten by Toronto police, strip searched and subjected to “cruel and unusual treatment” at the G20 temporary jail.
The 32-year-old Kitchener resident is suing Showan, the province and the Toronto Police Services Board for $4 million in damages.
“The defendant Showan attempted to manipulate the Plaintiff into making decisions that were objectively not in the interests of the Plaintiff and instead were in the interests of the police,” the notice of claim reads.
It goes on to state that “Showan acted with malice, improper purpose, and outside his lawful authority when he encouraged people to commit criminal offences.”
The defendants have not yet been served and the allegations have not been proven in court. Ichim has 60 days to officially file his lawsuit with the courts.
Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash said he has yet to see the notice of claim and it would be “irresponsible in the extreme to comment on something we haven’t even seen.” An OPP spokesperson also declined to comment.
Ichim is a longtime social activist and has been arrested dozens of times for his protest actions, most notably in 2000 when he doused Canadian Alliance Party leader Stockwell Day with chocolate milk during a campaign speech.
During the G20 summit two years ago, Ichim was among the first to be arrested for allegedly masterminding the violent riots that overtook downtown Toronto. He was arrested at a Tim Hortons on June 26, 2010, the first day of the summit, after being apprehended by a group of plainclothes officers and forced into an unmarked van, according to his notice of claim.
But Ichim’s charges were dropped less than six months later in November 2010. He was charged again in December, however, for blogging about Showan, whose name was protected by a court-ordered publication ban at the time. The case hasn’t gone to trial yet.
In the year leading up to the G20 summit, police conducted a multimillion-dollar investigation that involved eight police services and at least two undercover agents, including Showan, whose evidence provided the basis for 59 criminal charges. In November, conspiracy charges against most of the alleged G20 “ringleaders” were dropped after six defendants accepted a plea deal.
According to Ichim’s notice of claim, he first met Showan on June 6, 2009 at an anarchist book fair at a Hamilton high school.
He alleges Showan presented himself as a “radical Kenyan activist with Marxist political leanings” and therefore befriended him under “false pretenses and deception.”
The initial meeting paved the way for a friendship that eventually saw Showan driving Ichim around, buying him alcohol and food, and even taking his ailing mother to her doctor’s appointments. Ichim’s mother has since passed away.
“The plaintiff believed ‘Khalid Mohamed’ to be a good friend,” states the notice of claim.
Ichim alleges Showan “encouraged drinking” after various protests and meetings and threw parties where he supplied activists with free alcohol, including people who were underage. He also alleges Showan drove his van “while under the influence of alcohol and thereby endangered the Plaintiff and the public.”
According to his notice of claim, Showan “routinely encouraged actions against the Olympics and G8/G20” and “promoted violence and criminal activity to community activists,” at one point advocating sabotage to stymie wetlands development.
Ichim also alleges Showan entered his residence and family home without a warrant.
Alan Young, a law professor at York University, said Ichim likely faces an uphill battle with his lawsuit.
“The complaint that the plaintiff has would be a complaint that anyone would have with an undercover infiltration,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court of Canada has been pretty clear in saying the Charter doesn’t protect you from a poor choice of friends. Meaning, if you pick someone to be your friend and it happens to be an undercover cop, that’s your problem.”
Former Crown attorney Howard Morton, who defended one of the 17 so-called G20 ringleaders, said there are limits to what undercover police can do, but those limits are often difficult to define.
“There is a line somewhere and the question is always going to be: Are they over the line?” he said.
Morton said Ichim’s allegation that Showan entered his home unlawfully is an interesting one, however. Had his client’s case gone to trial, Morton planned on bringing this up as a part of his defence strategy — one of the other co-defendants in the conspiracy charges also befriended an undercover officer, who actually moved in with her at one point, he said.
“When the police want to go into your home as a police officer, they have to get a judge’s warrant,” he said. “But when they’re undercover they shouldn’t be allowed to go into people’s houses and live there.”
For Ichim, it “burned bad” when he discovered the man he once considered a best friend turned out to be an undercover officer.
But he said his primary motivation for bringing forward the lawsuit was to shed light on what really happened behind the scenes at the G20.
“I think the lawsuit is one way that I can break the silence by bringing evidence, by bringing people like Khalid Mohammed forward,” he said. “The other reason I’m doing this is I have suffered and I have to take a stand.”