RCMP called him a sex-trafficking 'ringleader.' He wants an apology and $100M
CBC
Daegun Chun, accused by Quebec RCMP of being the mastermind of a Canada-wide human-smuggling network, is now suing the force and Quebec's attorney general for $100 million after all charges against him were stayed.
Chun was arrested in Toronto in 2015, then flown to Montreal and paraded in front of TV cameras before a press conference alleging he was the head of a trafficking ring that forced as many as 500 women into prostitution in various Canadian cities.
The Quebec Crown prosecutor who brought the charges said at the time there was "overwhelming evidence" in the case.
But as The National Post first reported over the weekend, Chun's case never went to trial.
After all the fanfare over Chun's arrest, Crown prosecutors quietly stayed all charges against him in 2018.
"When they arrested me they have some big show. And when they finished the case, nobody said anything," Chun told CBC News in an interview Tuesday.
"They wanted to save face. They don't want to admit their mistake," Chun said.
When he was arrested, Chun was running a private career college in Toronto. He and eight other co-defendants were said to be running the prostitution operation in Toronto and Montreal.
Chun has always denied the allegations. He has no previous criminal record. He admitted he knew two of the co-accused, but only as tenants in condos he was subletting.
He believes the RCMP mistakenly concluded the school he was running was a front for human smuggling.
Chun's lawsuit alleges RCMP officers made many errors, including mistranslating statements from Korean witnesses, relying on questionable information from co-accused and extrapolating innocuous aspects of running a school in order to fashion him into a criminal mastermind.
Chun spent 32 months in detention in Montreal before being released on bail in 2017, a few months before his scheduled trial.
It was only when he showed up for the trial in Montreal in March 2018 — fully prepared to argue the case — that he learned Crown prosecutors had stayed all charges against him a few weeks earlier without informing him and without further explanation.
"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," Chun's lawsuit alleges.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
A suspended Moncton structural engineer faces more lawsuits alleging design flaws in buildings that require repair.
Sajjade Tugano has come a long way since he first set foot in Chibougamau, six hours north of Quebec City, in the depths of winter in November 2021.
A national mentor-based hockey organization that helps marginalized youth through the sport is paying tribute to one of its members and youngest coaches.
After months of asking the City of Saskatoon to do more to solve its homelessness crisis, advocate David Fineday took to the stand at city council Tuesday.
A community organization wants to breathe new life into a historic building in Regina.
Some Prince County residents are walking away with more answers after attending Tuesday night's public information session in Albany, P.E.I., on the Wejipek Wind Project.
After just a few months of using vape detectors in a couple of bathrooms, a B.C. high school principal says it's reduced vape use in those areas to basically zero.
Burlington MP Karina Gould gets boost from local young people after entering Liberal leadership race
A day after entering the Liberal leadership race, Burlington, Ont., MP and government House leader Karina Gould was cheered at a campaign launch party by local residents — including young people expressing hope the 37-year-old politician will represent their voices.
Anold Mulaisho was born intersex and wonders where they fit in, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order for the United States to recognize only two sexes, male and female.
WARNING: This story contains references to suicide.
Subway service is down on Line 1 between Sheppard West and Lawrence West due to a broken power rail, the TTC said Wednesday morning.
A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood has cleared one more hurdle to add desperately needed beds to its property, a move that's been praised by housing advocates but opposed by locals concerned about the impact on the neighbourhood.
A Charlottetown resident is calling on the P.E.I. government to do more to protect homeowners after reading about a recent oil spill very similar to one on his Montague property 20 years ago, which he says ruined him financially.
WARNING: This story includes details of abuse.
Two years after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared she was taking the unprecedented step of moving to confiscate millions of dollars from a sanctioned Russian oligarch with assets in Canada, the government has not actually begun the court process to forfeit the money, let alone to hand it over to Ukrainian reconstruction — and it may never happen.
Alberta business and oilpatch leaders are returning home from Washington this week after the U.S. presidential inauguration festivities — and gritting their teeth after a roller-coaster of emotions.
Youth workers in Toronto's Jane and Finch area are flipping the script on negative stereotypes about their communities with a new fundraising campaign that offers anti-bias training in exchange for donations to bolster their programming.
In a sudden move that came late Tuesday evening, city officials rolled out cots and temporarily opened a warm building in east London as frigid temperatures continued.