US v Canada
… This cross-border discrepancy is partly explained by serious flaws in Canada’s legal system. As an intelligence-gathering service, CSIS is best placed to identify crimes of espionage. But it has no actual law enforcement powers. It can share its findings with the RCMP, but this relationship is complicated by the fact CSIS intel is not admissible in court since the agency refuses to disclose its sources and methods.
“If defence lawyers ever get a whiff of the fact the RCMP has relied on CSIS information, they will demand to test that information in court,” warns Phil Gurski, a former strategic analyst at CSIS. For this reason, cases built on CSIS evidence are often not prosecuted. It is possible Qiu and Cheng were allowed to leave the country because the mountain of proof incriminating them was inadmissible in court.
