Undercover police investigating the murder of a 13-year-old girl in British Columbia disguised themselves as tea marketers to secretly collect the DNA of about 150 Kurdish community members, court recordings reveal.
Homicide officers said the DNA was obtained at a 2018 Kurdish New Year celebration in Burnaby, where police handed out free tea samples in numbered cups that were later swabbed for DNA in a sting that identified a brother of the suspect.
That led to the arrest of Ibrahim Ali, who was convicted in December of first-degree murder of the girl whose name is protected by a publication ban.
Ali is due in court Monday to fix a date for sentencing.
His trial heard DNA on a cigarette butt discarded by Ali matched semen in the girlB次元官网网址檚 body, which was found in BurnabyB次元官网网址檚 Central Park in July 2017.
But the jury was never told why B.C.B次元官网网址檚 Integrated Homicide Investigation Team was monitoring Ali,and an application by his lawyers for full information about the operation has been sealed by the court.
However, The Canadian Press listened to months of court recordings of pretrial hearings that reveal details of the secret operation and its random sweep.
Meghan McDermott, the policy director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said she was B次元官网网址渟tunnedB次元官网网址� to hear about the operation, calling it B次元官网网址渦nacceptable and reprehensibleB次元官网网址� if police failed to obtain a warrant for it.
B次元官网网址淲e need judicial permission to do this. You either need the warrant to do it surreptitiously, or you need informed consent,B次元官网网址� she said in an interview.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 really disappointing and disturbing, that they came up with a creative way, that theyB次元官网网址檙e probably very proud of, to violate the rights of so many people.B次元官网网址�
ItB次元官网网址檚 not clear if a warrant was sought or obtained, and police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dan McLaughlin of the BC Prosecution Service said in an email Friday that the service B次元官网网址渨ill not be issuing any statements or commenting on any aspects of the investigation or prosecution at this time.B次元官网网址�
AliB次元官网网址檚 lawyer Ben Lynskey said in one of the pretrial hearings that the sting involved the B次元官网网址渋ndiscriminateB次元官网网址� investigation of people on the basis of B次元官网网址渞acial background.B次元官网网址�
He said there were B次元官网网址渕assive implications for how the police conduct investigations and for the Charter-protected interest of Canadians.B次元官网网址�
Police testified the sting was launched after DNA from the body was determined to have markers consistent with the Kurdish ethnic minority. Homicide investigators zeroed in on the community of several thousand in the Lower Mainland, whose members include refugees from the Syrian war.
Police had earlier conducted a voluntary DNA sweep of male Kurds, as well as collecting castoff DNA samples, the court heard.
B次元官网网址淭his is an investigative step that was taken by the police, which allowed the police to direct some greater attention and focus, in a better way, the nature of their investigation,B次元官网网址� Crown lawyer Daniel Porte told a pretrial hearing in November 2019.
But when that didnB次元官网网址檛 yield a breakthrough, police devised a new plan to obtain DNA without permission. They would secretly collect DNA at a Kurdish New Year celebration, known as Newroz, at BurnabyB次元官网网址檚 Barnet Marine Park on March 25, 2018, the recordings revealed.
An RCMP officerexplained the operation to the B.C. Supreme Court in November 2022 calling it an B次元官网网址渋ncentive-based scenario.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淭he specific scenario was a taste test of tea,B次元官网网址� the officer told the court.
He said officers dressed as market researchers for a tea company and roamed around the Newroz celebration, offering free samples. He said the participants were also given Tim Hortons gift cards.
B次元官网网址淚 believe it was a $5 gift card, but I canB次元官网网址檛 be certain on the amount,B次元官网网址� the officer said.
B次元官网网址淭he participants (who) elected to participate in this event, (and) it was entirely voluntary, could elect to provide personal information which would further give them the possibility of being entered into some form of contest or sweepstakes. This, again, was voluntary.B次元官网网址�
But participants were never told the tea company was fake and the entire process was designed solely to allow police to obtain their DNA and identities.
The officer said the cups were B次元官网网址渋ndividually and uniquely numberedB次元官网网址� so police could later match DNA on the cups with names on the contest forms.
Undercover officers would offer to take back the used disposable cup, pretending to throw them away. Instead, the cups were wrapped in a plastic glove to protect against cross-contamination, placed in a garbage bag, then collated in a trailer parked some distance away.
In December 2022, Crown lawyer Porte told the court that 150 cups were collected at the celebration. Three were duplicates, and of the 147 unique DNA samples, 91 were male and 56 female.
He said one of the samples obtained at the Newroz celebration came from a man named Shamdan Ali, and that RCMP lab testing showed he shared many genetic characteristics with the DNA of B次元官网网址淢ale 1,B次元官网网址� whose semen was found in the body.
He said Shamdan AliB次元官网网址檚 DNA was sent to Parabon NanoLabs in the United States which had more exacting science than available in Canada. The company determined it likely belonged to a sibling of Male 1 with B次元官网网址渃onfidence of 99.32 per cent.B次元官网网址�
Police then identified Syrian refugee Ibrahim Ali as the brother of Shamdan Ali and began surveillance that later resulted in the seizure of the cigarette butt on Aug. 24, 2018.
The DNA matched Male 1 and Ibrahim Ali was arrested about a week later.
Prosecutors told his subsequent trial that Ali had sexually assaulted and strangled the girl, and he was convicted on Dec. 8. He faces a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
McDermott, with the BC Civil Liberties Association, said the sting operation was B次元官网网址渞eally concerning,B次元官网网址� set a B次元官网网址渟cary precedentB次元官网网址� and will likely impact trust between the Kurdish community and Canadian authorities.
It would be B次元官网网址渄isingenuous to call this a voluntary collection of cast-off DNA,B次元官网网址� she said of the Newroz operation.
B次元官网网址淭here can be creative solutions to finding a needle in a haystack or looking for people who have done criminally abhorrent things,B次元官网网址� she said. B次元官网网址淥ur system can accommodate these brilliant, creative solutions if theyB次元官网网址檙e properly balancing all of the rights involved.B次元官网网址�
AliB次元官网网址檚 lawyers filed a notice of appeal on Dec. 11, which claimed the court B次元官网网址渆rred in its consideration of the defence abuse-of-process application in respect to the police collection of, and investigation into, the appellantB次元官网网址檚 DNA.B次元官网网址�
During pretrial hearings, AliB次元官网网址檚 lawyer criticized the sting operation and the targeting of the Kurdish community.
B次元官网网址淭he only way to advance the lead without other investigational information is to do what the police did in this case, which is to indiscriminately investigate every person from the same racial background,B次元官网网址� Lynskey said during a disclosure application in January 2022.
B次元官网网址淭he defence will be challenging whether this technology can reliably do what it purports to do and whether it should be used,B次元官网网址� he said.
B次元官网网址淲e will also be challenging the effect of the use of this technology on the police investigation and whether it led to them exploiting the vulnerability of the Kurdish population to advance the investigation.B次元官网网址�
Justice Lance Bernard ruled against the abuse-of-process application in December 2022.
AliB次元官网网址檚 defence lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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