Canadian diplomat recalled after bribery probe, documents reveal
Toronto Star - 7 hours ago
ROBERTO SCHMIDT / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Goma, Congo, on Aug.
11, 2009. An incident that led to a Canadian diplomat being recalled
from Congo was linked to the high security surrounding Clinton's
visit.
By: Rick Westhead Staff Reporter, Published on Fri Mar 14 2014
A Canadian diplomat in Kinshasa was recalled after he and a Canadian
soldier were investigated for bribery, documents released under the
Access to Information Act reveal.
The incident in the Democratic Republic of Congo occurred in August
2009, during a visit by then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
One of the men allegedly paid a local woman who accused him of
assault. Police were later offered additional cash to remove the woman
from the Canadian mission, according to the documents.
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Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has ordered that the investigation
into the Congo incident, as well as at least three others, be
reopened, said Baird's press secretary, Rick Roth.
Roth said all the cases took place before Baird became foreign minister in 2011.
The documents were released under the Access to Information Act in
response to a request for records related to incidents of alleged
wrongdoing, criminal activity or misbehaviour by Canadian diplomats or
their family members. The documents covered Jan. 1, 2009, to Nov. 12,
2010.
The documents are censored; the names of those investigated, the
locations and any penalties imposed have been blacked out. The
identities of the Canadian soldier and two of the diplomats remain
unknown; the Star has independently identified the other two
diplomats.
On the night in question, the diplomat and soldier had dinner at a
Kinshasa club, where they met three women. They took the women to the
Canadian mission for a swim, later justifying the decision by saying
it would have been difficult to gain access to a local hotel pool
because of security issues related to Clinton's visit.
In an Aug. 10, 2009, statement, the Canadian accused of bribery and
assault said he and his colleague had invited the women back to the
Canadian mission.
When one of the women demanded money, the man refused. He said, "she
became extremely agitated, started to be offensive and threatened to
harm the furniture.
"Eventually, the house guards were asked to intervene to (remove) this
person and I had to help the guards take her outside the house by
holding her wrists while they were moving her."
In an email also dated Aug. 10, Sigrid Anna Johnson, the head of
mission for Kinshasa, said she had been told by a member of another
country's mission that "in the Congolese context, alleged sexual
assault has become a money-maker for some women as well as police and
that UN foreign personnel were frequently targeted with such scams,
making it very difficult to establish the facts."
Michael Camiot, the Foreign Affairs official who oversaw the original
investigation, wrote in emails to colleagues that the Canadians
brought the women back to the staff quarters after midnight.
One went to bed with one woman around 1:30 a.m. At 4 a.m., the other
man asked mission guards to help him send away one of the women who
refused to leave. The Canadian gave her $100, but she still refused to
go. The guards picked her up and forced her out.
Around 7 a.m., the woman returned with police and members of her
family. The group left after the man who had given her money earlier
offered $200 to the police.
"The staff quarters should not have been used for unofficial
activities which may negatively affect Canada's reputation," Camiot
wrote in an Aug. 18, 2009, email.
"Both have been in the region long enough to know that picking up
girls in bars and bringing them back to their (staff quarters) is not
an appropriate use of the (staff quarters) . . . Further, unofficial
payments to one of the girls and later to police are at best bribes,
and the payment to police was witnessed by locally engaged employees."
On Sept. 9, 2009, the diplomat was recalled immediately to Canada.
Capt. Joanna Labonte, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Forces military
police, said military police concluded criminal charges against the
soldier were not merited.
Melanie Rush, another spokeswoman for the military, said she was not
permitted to say whether the soldier was disciplined because it might
identify him.
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/03/14/canadian_diplomat_recalled_after_bribery_probe_documents_reveal.html&q=Canadian+diplomat+recalled+after+bribery+probe,+documents+reveal
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