Court orders name of tipster who lied to police released to the court

The National Post is reporting that someone who called in Crimestoppers with a false tip to throw suspicion of himself could be identified in court if he lied to obstruct justice. Crimestoppers presented an absurd objection claiming that the sky would fall and Crimestoppers would come to an end if the public trust in anonymity was broken. Get a grip. Anonymity still exists. It can only be broken if the person knowingly lies. That's pretty much a no brainer.

"The Supreme Court found that the promise of anonymity cannot serve as a cover for obstruction of justice. The Supreme Court decided the anonymity granted to informers, called informer privilege, cannot be interpreted to apply where it would compromise the very objectives that justify its existence, namely: furthering the interest of justice and the maintenance of public order. It follows that informer privilege does not exist where a person has contacted Crime Stoppers with the intention of furthering criminal activity or interfering with the administration of justice.”

This case does however open Pandora's box and relates to several other cases and articles. What happens when crown witnesses lie? Can their name be released? We've briefly talked about when police lie in court like in the taser death at the airport or when hiding their sexual escapades with witnesses in the Surrey Six investigation. We've also recently talked about when police knowingly plant evidence to wrongfully convict someone of a crime they did not commit. Their anonymity is not protected so why should a crown witness who knowingly lies?

Recently the Times Colonist reported that "A police agent, paid more than $130,000 by the RCMP to help nab a cocaine dealer, testified in court that he may have killed two men and viciously attacked people to settle drug debts. The payout sheds light on the secretive world of police agents who can be used to catch criminals in undercover stings but often have a serious criminal past of their own." This was a sting - entrapment. It was not stopping an existing drug trafficking ring, it was creating a new one for the press release.

This was an enforcer for you know who getting paid $130,000 by the RCMP to rat out a rival in exchange for not only carrying on his own business, but for getting away with murder and years of debt collection violence. This is the new corruption within the BC Gang task Force that I am referring to. It also relates to Blaze, the Black Widow and Len Peltier.

In this case "Mulligan tried to prove that Ketch sold the cocaine under duress after Holland implied he would hurt Ketch if he didn’t come up with the drugs. Mulligan said Holland had a financial incentive to pressure Ketch to sell the drugs." It was another sting operation to make it look like they were confronting drug dealing when they were in reality doing the exact opposite.