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Haslett slammed the investigative team for not stopping the sting earlier, noting that an operation of this size would have required weekly, if not daily, reports up the chain of command, extending to Ottawa.

“It’s everybody, all the way up the ladder, who I really feel was out of their league in this investigation,” he said.

“Once it was determined that these two individuals weren’t capable of doing this particular crime without totally being led around by the nose by the undercover operators, who were, in fact, RCMP — that right there should have set off signals that we are overstepping our boundaries here.

“We are potentially putting this whole undercover technique at risk in front of our Canadian courts.”

The controversial technique has its share of critics and in 2014 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that confessions secured in Mr. Big stings should be treated as “presumptively” inadmissible, putting the onus on the Crown to prove they should be heard in court.

Photo by Ward Perrin / PNG

Micheal Vonn of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association said police would do well to reconsider their anti-terrorism tactics after Friday’s ruling tossed out Nuttall and Korody’s guilty verdict.

“It certainly signals to the police that these kinds of initiatives are going to be scrutinized by the court in a very rigorous fashion, including when they involve charges that are terrorist in nature,” Vonn said. “That is a very important signal.”

Despite Bruce’s harsh words for RCMP in Friday’s decision, Haslett doesn’t believe it will tarnish the Mr. Big technique. He said that when it’s usually run on homicide and gang-related cases, the success rate is significant.

“Mr. Big stings that are done on homicides and crimes of that nature are run by people who are experts and know what they’re doing,” said Haslett.

“There’s only a handful of people in British Columbia that have the expertise to run a proper undercover operation, to be sure that all the checks and balances are in place — and there’s a small amount across Canada.”

“I’m not surprised by the ruling of the judge, but when I think it through, I’m surprised the RCMP let this go on for as long as it did and how it did.”

— With files from The Canadian Press

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