In a suit filed in federal court on April 3, RCMP officer and vice-president of the National Police Federation Peter Merrifield and retired Vancouver police detective Paul MacNamara allege the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) “pursued a politically motivated agenda designed to show that it was taking a hard line on foreign interference from China.”

“Rather than examining and verifying actual information, CSIS simply made incomplete, inaccurate, misleading and false assertions about the Plaintiffs, and provided them to the Plaintiffs’ employers, knowing full well the harm that would follow,” the suit claims.

Despite his current challenge, if you take the long view of McNamara’s career, his achievements are nothing short of extraordinary.

“Homicides, ‘Mr. Bigs,’ drug cases, stock market files,” he said of the various file types he handled in his policing career.

McNamara’s reputation got him a job running security at us consulates in Canada, and his post-policing life appeared secure until a routine security clearance came back denied. He claims Canada’s spy agency, CSIS was responsible.

McNamara believes his friendship with former RCMP officer Bill Majcher compelled CSIS to tank his career. While Majcher has been charged with foreign interference related to his work in China, McNamara has never been accused of anything, let alone a plot by Beijing to interfere in Canada. Now he is suing the federal government.

“Twenty-six years of being a protector for Canadians results in a knife in my back from the very agencies that are supposed to protect us,” he said.