B.C. businesswoman falsely labelled terrorist sues the federal government
A B.C. businesswoman who was falsely labelled a terrorist and an arms dealer and who had a civil lawsuit thrown out in the United States has quietly filed a similar lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court.
Earlier this year, Perienne de Jaray had a lawsuit that she had filed in Western Washington District Court — in which she claimed she and her father were wrongly targeted by Canadian officials who hoped to prove Canada was tough on terrorism — dismissed after the court found American laws grant immunity to foreign states.
De Jaray appealed the decision, but the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the lower court’s ruling that she couldn’t sue Canada for malicious prosecution or abuse of process.
But the case is far from over.
In August, she filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court against the federal government making many of the same claims.
“This claim is for recovery of a professionally accomplished young professional woman’s life, reputation, fortune and future that were critically damaged by the actions of officials of the government of Canada in a criminal investigation and resulting criminal charges where there was no crime and some of the officials knew there was no crime,” says her B.C. lawsuit.
The suit adds that not only was there no crime committed, but officials brought allegations against de Jaray of involvement in “international terrorist-related activity” without a shred of evidence for the purpose of using her to put pressure on her father to admit involvement in a crime that never occurred.
At the time of the allegations, de Jaray was the co-owner and executive vice-president of the Washington-based Apex USA, once a multimillion-dollar subsidiary of electronics maker Apex Canada, which her father, Steven de Jaray, had founded.
In April 2010, de Jaray and her father were charged in Canada with two counts of exporting controlled goods.
It was alleged that the company had exported military technology to China in violation of export controls.
The Canadian government had shared the allegation with the FBI, which investigated the daughter’s Washington state company. But the case fell apart and in August 2011, the charges were dismissed. Steven de Jaray sued the Canadian government and reportedly received a large settlement.
His daughter, who lived in the U.S. at the time of the allegations and now resides in B.C., elected initially to pursue her civil lawsuit in the U.S., but after its failure there filed suit in B.C.
Her B.C. action alleges wrongful acts on the part of officials, employees or servants of the Canada Border Services Agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of National Defence.
No response has yet been filed to the lawsuit, which contains allegations that have not been proven.