Double win in Canada courts

A former policeman who participated in ‘Tokhang’ is denied residency and Iglesia Ni Cristo loses a defamation case vs Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Canada has been in the news, surging into our consciousness because of President Donald Trump’s threat to annex it to the US. And, more recently, the stunning win of its new prime minister, Mark Carney of the Liberal Party, has kept Canada in the spotlight.

For us in the Philippines, Canada has brought good news. There, the long arm of the law caught up with two institutions in our country which have been relatively unscathed by our judicial system: the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC).

It was exciting to learn about two recent Canadian court decisions that upheld values we hold dear: the sanctity of human rights — shockingly distorted during the Duterte years — and the integrity of the courts.

As we know, the PNP, led by generals favored by then-President Duterte, implemented his brutal war on drugs while the INC, with a membership of 2.8 million, has remained an influential religious group wooed by politicians and given plum government positions because of its bloc-voting practice.

‘Tokhang’ haunts policeman

The story of former policeman Josue Limmong Ahuday is a cautionary tale, his past haunting him in a country he would have wanted to be his home.

In January 2025, a Toronto court denied residency to Ahuday for being “complicit in crimes committed by Philippine state authorities.” He made a “voluntary, knowing and significant contribution to the crimes against humanity committed by the drug units of the PNP as part of then President Duterte’s war on drugs.”

Ahuday was a police officer at the Jose Abad Santos Police Station in Manila from 2012 to 2021. In December 2016, he was assigned to a Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) within his police station for about three months. Part of his duties, according to testimonies by Ahuday and his witnesses, “included conducting door-to-door visits, attempting to convince suspected drug users to ‘surrender.’”

This, as we know it here, is referred to as “Operation: Tokhang,” a word that is now part of Canadian jurisprudence.

Ahuday then asked to leave the DEU because he found it a “dangerous position…he was getting married and he wanted to stay alive.” 

Years after leaving the unit, he continued to work in the same station; he received a medal for the “Implementation of Anti-Illegal Drug Campaign” and was promoted in 2019.

The court, in its decision, said Ahuday “never indicated that he sought to leave the drug unit over concerns with the nature of the Duterte war on drugs.”

He resigned in June 2021 to immigrate to Canada on a “spousal open work permit” and was included on his wife’s application for permanent residence as a dependent spouse.

More than three years later, it was not a happy ending, his dreams crushed. 

‘INC used the courts to silence its critics’

This case, which the court dismissed, shows how the INC used the court system in Canada “ to silence its critics” and abused the process by its persistent failure to comply with the rules.

It began in 2018 when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) aired a documentary and published an article on the INC, both entitled “Church of Secrets,” disclosing allegations of financial corruption, kidnapping and murder. 

Three former INC members, one of them — Lowell Manorca II — who  sought refuge in Canada, provided information: they were quoted in the article and they appeared in the documentary.

The INC in Alberta, Manitoba and Montreal filed a defamation suit seeking a permanent injunction in early 2019, meaning the INC wanted CBC to stop the airing of the documentary and the publication of the story.

The CBC, in response, asserted that what they published and aired are true and that they are fair commentary on matters of public interest.

In a 15-page decision, Justice Kenneth Champagne painstakingly detailed the close to six-year history of the litigation showing that the INC failed to meet its disclosure obligations and deliberately employed a litigation strategy “designed to waste resources.” He wrote in an exasperated tone: “They have ignored the requests of the defendants and the directions and orders from the court. Simply put, they have struck out.”  

In sum, he wrote: “The totality of the evidence supports one conclusion: the INC continues to engage in this deliberate litigation strategy. This conduct is unacceptable and reprehensible as it diminishes the court’s integrity and undermines confidence in the administration of justice.”

Thus, the Court dismissed the case in October last year. You can read the decision here. 

It has been nine years since expelled INC worker Manorca who Ieft the Philippines because of threats to his life. He told Rappler in 2016: “We decided that we’re going to leave the country because there’s no place else there in the Philippines where we’re safe, especially because the clutches of the Iglesia ni Cristo all over the Philippines are very powerful.” 

Today, Manorca has found justice, oceans away, in a distant country.

Let me know what you think. You can email me at marites.vitug@rappler.com.