US embassy cable - 05VANCOUVER1310

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VANCOUVER 001310 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR ECA/PE/V/R/W -- EWILKES-SCOTT; WHA/PDA--JCARPENTER-ROCK; 
OTTAWA FOR PAO AND CAO; CONSULATES FOR PA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO, OEXC, SCUL, CA, IV Program 
SUBJECT: FY 2005 IVLP EVALUATION: JOHNNY HLIBCHUK; JANUARY 6-27; MRP 
ON COMBATTING INTERNATIONAL CRIME 
 
REF: 04 STATE 270346 AND PREVIOUS 
 
1.  (U) SUMMARY: Program evaluation for FY2005 Vancouver 
Voluntary Visitor Program grantee Johnny Hlibchuk follows. END 
SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (U) DATE OF PROGRAM, FISCAL YEAR AND QUARTER: 
January 6-27, FY 2005, First Quarter 
 
3.  (U) MPP THEME ADDRESSED: 
Combating Terrorism and International Crime 
 
4.  (U) POST OBJECTIVES: 
Johnny Hlibchuk is a highly motivated individual held in high 
regard by his peers and superiors at the RCMP 'E' Serious Crimes 
Division Headquarters in Surrey, British Columbia.  According to 
some of his superiors at 'E' Division, by virtue of his current 
position, in addition to his many accomplishments and law 
training, Mr. Hlibchuk will advance quickly through the RCMP 
ranks.  Mr. Hlibchuk is also one of a few RCMP officers in the 
region that hold a law degree.  In his current position, Mr. 
Hlibchuk serves as a policy advisor to the Deputy Commissioner 
and Sergeant Major and therefore has a direct impact on RCMP 
policy. He has extensive experience in cases that tackled 
terrorism, money laundering, and drug smuggling in Canada. 
 
Mr. Hlibchuk is very pro-United States and in favor of cross 
border law enforcement cooperation.  He recognizes the huge 
amounts of red tape and mutual misunderstanding that currently 
hinder this cooperation and would like to take steps to remedy 
this situation.  Post's goal through the IVLP is to afford Mr. 
Hlibchuk the opportunity to learn first hand how and why things 
are done in the United States so that he can work toward 
harmonizing American and RCMP policy, and making cross border 
investigations much more seamless and efficient. 
 
5.   (U) RESULTS: Outstanding 
 
Johnny Hlibchuk expressed great satisfaction with his overall 
program, labeling it, "fantastic." He found it to be an 
excellent way to learn about how local, state and federal 
entities work together to provide law enforcement in the United 
States. Participation in the MRP on Combatting International 
Crime also adjusted Mr. Hlibchuk's fundamental understanding of 
how law enforcement works in the United States. His own words 
explain it best: "I thought I knew the U.S. (before 
participating in the IVLP), but I realized just how 
decentralized the U.S. is through this trip." 
 
 Mr. Hlibchuk felt that the trip was well organized. He liked 
the idea of dividing the larger group of participants into team 
cities to allow smaller groups of people to speak with locals 
one-on-one. For Mr. Hlibchuk, this led to the best parts of the 
trip for him: riding along on the job with local police and 
spending time in people's homes in the cities he visited. 
 
Mr. Hlibchuk is also thankful for the large list of people he 
met while participating in this trip. With his legal background, 
he particularly appreciated meeting with a judge in Arizona who 
could provide the view from the courts on prosecuting 
international crime. Mr. Hlibchuk reports he has also developed 
friendships with some of his fellow IVLP travelers that remain 
strong today. He plans to visit a colleague from the Dominican 
Republic soon, and he emails his colleague from Mexico about 
three times per week. 
 
When asked if he would make any changes to the program, Mr. 
Hlibchuk stated that it might be more appropriate for someone 
with his background to travel with law enforcement professionals 
from Europe or elsewhere in North America. He explained that he 
wanted to use the opportunities provided through this trip to 
ask detailed questions of U.S. law enforcement representatives. 
Other people in the group, he claimed, looked at the IVLP as a 
junket and were always asking how they could receive money from 
the U.S. to improve law enforcement programs in their home 
countries. He felt that traveling with others who are less 
concerned about basic resources might have allowed him to get 
more out of the program intellectually. Still, he appreciated 
the chance to talk with people from all different law 
enforcement backgrounds about common challenges. 
 
Mr. Hlibchuk's only other point of contention with the program 
was with the focus on emergency preparedness in his own team 
city division. He says that with a background in fighting 
organized crime, he did not find the presentations by 
firefighters particularly useful. He felt that it might have 
been more appropriate for him to switch to a different team and 
suggests that program participants be given a list of choices 
for team cities prior to the start of the program. 
 
Despite his minor criticisms of certain aspects of his trip, Mr. 
Hlibchuk stated that he thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to 
participate in the IVLP. He reports that he gained so much from 
the program that he would gladly repeat the program again just 
as it was organized. 
6.  (U) RATING/REMARKS: 
 
Post appreciates the outstanding help provided by Alison Moylan 
and Sequita Robinson with ECA/PE/V/M and Kay Yates with 
CA/PE/V/C in organizing this MRP. 
 
7.  (U) UPDATE 
 
Earlier this year, Johnny Hlibchuk transferred from the 
Vancouver area to RCMP offices in Montreal, Quebec. This 
contributed to the delay in debriefing him. After some effort, 
we found Mr. Hlibchuk again and updated his contact information. 
Though he has left our consular district, Mr. Hlibchuk will 
continue to be an important contact for Mission Canada since he 
will now be available to work closely with U.S. Consulate 
General Montreal. 
 
 
 
 
SCANDOLA