Canadian taxpayers spent more to protect Prince Harry over five years during his visits to Canada than any other internationally protected person over the same period, CBC News has learned.

According to a document obtained by CBC News under Canada’s access to information law, the RCMP spent at least $539,575 to provide security between 2014/15 and 2019/20 when Prince Harry travelled to Canada for events like the Invictus Games and to date his future wife, Meghan Markle.

The document also reveals that his security costs were much higher than the $334,337 initially revealed by the RCMP in 2021.

The cost to protect Prince Harry and, later, his wife accounted for around 10 per cent of the over $5.2 million spent during that period to provide security to more than 100 internationally protected persons who visited Canada. 

The two-page list also provides a rare glimpse into the secretive world of taxpayer-funded security for a select group of people who qualify as internationally protected persons. Among them are U.S. President Donald Trump’s children, former U.S. presidents or their wives on book tours or six-figure speaking engagements, former U.K Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of various royal families. 

A number of government officials from other countries are also on the list — from ambassadors for countries like the U.S. and Israel to the secretaries general of NATO or the United Nations or the heads of the CIA and Israel’s intelligence service.

However, the list doesn’t include expenses for other members of the Royal Family like Princess Anne or Prince Edward, who visited Canada during that period on what were described as “private working” visits.

Under international conventions, when individuals on the internationally protected person list visit Canada, the RCMP is tasked with assuring their security — regardless of whether the trip is official, for business or personal. The costs outlined in the document cover incremental expenses like travel and overtime but not the basic salaries of police officers — meaning the full cost is somewhat higher.

The list also doesn’t appear to include security for international summits such as the G7 meeting in Charlevoix, Que., in 2018, which have separate budgets that include security costs.

The records, first requested in January 2020, were released to CBC News following an order earlier this year from Canada’s Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard. That ruling came after the RCMP fought for years to avoid revealing the names of those who had received protection. 

The force also refused repeatedly to answer questions from CBC News about the records that were ordered released, beyond general background about the program. It declined to confirm or deny whether a potential duplication in the list had artificially increased the costs associated with protecting Prince Harry and his wife.

RCMP fought for years to avoid revealing names

Simon Morgan is a former U.K. Metropolitan Police officer who has protected senior members of the Royal Family and founded the London-based Trojan Consultancy security firm. 

Morgan said taxpayer-funded protection for internationally protected persons is part of an international system set up by the United Nations. Protection is generally associated with the role that someone occupies — and is something that even the wealthiest person in the world can’t buy.

He said Canadian authorities may have seen the need for a “more robust” security process due to Prince Harry being a veteran of the Afghan war and a prominent member of the Royal Family.

“He was the Queen’s grandson. He was the future King’s son,” Morgan said.

Prince Harry was also still a working member of the Royal Family during the period covered in the document, Morgan pointed out.

The costs associated with Prince Harry’s security made headlines after he and his wife decided in January 2020 to step back from royal duties and his U.K. taxpayer-funded security ended. Prince Harry has challenged that decision. More recently, his eligibility has been assessed on a case-by-case basis.

The document released by the RCMP lists $105,955 in spending for Prince Harry’s security in 2016/17 followed by $364,859 in 2017/18. That tapered off to $866 in 2018/19 and $904 in 2019/20. On a separate line, expenses of $56,405 for 2019/20 appear on the list under the “Duke and Duchess of Sussex.”

A CBC News tally of the spending does not include another line item of $56,405 for the same year under “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex” which appears to be a duplicate — even though it is included in the RCMP’s total spending of $5.2 million.

According to the Court Circular, which outlines public activities of members of the Royal Family, Prince Harry had one public visit to Canada during 2017 and 2018 — a weeklong trip to attend events in Toronto. The events included the Invictus Games — which Harry founded — a WE Day celebration and a reception for young people who received Duke of Edinburgh gold awards.

In July 2016 Prince Harry met Markle, who had a role in the television drama Suits that was filming in Toronto. Around that period, the pair were occasionally spotted by paparazzi in Toronto. They were engaged in November 2017 and married in 2018. 

The list also includes RCMP expenses of $10,586 for the Duchess of Sussex in 2018/19. News reports in August 2018 revealed that she jetted to Toronto to spend three days with her friend Jessica Mulroney. 

The costs to protect Prince Harry during visits to Canada between 2014/15 and 2019/20 far exceed the $178,584 to protect his father, then Prince Charles, in 2017/18. Charles and his wife visited Nunavut, Ontario and the Ottawa region in 2017. 

The document also provides glimpses into other visits to Canada by people on the internationally protected persons list — not all of them widely publicized.

For example, the list includes security costs of $63,586 for U.S. President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka in 2017/18 and another $1,920 in 2019/20. 

News reporting after the fact revealed that Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner spent a weekend at the Whistler, B.C., ski resort in April 2017. NBC News revealed that the Secret Service spent $66,538 US on agents, hotel rooms and ski passes for the visit.

The RCMP list includes a line entitled “President Trump & Family” with $51,558 in costs incurred in 2016/17, another $13,078 in 2017/18 and $1,769 in 2018/19. While the U.S. president does not appear to have made a trip to Canada during that time period with the exception of the 2018 G7 meeting, his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. attended the opening of a Trump hotel in Vancouver in February 2017. 

In September 2017, U.S. First Lady Melania Trump attended the Invictus Games in Toronto. The RCMP lists a cost of $42,602 to protect her in 2017/18. There is also another expense of $1,382 for the following year.

Many of the people on the list, like U.S. presidents and their wives or U.K. prime ministers, continue to receive taxpayer-funded RCMP protection during visits to Canada long after they leave office.

The record reveals that the RCMP spent $497,544 during that period on security for former U.S. presidents and their spouses, a number of whom have come to Canada on speaking or book tours. 

Security for Barack and Michelle Obama cost the most at $295,411 followed by Bill and Hillary Clinton at $143,927. Security for Laura Bush, who spoke at a 2018 Rotary International Convention in Toronto cost $6,852 while the RCMP reported costs of $1,026 for a trip by former president George Bush in 2019/20.

Security for Jimmy Carter cost $50,328 in 2017/18. Carter travelled to Winnipeg in July 2017 to work on a Habitat for Humanity job site and was also hospitalized for dehydration.

It is not known how much the Obamas and the Clintons were paid for speaking appearances or book tours. Their offices did not respond to questions from CBC News.

However, Hillary Clinton’s filing to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics prior to her run for president provides a glimpse into the kinds of speaking fees she receives.

The filings reveal that between March 2014 and January 2015, Clinton received $1.97 million in honorariums for nine appearances in Canada. The fees ranged from $100,000 for an appearance in Edmonton in June 2014 to $275,500 each for a March 2014 talk to the Vancouver Board of Trade and an October 2014 appearance at an Ottawa event organized by Canada 2020.

The RCMP doesn’t list any costs for her security during that period.

One of the few on the list who isn’t a public servant, held public office or been married to a public office holder is Malala Yousafzai, who won a Nobel Peace Prize after she was shot by a Taliban gunman in 2012. Yousafzai’s trip to Canada in April 2017 to receive honorary Canadian citizenship and address Parliament cost the RCMP $5,639.

While Prince Harry topped the list for security costs, U.S. ambassadors Bruce Heyman and Kelly Craft during that period were second at $487,654, followed by the $446,333 spent on security for U.S. vice-presidents such as Joe Biden and Mike Pence.

Security for Israel’s ambassadors to Canada cost $377,897 while a trip by Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella in 2017 cost $215,305.

The list reveals that the RCMP also provided protection for several security and intelligence officials, including the director of the CIA, the director of the FBI, the directors of Israel and Turkey’s intelligence services, the director of the NSA, the U.S. director of national intelligence and Italy’s national prosecutor of anti-Mafia and counterterrorism.

Phil Gurski, a former CSIS analyst and president of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting, said taxpayer-funded security should be based on intelligence and the assessment of the risk.

“If there’s any indication that a person may be subject to some kind of act of violence, you should act on that intelligence to ensure they have the protection that they require,” said Gurski, pointing out that Canada wouldn’t want a visiting official to be attacked on Canadian soil. 

However, Gurski also suggested people on the list who come to Canada for profit should contribute to the cost of their security.

“Why are [we] paying for the privilege of them coming here to make money from Canadians?” he said.