Odds are some of the people interested in seeing this documentary have already seen the "48 Hours Mystery" about Sebastian Burns and Atif Rafay, two Canadian teenagers who were convicted of murdering the Rafay family in order to fund their screenplay (which bore frightening similarities to the crime itself). That show only barely touches on this "Mr. Big" character, and it's certainly a subject worth studying further, which this documentary tries to do.
As the summary indicates, "Mr. Big" is not just one undercover RCMP officer who may or may not have coerced the secretly videotaped confessions from Burns and Rafay; "Mr. Big" is a largely unknown and under-the-radar operation used by the RCMP to catch criminals up in carefully orchestrated "organized crime" and then bargaining to get them out of trouble if they'll just confess to whatever the RCMP originally sought when enlisting them in this charade. Now THAT is something that would make Canadians sit up and take notice if it were to hit the nightly news.
The trouble with this documentary is that its maker, Tiffany Burns, is clearly too invested in presenting the wrongs committed against her brother Sebastian (she believes him to be completely innocent, which is his claim as well; some who saw the "48 Hours" investigation might have serious reservations about that) to give a thorough look into "Mr. Big" as a whole. She does conduct a few interviews with other ostensibly innocent Canadians who share their stories of being "railroaded" by the RCMP in the same way we're told Sebastian and Atif were, and those glimpses into the hows and whys behind "Mr. Big" are compelling. But the combination of her bias toward her brother and the lack of access and cooperation she gained from the RCMP (which is understandable when we hear the phone conversation between Burns and the head of the task force; his concern may well be due to the fact that exposure would cost an undercover operation a great deal of effectiveness) leave this feeling a bit lopsided and incomplete. Worth a watch, yes, but we're not afforded nearly enough of a glimpse into this "shadow force" of the RCMP as we would need to make any concrete conclusions. Instead we get more about the Burns/Rafay case (again, understandable, since Ms. Burns had ready access and a vested interest in that area) than about the police unit at all.
If this documentary piques your interest about the case that started Tiffany on the trail, definitely seek out that "48 Hours" episode as well; without it, the viewer ends up lacking vital context that Tiffany was unable to fully bring to the table. Unfortunately it only sheds more light on her brother's case, not on the fascinating and frightening idea that the RCMP has a sub-group whose sole purpose is, to hear her tell it, wresting false confessions out of innocent people. There doesn't seem to be anything out there just yet that can take us further down THAT rabbit hole.
As the summary indicates, "Mr. Big" is not just one undercover RCMP officer who may or may not have coerced the secretly videotaped confessions from Burns and Rafay; "Mr. Big" is a largely unknown and under-the-radar operation used by the RCMP to catch criminals up in carefully orchestrated "organized crime" and then bargaining to get them out of trouble if they'll just confess to whatever the RCMP originally sought when enlisting them in this charade. Now THAT is something that would make Canadians sit up and take notice if it were to hit the nightly news.
The trouble with this documentary is that its maker, Tiffany Burns, is clearly too invested in presenting the wrongs committed against her brother Sebastian (she believes him to be completely innocent, which is his claim as well; some who saw the "48 Hours" investigation might have serious reservations about that) to give a thorough look into "Mr. Big" as a whole. She does conduct a few interviews with other ostensibly innocent Canadians who share their stories of being "railroaded" by the RCMP in the same way we're told Sebastian and Atif were, and those glimpses into the hows and whys behind "Mr. Big" are compelling. But the combination of her bias toward her brother and the lack of access and cooperation she gained from the RCMP (which is understandable when we hear the phone conversation between Burns and the head of the task force; his concern may well be due to the fact that exposure would cost an undercover operation a great deal of effectiveness) leave this feeling a bit lopsided and incomplete. Worth a watch, yes, but we're not afforded nearly enough of a glimpse into this "shadow force" of the RCMP as we would need to make any concrete conclusions. Instead we get more about the Burns/Rafay case (again, understandable, since Ms. Burns had ready access and a vested interest in that area) than about the police unit at all.
If this documentary piques your interest about the case that started Tiffany on the trail, definitely seek out that "48 Hours" episode as well; without it, the viewer ends up lacking vital context that Tiffany was unable to fully bring to the table. Unfortunately it only sheds more light on her brother's case, not on the fascinating and frightening idea that the RCMP has a sub-group whose sole purpose is, to hear her tell it, wresting false confessions out of innocent people. There doesn't seem to be anything out there just yet that can take us further down THAT rabbit hole.