Royal Canadian Mounted Police records, newly disclosed and confirmed by GB News published 36 minutes ago, reveal that Prince Harry accumulated the largest taxpayer-funded security bill of any visiting dignitary in Canada over a five-year period, costing Canadian taxpayers £286,686 between April 2015 and March 2020, with his peak year reaching £193,723 in the 2017-18 financial year. He is currently fighting for British taxpayer-funded security on the grounds that his family cannot safely travel without it.
The £286,686 in Canadian security costs covers the period when Harry was a senior working royal making official visits and the period when he and Meghan were briefly resident in British Columbia before relocating to California. It is the largest security bill accumulated by any visiting dignitary to Canada in the period covered by the records. It is not a bill Harry has offered to pay. It is a bill the Canadian government paid for the protection of a prince who subsequently moved to a different country.
Harry’s current legal and political campaign for UK state-funded police protection during his British visits rests on the argument that his family faces an “enduring security risk by virtue of the circumstances of his birth and his membership of the Royal Family,” per a statement from his spokesman this month. The RAVEC committee that declined his protection application has noted that other security arrangements are available. Harry has rejected those arrangements as insufficient. The High Court is hearing the costs of his failed Daily Mail lawsuit. The Canadian taxpayer has been reimbursed nothing.
He cost Canada £286,686. He wants the UK to fund the next phase. The argument for why the UK owes him what Canada was already paying is the argument his lawyers are making.
When the man who left royal life to escape its burdens presents a £286K Canadian security bill as evidence he needs UK taxpayer protection, what exactly is being asked?
Sources
GB News: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s private protection cost Canadian taxpayers £286,000
