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The Pastor, The Prostitutes, And The Missing Truth.. The Man Called "The Ghost of Canada" · You Can't Unhear

• 0:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine waking up one morning to the sound of police pounding on your front door.
• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: You open it, and within seconds you're handcuffed.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: The officers tell you that you're the leader of one of Canada's largest human trafficking organizations.
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The television stations begin calling you a monster.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: The newspapers publish your face.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: The police say they have evidence.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Enough evidence to prove that you've spent years trafficking women into Canada.
• 0:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you keep insisting, you've never trafficked anyone.
• 0:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tonight, we are going to talk about one of Canada's most controversial criminal investigations.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: The story of Pastor John Dijun.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the podcast, You Can't On Here.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Before his name appeared in headlines, John DeGun lived a life that seemed almost impossible to reconcile with the accusations that would later follow.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was born in South Korea in 1969.
• 1:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: While still young, his family immigrated to North America.
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Faith became a major part of his life.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: He studied theology.
• 1:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Years later, he earned a doctorate from Duke University.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of the most respected universities in the United States.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Friends described him as optimistic, soft spoken, someone who genuinely enjoyed helping people.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 1994, he became a permanent resident of Canada.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Although he had built a new life overseas, he never forgot his Korean roots.
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: He continued serving Korean churches, worked closely with immigrant families, and became involved in helping international students adjust to life in Canada.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually he joined Northern Light School.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: The school welcome students from countries like China, Japan, Brazil and South Korea.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: John wasn't just a pastor anymore.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: He also worked as one of the school's senior administrators, handling admissions, student housing, marketing, and immigration paperwork.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: To many people, he looked like someone who had dedicated his life to helping others build a better future.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: No one imagined that within a few years, he would be accused of running an international criminal
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: The story really begins in 2015.
• 3:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: At the time, Canadian authorities had launched one of their largest anti-human trafficking operations.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: The projects carried names like Northern Spotlight, Guardian, and Comfortants.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Their mission was simple.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Identify victims, rescue them, and dismantle trafficking networks operating across Canada.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Investigators focused heavily on places where vulnerable foreign nationals often gathered, like massage businesses, hotels, rental apartments, language schools, and private colleges.
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anywhere traffickers might recruit or hide victims.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Northern Light School naturally attracted attention.
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hundreds of international students pass through every year, some arrived without family.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some barely spoke English.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Many depended entirely on the school for housing and immigration support.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: For investigators, it was the kind of environment worth examining.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then something unexpected happened.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: In March 2015, police obtained access to several phones belonging to women working in the sex trade.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Investigators weren't interested in the women themselves.
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: They wanted to identify the people controlling them, the pimps, the recruiters, the organizers.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: As officers monitored incoming calls, one phone rang, then another, and another.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: The same number kept appearing, every call traced back to one man, passed a John day
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: But investigators soon discovered that his number wasn't connected to just one woman.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: It appeared across multiple phones.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: The more they looked, the more suspicious everything became.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Police began quietly watching him.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Reviewing financial records, property ownership, immigration documents, phone activity.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Investigators then noticed regular money transfers arriving in John's accounts.
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: The payments came from two people named Jay and Renee.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Both were already known to police.
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: They were suspected of operating prostitution businesses.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: To investigators, this looked like the financial trail they'd been waiting for.
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Soon afterward, John was arrested.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Inside the interrogation room, officers laid everything on the table, phone records, bank transfers, connections to suspected traffickers.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then they asked him to explain.
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: John didn't deny knowing Jay and Renee.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, he gave a very ordinary explanation.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: He said he owned an apartment.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jay and Renee rented it.
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bank transfers were simply monthly rent payments, nothing more.
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: It sounded believable, but investigators weren't convinced.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: If the apartment really was being rented, why were suspected traffickers using it?
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why were multiple women connected to prostitution calling John?
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Police believed they were looking at something much larger.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then another piece of information surfaced.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Three years earlier, a Korean woman had landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Immigration officers contacted John Directly and he personally came to collect her.
• 7:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: To investigators, this wasn't a path to helping someone settle into Canada.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: It looked like someone receiving a new arrival into an organized network.
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Their suspicions grew stronger.
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: As they searched phones, they discovered messages from Jay and Renee.
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Neither referred to John by his name.
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, they called him leader.
• 7:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: that single word changed everything, because now police weren't looking at a landlord anymore.
• 7:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: They believed they had found the man at the top, the alleged organizer.
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: The media quickly caught wind of the investigation, newspapers began publishing dramatic headlines.
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Television stations described John as the mastermind behind a sophisticated trafficking operation.
• 8:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: His photograph spread across Canada and South Korea.
• 8:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Within days, the respected pastor had become a suspected criminal kingpin.
• 8:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then came another allegation.
• 8:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to reports at the time, while in custody, John allegedly tried to influence officers.
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: some reports claimed he offered entertainment, even introducing them to attractive international students.
• 8:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Investigators viewed this as an attempted bribe.
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: John denied any criminal intent, but public opinion had already begun shifting.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then police made another announcement.
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: They
• 9:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: They suspected it had become a front, a place where women entered Canada, under the appearance of education, before being funneled into prostitution.
• 9:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was a devastating accusation.
• 9:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: John once again denied everything.
• 9:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: He explained that the school provided temporary accommodation for newly arrived students.
• 9:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whenever rooms were empty, they rented them to members of the public.
• 9:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nothing illegal.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nothing secret.
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: He also explained the title, Leader.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't the leader of a trafficking organization.
• 9:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was simply the school's chief manager.
• 9:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Employees called him Leader, because he supervised daily operations.
• 9:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: A workplace nickname.
• 9:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: but investigators saw the same evidence very differently.
• 10:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: As they dug deeper, they found large amounts of cash.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Numerous bank accounts.
• 10:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Immigration paperwork, vehicles and property that weren't registered under John's own name.
• 10:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: To prosecutors, this looked exactly like someone hiding assets, preparing escape routes,
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: protecting money from investigators.
• 10:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: During bail hearings, the judge expressed serious concern.
• 10:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: If released, would this man disappear?
• 10:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: After all, he had international connections, multiple financial accounts, access to considerable resources.
• 10:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: The judge even gave him a nickname, the Ghost of Canada,
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: A man who seemed to exist everywhere, yet leave almost no trace behind.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: John remained behind bars.
• 11:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Outside prison, his life collapsed with astonishing speed.
• 11:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Northern Light School lost its students.
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Teachers resigned.
• 11:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Parents withdrew their children.
• 11:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Within months, the school closed.
• 11:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: His church distanced itself.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Friends stopped calling.
• 11:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Korean community that had once respected him now whispered his name with disgust.
• 11:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: To the public, the case already looked finished.
• 11:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: The only question left was how severe his sentence would be.
• 11:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then, something unexpected happened.
• 11:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: In May 2015, eight other people connected to the investigation stood before the court.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Prosecutors had linked them to the same alleged trafficking organization.
• 12:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: But one by one, they were acquitted, found not guilty.
• 12:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: For the first time, John allowed himself to believe that maybe the evidence against him wasn't
• 12:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the truth would finally come out.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he would soon return home.
• 12:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then, September arrived.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Another hearing.
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Another witness.
• 12:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: His name was Jay.
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: The very same man, John insisted was nothing more than a tenant.
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: A chef.
• 12:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Someone paying monthly rent.
• 12:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Surely this witness would finally clear everything up.
• 12:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: The courtroom fell silent as Jay took the stand, everyone waited.
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then Jay looked toward John, pointed at him, and calmly said, he was our leader.
• 13:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, was passed to John digoon really the mastermind behind an international human trafficking network, or did Canada spend nearly three years trying to convict the wrong man?
• 13:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Will uncover what happened?
• 13:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: In part two, trust me, you do not want to miss this one.
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: There is a lot to unpack.
• 13:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'll see you on the next episode of the podcast.
• 13:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can't, on here.