CSIS Analyst: “Canada Has Become a Hub for Money Laundering & Organized Crime

“Now, the President has emphasized fentanyl trafficking. The actual mass of fentanyl coming into the U.S. from Canada is very, very tiny. It kills a lot of people — but it’s not even clear whether it was actually made in Canada.

It could have come into the U.S., then into Canada, and then come back again.

But this is part of a broader issue involving organized crime. Canada has been very much a centre for money laundering — and a lot of what you see from these organized crime groups is not necessarily the drug trade itself, but the way it’s financed. Much of that financing is being run out of Canada, particularly Vancouver.

Canada has had a reputation among law-enforcement agencies on this side of the border for being lax on organized crime — and on white-collar crime as well.

This is because of our legal system. The laws we have are not as conducive to cracking down. For example, we don’t have anything equivalent to the U.S. RICO statute on organized crime. We don’t have that.

So, I think there is a valid case to be made that Canada is not putting the resources into border security and enforcement that it could.

Again, I do think the current government is trying to turn that around — but these are very real concerns.”