U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s complaints that Canada is not doing sufficient to curb the circulate of unlawful migration and fentanyl into the U.S. are getting some push again from former prime minister Stephen Harper.
Trump has claimed that his risk to impose a 25 per cent tariff of Canadian imports will stay in impact till Canada does sufficient to curb these inflows. And certainly, to stave off that threat, Ottawa launched $1.3 billion in spending in December’s fall financial assertion aimed toward disrupting the circulate of fentanyl and strengthening surveillance of the Canada-U.S. border.
However in an interview on the American podcast Standpoint with Gabe Groisman, Harper shrugged off Trump’s points with unlawful migration from Canada, as an alternative suggesting the U.S. is exporting different felony objects into Canada.
“There is no such thing as a migrant circulate occurring from Canada to the USA of any vital numbers,” Harper mentioned. “And I’ll let you know proper now, medication, weapons, crime — most of these issues circulate north, not south.”
Whereas unlawful migration to the U.S. from Canada has grown in recent times, as Harper mentioned, the variety of folks coming from Canada is way smaller than the quantity coming north from Mexico or different factors of entry.
U.S. Customs and Border Safety officers recorded almost 200,000 encounters on the northern border between October 2023 and September 2024, however the quantity of incidents final yr amounted to barely one per cent of the whole variety of folks stopped from coming into the nation by U.S. Customs and Border Safety.
So what about Harper’s suggestion that the U.S. is guilty in the case of exporting weapons and medicines into Canada?
Weapons
When it comes to unlawful weapons, America is by far the best worldwide supply of weapons utilized in crimes coming into Canada, mentioned Stephen Schneider, a professor of criminology at Saint Mary’s College and creator of An Ontology of Organized Crime.
“That is due partially to the benefit of buying a gun within the U.S. and since unlawful weapons fetch a a lot increased worth in Canada than the U.S.,” Schneider mentioned in an electronic mail to CBC Information.
The vast majority of handguns seized by Ontario police could be traced again to the USA. CBC Information goes undercover to show how simply these weapons, that are authorized within the U.S., can find yourself in Canada as unlawful weapons destined for road crime.
Simply what number of unlawful weapons come from the U.S. into Canada is troublesome to find out as there are not any nationwide statistics or a nationwide database that tracks supply of weapons. Nonetheless, the Canadian Affiliation of Chiefs of Police have referred to as on the federal authorities to make the tracing of crime weapons obligatory throughout Canada.
The Canada Border Providers Company does file unlawful objects it seizes at its 1,200 factors of entry throughout the nation, however which will solely signify a fraction of what’s capable of make its means into the nation.
For unlawful weapons, in its yr in evaluate trying on the interval of Jan. to Oct. 2024, CBSA mentioned it seized roughly 7,700 weapons and firearms at ports of entry. Of these, 1,274 prohibited weapons and 750 firearms have been seized coming from the U.S., it mentioned. In line with information from U.S. Customs and Border Safety (CBP), the company seized 231 weapons coming from Canada at its northern border ports in 2024.
The Toronto police service, which has compiled some statistics in regards to the origins of crime weapons, says that in 2024, police seized 717 crime weapons.
“Most of those unlawful firearms come from the U.S.,” mentioned Toronto Deputy Chief Rob Johnson on the month-to-month Toronto Police Providers Board assembly earlier this week.
Toronto police have discovered that about 85 per cent of all crime weapons they get better come from the U.S., and that the high states they originate from embody Florida, Arizona and Texas.
“Trafficking in unlawful firearms continues to be a profitable enterprise for felony organizations whose members have zero regard for public security and conduct their actions strictly for monetary acquire,” mentioned Inspector Norman Proctor, head of Toronto Built-in Gun & Gang Job Pressure Unit Commander, at a 2023 information convention.
“A firearm bought in the USA for $500 can simply promote for as much as $5,000 in Canada.”
Throughout a information convention in Ottawa discussing the U.S.-Canada border, Public Security Minister David McGuinty says the federal authorities is thinking about exhibiting the incoming U.S. administration that Canada is severe in regards to the border relationship.
Medicine
The scenario of unlawful medication coming into Canada from the U.S. is rather less clear.
Whereas Trump has made a giant situation in regards to the quantity of fentanyl that comes into the U.S. from Canada, based on U.S. Customs and Border Protections, lower than 20 kilograms of fentanyl was seized alongside the border with Canada final yr, in comparison with greater than 9,000 kilograms seized alongside the border with Mexico.
CBSA says it seized 4.9 kilograms of fentanyl on its aspect of the Canada-U.S. border between Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, 2024. However of that quantity, it mentioned 4.1 kilograms was intercepted earlier than it might be smuggled to the Netherlands.
Total, the CBSA mentioned it seized over 25,600 kg of unlawful medication, each inbound and outbound.
Schneider says that Canada is a supply of each marijuana and artificial medication to the U.S., however in a lot decrease portions than are flowing into the U.S. from Mexico. He additionally notes that Mexico is a serious provider of cocaine to Canada and far of that’s transported by means of the U.S. after which into our nation by means of land borders.
“In different phrases, the U.S. is a serious transit nation for cocaine coming into Canada,” Schneider mentioned.
Gary Mauser, professor emeritus of Simon Fraser College, who has been an skilled witness on firearms and felony justice points, says Canadian medication will circulate south in change for American weapons.
He mentioned in an electronic mail that gang-related crimes, carried out with weapons from the U.S. are the supply of a lot of the gun violence in Canada — however stopping the circulate of weapons might show troublesome.
“The drug market is profitable and Canadian gangs — and younger wannabes — need weapons for cover in addition to standing.”
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