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It's the
world's fastest growing industry. Its
profits are estimated at $1-trillion. It
poses a greater security challenge to
Western democracies than anything they've
faced since the Cold War.
Its effects on the lives of Canadians are
felt several times a day -- from the stock
market to the supermarket. Its citizenship
is global. This is the new global Mafia.
This isn't the Mafia of Italy, or a cartel
of Colombia, or a triad of China. It is one
thing.
The Italian Mafia operating in Canada isn't
a foreign import -- it's part of the
Canadian component of the new global Mafia.
And to look at it as 10 separate problems
from 10 separate places with 10 separate
solutions is to fall into the trap of
diversifying our efforts to the point where
we mistake motion for action. Canada is a
place where police are under-funded, the
public is uneducated about organized crime,
and the electronic access to the rest of the
world is unparalleled. In its
latest report the Criminal Intelligence
Service of Canada stated: ``Virtually every
major criminal group in the world is active
in this country.''
The days of turf wars in the underworld are
long gone. The new buzzwords -- besides
``globalization'' and ``networking'' -- are
``strategic alliance''. Colombian cartels
sell cocaine to the Sicilian Mafia, the
Sicilian Mafia sells the drugs to the 'Ndrangheta
(the Calabrian Mafia), the 'Ndrangheta buys
firearms from the bikers. The Russians
create a public company, the white-collar
Mafia -- corrupted players in the business
community -- pump and dump it, and the
profits are laundered offshore through
Russian bank accounts.
Meanwhile, police forces are largely
unorganized, if not disorganized, in
international investigative ventures.
The take in Canada from organized crime
cannot be measured. But clearly it is in the
hundreds of millions. Law enforcement
officials everywhere agree that Canada is
the hub of international drug-trafficking,
organized fraud, and corresponding
money-laundering operations by many crime
syndicates.
All the major organized crime groups are
involved in the smuggling of illegal drugs
into and out of Canada. Contraband includes
the trafficking of other commodities, as
well, such as tobacco, alcohol, jewelry and
stolen vehicles, both within Canada and
across the United States/Canada border.
First Nations territories appear to be a
significant conduit for illegal firearms en
route to Canada. In recent years, Canada has
become a key entry point for Asian heroin
and Colombian cocaine headed for the North
American market.
Until recent money-laundering legislation
was proposed, Canada offered laundrymen a
firmly established democracy, a sound
banking infrastructure, highly advanced
communications, and easy access to and from
the the world's most important drug market,
the United States.
At the Ontario-Windsor border, as far back
at 1988, tens of millions of dollars were in
banks on the Canadian side-- profits of drug
trafficking and fraud.
It's hoped this will change with Bill C-22,
the federal government's new initiative
against money laundering. Previously, it was
harder to import cheese into the Canada, due
to the restrictions imposed by the minister
of agriculture, than it was to import a
suitcase full of money.
In 1998, RCMP Superintendent Ben Soave, who
heads the Toronto-based Organized Crime
squad, warned organized crime groups ``are
trying to corrupt politicians and police
with bribes and blackmail. They are a threat
to our national security.''
In other countries, this statement would
have been sufficient to appoint a royal
commission in order to find a solution to
this dangerous problem. Sadly, not in Canada
where many politicians sit idly by. One
difficulty lies with the definition Canada
provides for organized crime. Federal
anti-gang legislation, passed in 1997,
defines organized crime as the following:
Any group, association or other body
consisting of five or more persons, whether
formally or informally organized.'' The
definition fails to differentiate between
sophisticated Mafia crime groups and street
gangs. The Act passed in 1997 has yet to
score a single big hit and, in my personal
opinion, is doomed to failure.
Although an Angus Reid survey, conducted in
March 1998, indicated that 91 per cent of
Canadians view organized crime as a serious
problem, many still identify transnational
crime as an ethnic problem. This perception
can be upsetting to the vast number of
ethnic communities in Canada and creates a
negative impact on attitudes towards police.
Organized crime is not an ethnic problem.
It's a criminal problem and it's our
problem.
RCMP Superintendent Ben Soave warned that
organized crime groups are a threat to our
national security. In other countries, this
statement would have been sufficient to
appoint a royal commission in order to find
a solution to this dangerous problem. |
