Bordered by Denial: Ottawa’s Inaction as Canada Becomes a Fentanyl Source State
As CCP-backed networks and Mexican cartels exploit Canadian labs and border weaknesses, Ottawa stalls, the RCMP falters, and the consequences escalate on both sides of the 49th parallel.
By Garry Clement
OTTAWA — Canada is facing a dual crisis—one at its borders, and another at the core of its national police force. While Prime Minister Mark Carney hesitates to act decisively against cartel and Chinese Communist Party-backed network incursions flooding the northern frontier, the RCMP remains trapped in a years-long credibility crisis marked by failed leadership, politicized decision-making, and questionable surveillance practices. Together, these failures endanger not only Canada’s domestic security but its strategic partnership with the United States.
In the face of unprecedented cartel activity, Ottawa has responded with symbolism rather than substance. As the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels shift operations northward, Canada has emerged as a critical source of fentanyl flooding international markets, including the United States. The Canada Border Services Agency has identified Canada as a fentanyl exporter nation. “The fentanyl threat in Canada has definitely shifted from one of importation to one of domestic production,” RCMP Inspector James Cooke told CBC News a year ago, in August 2024.
That report added that Eric Hrab, a detective with the Hamilton Police intelligence unit, said fentanyl production has taken off in Canada in part because some precursors can be obtained domestically—while the ingredients needed to make cocaine or opium can only be found in certain climates.
While border seizure statistics fail to capture the full extent of trafficking from Canadian lab networks, multiple government reports show fentanyl-related seizures along the northern border have surged—rising between 300 and over 1,000 percent in recent years, depending on the agency and reporting period. Human smuggling is up more than 200 percent, and cartel-linked violence is now increasingly visible in U.S. borderland cities such as Detroit and Buffalo.
Despite these alarming trends, Canada’s response has been tepid: delayed terrorist designations, minimal investment in border infrastructure, and silence from Carney on the issue.
While the recent announcement to provide 1,000 more RCMP officers and introduce stronger bail conditions may appear bold, it overlooks the crippling impact of the Jordan and Stinchcombe decisions. Without confronting these judicial constraints, investigations into transnational organized crime will continue to be hamstrung.
This silence is not just inaction; it is political deflection in its most dangerous form. Even as U.S. intelligence officials ring alarm bells and impose retaliatory tariffs, Ottawa has failed to develop a coherent strategy. The RCMP, already overstretched, is expected to fill the vacuum—yet it is an institution in disarray, crippled by years of leadership dysfunction.
From the mass shooting in Portapique to the controversial use of investigative tools like ODITS (Overt and Discreet Investigative Techniques), the RCMP has consistently demonstrated systemic shortcomings. The Portapique inquiry exposed a breakdown in command and communication, where brave front-line officers were left unsupported and senior officials dodged accountability. Instead of addressing these failures, the force doubled down on internal cronyism and a punitive management culture.
The leadership culture at the RCMP has become deeply toxic. Promotions are handed out not on merit, but on loyalty to a narrow elite. Whistleblowers are marginalized, dissent is silenced, and technological tools meant for public safety are reportedly used against internal critics. The deployment of ODITS in internal probes—including against individuals only tangentially linked to active investigations—raises urgent civil liberties concerns. Where is the oversight? Where are the checks and balances?
This broken system is now tasked with confronting some of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the world. Expecting the RCMP to rise to that challenge while it crumbles under its own internal contradictions is not just naïve—it is reckless.
Fixing this requires more than border announcements and bureaucratic reshuffles. It demands an overhaul of leadership accountability in the RCMP and a real security partnership with the United States—one that includes intelligence sharing, joint operations, and investment in surveillance infrastructure along the northern border. Canada must also implement independent oversight of surveillance practices and end the culture of impunity that infects the upper echelons of its police institutions.
The time has come for Prime Minister Carney to break his silence and lead. Political slogans and climate platitudes will not stop the flow of fentanyl, nor will they reform an RCMP hollowed out by years of internal decay. Canadians and Americans alike are watching—and what they see now is a nation asleep at the wheel, as organized crime drives across a barely guarded northern frontier.
Canada deserves better. It deserves a government and a police force willing to confront uncomfortable truths and act in defense of the public good.
That time is now.
¹ In fiscal year 2023–2024, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) reported a 775% increase in fentanyl seizures compared to the previous year, with a total of 4.9 kilograms interdicted. The agency also logged more than 35,000 seizures of drugs and precursor chemicals across Canada. Separately, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data show fentanyl seizures at the northern border rose from 2 pounds in 2023 to 43 pounds in 2024 — a more than 2,000% increase — further underscoring the rapid rise in trafficking pressure along the U.S.–Canada corridor. US government sources indicate though, that CBP seizure data doesn't include inland seizures from numerous American agencies tackling fentanyl emanating from Canadian-based networks.
Sources: Government of Canada – CBSA, “2024 Year in Review” (Dec. 21, 2024); U.S. CBP data, via FactCheck.org (Jan. 2025).
Former senior RCMP officer Garry Clement consults with corporations on anti-money laundering, contributed to the Canadian academic text Dirty Money, and wrote Undercover, In the Shady World of Organized Crime and the RCMP
Carney/Brookfeild's nutz are held by the CCP, he will do everything to save face at the expense of all Canadians, is my thoughts on this, Canadians are blind in one eye and can't see out of the other, par for course.....
Further to this, there will be no meaningful change or progress with these Liberals, it's the same old story year after year, complete corruption on almost every level. Canadians have become dumb and numb to the reality and depth of the corruption and infiltration, how many times does one have to get hit with a stick in order to know they're getting hit with a stick?
Something no one seems to be thinking about when comparing Canadian vs Mexican imports of fentanyl is what form it is being trafficked in. 1kg of pure fentanyl is probably 100kg in a street form like a pill. So if the border officially are intercepting 100kg of finished product such as pills at the border but the officials at the northern border are intercepting pure fentanyl then the calculus is much different and there seems to be no way to equate the two and the police and journalists for that matter seem to have missed out on that fact or are capitalizing on it to minimize the issue. When I generalize about journalists I’m talking about the MSM editorialists not the hard working trail blazers at The Bureau. I think it’s important to figure out exactly how much of the active ingredient is assumed to be in each bust or what the equivalent would be because it seems like the information is vague at best and is often manipulated to say, there are 100x more drugs being intercepted at one end va the other but it could be that the smaller amount is 1000x stronger and therefore a much bigger problem than is assumed and often repeated.