Ottawa recruits banks into fentanyl fight as U.S. applies pressure
The Canadian government has pulled the country’s banks into the fight against fentanyl, recruiting them to join a money-laundering intelligence group that aims to cut off the funds that support trafficking of the deadly drug.
Kevin Brosseau, the country’s new fentanyl czar, met Wednesday with representatives from the largest domestic banks, the government and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty told reporters.
“We know that one of the most effective ways of attacking the fentanyl trade is to follow the money and to cut off the proceeds for organized crime, which helps us dismantle the criminal cartels that profit from dangerous and illegal drugs,” McGuinty said during a news conference near Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Canada has come under intense pressure from the Trump administration to curb drug activity and has tied it to the countries’ trade relationship.
United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 1 that would have placed 25 per cent duties on most Canadian goods, then paused it two days later when Canada announced it would allocate $200 million to a new “intelligence directive on organized crime and fentanyl” and appoint a head enforcer against fentanyl. Brosseau, a former deputy commissioner of the RCMP, was named to the post last week.
The partnership with the banks appears to build on Project Guardian, a collaboration between U.S. and Canadian agencies that included participation from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. No other Canadian banks were publicly disclosed as participants.
McGuinty made the announcement during a tour of a Canada Border Services Agency facility that processes commercial air cargo. Recent seizures of cannabis,
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