Juno News - China's deadly drug war on Canada

00:00:00.000 In 2023, the British Columbia government recorded a staggering 2,511 deaths to toxic drug overdoses,

00:00:14.940 the highest annual death toll ever recorded. Every day, an average of 22 Canadians die to

00:00:21.020 an opioid overdose. Men make up close to 80% of those deaths. In British Columbia,

00:00:26.520 the province most hard hit by this crisis, drug overdoses now make up the leading cause of death

00:00:32.900 for BC youth aged 10 to 18. All the while, the federal government seeks to maintain their status

00:00:39.640 quo approach to promote so-called safe supply programs and repeating the slogan, safe supply

00:00:47.620 saves lives. In addition to all of that, the BC government is now planning to give taxpayer-funded

00:00:54.900 recreational fentanyl to minors with no minimum age listed. Fentanyl to kids.

00:01:01.240 Where is this poison that's killing so many Canadians even coming from? Well, our next guest, 1.00

00:01:06.020 a former undercover RCMP organized crime officer, says that China is waging a reverse opium war

00:01:13.000 on the West, a drug war on Canada, and believes that organized crime groups through the United

00:01:19.140 Front Work Department are supplying the poisonous precursor chemicals used to create fentanyl that's

00:01:25.680 killing Canada's future generations. Well, joining us now is Gary Clement, a policing veteran of 34

00:01:31.800 years, a former undercover officer, investigator, and also the former national director of the RCMP's

00:01:39.160 proceeds of crime program. He's also the author of the book Undercover, Inside the Shady World of

00:01:46.880 Organized Crime, and the RCMP. A link to that you can find in the description of this video.

00:01:52.220 Mr. Gary Clement, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you very much for having me, Harrison. I

00:01:56.480 appreciate it. In your latest column in the National Post, you say that the Chinese Communist Party

00:02:01.360 is waging a reverse opium war on the West, a drug war on Canada. What, if anything, is the Trudeau

00:02:07.960 government doing to protect Canadians and to save Canadian lives? Because from the data that we can see,

00:02:13.780 whatever they are doing doesn't appear to be working. Well, the problem is, and it's, you know,

00:02:20.820 people have to realize that we need in this country a multifaceted approach. And it starts with,

00:02:26.760 first of all, the government accepting we have an issue. You know, it's great. Everything we're doing,

00:02:32.120 in my view, unfortunately, is a band-aid approach. And it's not, it's not really getting to the root of

00:02:38.540 the problem. The root of the problem is, we, you know, when you take a look at what's happened over

00:02:43.840 the last 15 years in Canada, we've had, you know, court decisions like Stinchcomb, which is the

00:02:50.380 mandatory of full disclosure in a timely manner. We've had Jordan, which mandates a speedy trial.

00:02:58.000 And all of these things, you know, it's great in theory. And I, you know, it's great for the judges

00:03:02.540 to make all these pronouncements. But that should have required the, the, our politicians to take

00:03:10.540 some action. In other words, appoint more judges, make sure we have prosecutors are capable of carrying

00:03:16.180 it out. And then on top of that, you know, you look at the situation and we've, we've got so eroded

00:03:23.820 in our abilities to do federal enforcement. And for that, I'm pointing to the RCMP. I would say the last

00:03:30.620 15 years, they haven't showed up. Not through fault of their own, but there's a whole number

00:03:36.060 of factors that go into it. It's not that they don't have the skills throughout the organization,

00:03:41.420 but again, it goes to this proverbial problem. We need to wake up and recognize that, you know,

00:03:47.480 there's contract policing, there's federal policing, and the two are separate. And RCMP is supposed to be

00:03:53.440 a federally mandated organization. But unfortunately, the priority has become contracts. And as a

00:04:00.440 result of it, the federal side of the house has been eroded to a point where, as I said, we're not

00:04:07.220 even a threat of any sort. And what does that cause? Well, that has caused, you know, from 91 to 94,

00:04:14.780 it was in Hong Kong. I witnessed through our very lax immigration oversight, numerous triads or Asian 1.00

00:04:24.580 organized crime figures get access to this country. I wrote to the government and to the RCMP at that

00:04:32.680 time that if we didn't get our act together, that Vancouver would end up becoming a transshipment point

00:04:38.560 for all drugs into North America, and sadly now even into Australia, which meant it displaced Hong Kong,

00:04:47.820 Hong Kong that I knew from 91 to 94, all those things have come home to roost. We didn't take control

00:04:54.660 of our ports. We allowed investments from Chinese investors. We've allowed so many Chinese individuals

00:05:05.040 that are connected directly into the government of China to come to this country. They come with

00:05:12.620 massive amounts of money. And unfortunately, we've got a number of individuals that are swayed by money.

00:05:18.620 And I think that's become really evident. We're seeing it throughout this country. China has,

00:05:26.000 you know, really threatens their own diaspora because they want the Chinese people in this country 1.00

00:05:33.540 to continue to support China and their goals. And so the obligations on they will, you know, they want to

00:05:41.060 steal our intellectual property. And the, you know, the drug problem, if you look at it,

00:05:48.660 it's a disruption in North America of our society. And I've said for probably the last five, six years 1.00

00:05:56.340 that China is a communist country. If they wanted to shut down the trade, they could do it. 0.80

00:06:03.020 So that should tell people something. So we've had these precursors, drugs coming in through Mexico,

00:06:11.960 now direct to Vancouver, who's making fentanyl. And our drug situation, both in Canada, United States

00:06:19.620 is pathetic. We haven't come up with a solution and giving out free drugs, I think will prove itself to 0.90

00:06:26.700 be a fatal mistake. But we need to come up with some solutions. Probably the first solution we

00:06:32.580 should come up with is get ourselves back in the International Game Board of being able to thwart

00:06:38.620 some of this criminal activity, thwart some of this money laundering that's occurring. I mean,

00:06:43.200 the Cullen Commission, I think, really highlighted just how weak a system we have in this country.

00:06:49.460 We've done a great job of building a FinTrack. And I know, Colin, there was some criticism of it. But I

00:06:57.140 can tell you, they've, they've built, and I use the analogy, we built a great Rolls Royce,

00:07:03.540 being FinTrack, requiring financial institutions of all stripes to report into it. But what's the engine

00:07:11.220 going that's going to drive it? And that has to be prosecution enforcement. But in order to have great

00:07:17.220 prosecution enforcement, we really need to have strengthen our legal frameworks, so that it's even

00:07:24.180 capable of doing it. This arrest and immediately letting these people out on the street has proven,

00:07:31.780 again, another fatality in this country, in my view. And it's not what we have to look at. If it was

00:07:38.900 just China, you can sort of say, well, you know, I think we can get this under control. But we are 1.00

00:07:45.380 dealing with India now, we're dealing with Iran now in proportions that I don't think any of us ever 1.00

00:07:51.620 thought would happen. We've got Russia, that's Russian organized crime is here. The number of 0.83

00:07:57.700 organized crime groups that are active in this country is scary, to say the least. The problem for

00:08:04.260 me when I look at it is, it's terrible that we have become the transshipment point for drugs and money

00:08:11.940 laundering throughout the world. And we're recognized now as that. And our government

00:08:18.420 is not even a, is even given any, a bit of confidence on the world stage today because of this.

00:08:27.780 Where, you know, you look at the five eyes and what's happened. You know, and for me, that's

00:08:32.740 disheartening. You know, I could say when I was fortunate to be in the RCMP, at the time I was in it,

00:08:39.380 we had a tremendous reputation both internationally, within our US partners, I did training all over the

00:08:45.940 world, because we were recognized that we had that ability. That's not the case today. And that's sad.

00:08:52.100 And we all of us as Canadians, you know, I look at the good analogy for people, you know, from British

00:08:58.100 Columbia to look at is the fight that's going on in Surrey, about, you know, maintaining the RCMP in

00:09:04.900 Surrey. And you know, that's great in theory. And I respect what they're saying, but what they're

00:09:09.460 missing the boat. Bottom line is in 73, when I was in Langley, there was talk of a regional police

00:09:15.620 service in the lower mainland. I mean, I think it's far, it's now time that that proceed. And so that

00:09:22.740 enforcement in British Columbia can be localized, it can be provincially generated. And then the public

00:09:29.620 has to realize if that happened, there'd be resources to take on the federal problem that

00:09:34.900 exists, which is massive. And if we don't take it on, that's an impact to all the municipalities

00:09:41.620 and the province, and it's costing them a lot of money, because we can't take it on. And you know,

00:09:47.300 the latest thing is, you know, the RCMP was trying to have direct entry into these specialized units,

00:09:53.940 the units or the association filed a complaint with the labor board and won it. And but all they did

00:10:00.660 is kick the ball down the road. And sadly, they're short sighted. The reality of it is to the Canadian 0.99

00:10:06.900 public, they want to see an ability to have a federal enforcement. And all they've done is delayed

00:10:12.820 that. Well, that means we continue to be this weak link in the international chain. And I think those

00:10:19.060 are the things that, you know, government really needs to wake up to, but more so the public has

00:10:24.180 to recognize that organized crime is costing them a lot of money. In extra enforcement, we look at the

00:10:30.500 drug problem. The drug problem is also backing up our hospitals. Because every time you, you get

00:10:36.180 somebody with an overdose rushing into an emergency ward, there's four people tied up that could be

00:10:40.900 dealing with ordinary real problems rather than a pandemic caused by what's happening in the drug

00:10:49.540 trade and principally through China. So those are the things that concern me. You know, as you can

00:10:54.980 appreciate, I've been doing this a lot of years, I'm still active. And I'm still active, because I'm

00:11:00.500 hoping by still being active, my voice can be heard a little bit. And that maybe we can get some,

00:11:06.180 some, some, I guess, support from our government leaders to recognize that we really have to take

00:11:14.740 this on sooner rather than later. And I think I owe it to your generation. I owe it to my future

00:11:24.820 grandchildren. I don't want to see the country that we're in today. You know, I'm, you know, I work in a

00:11:31.780 bank today. And believe it or not, I'm seeing things there that are impacted by organized crime that is

00:11:37.700 very disheartening, would have never happened 15 years ago, but it's happening today. And it's

00:11:42.340 happening because we almost have an open door policy. We've got to get our act together and get

00:11:47.380 control of this. And we, you know, don't get me wrong, I believe in some of the things that happened

00:11:52.100 out of this sort of this woke philosophy, but it's gone way too far. Canada, the state has a right to

00:11:59.060 protect itself. The state has an obligation to protect its citizens. And we can't continually bend

00:12:07.460 to a silent minority. It's really impacting us. We can't continually bend to ethnic groups for their 0.99

00:12:15.540 own ethnic focuses. I mean, we're Canada, we're one country. And I think it's time that we look at

00:12:22.340 it from that perspective. And we start doing things what's to the betterment of the community.

00:12:26.820 Certainly. I want to get into the United Front Work Department and how their indirect involvement

00:12:33.700 in the illicit drug trade in this country is killing Canadians. Canadians will be familiar 0.95

00:12:39.540 with the United Front Work Department through the stories about how they're operating Chinese police

00:12:44.180 stations and their political interference, but maybe not necessarily as much about their organized

00:12:50.420 crime activities. So can you explain how exactly their involvement has has allowed fentanyl to make

00:12:57.700 its way deep into the interior of this country and ravage cities like Thunder Bay?

00:13:03.940 Yeah, you know, it's sad, but I go back, I have to go back to the 90s again, when we started allowing all

00:13:09.780 these individuals to come into this country. And basically what we did very much like we've sat back and 1.00

00:13:15.380 witnessed Hell's Angels create a network worldwide. That's exactly what happened in a situation like

00:13:23.460 this. So United Front are located in most cities throughout Canada. They have ties to these individuals

00:13:32.420 that are directly connected to organized crime. A lot of them are directly connected to the ruling party in

00:13:39.940 in China. So in other words, a communist party. So although they may not take total direction,

00:13:48.420 it's not like it's a hierarchical role. The bottom line is they still have affiliations with Chinese

00:13:57.140 organized crime. And they also help to control or try to control the Chinese diaspora in each of these areas. 0.95

00:14:05.620 And so that's how all of this works. And as a result of it, the drug trade is just one of the ways that

00:14:14.980 they make money that helps fund what happens in China. But I think there's another side of it that

00:14:23.460 I was at a bond or I was in London. That's where our bank is located. I stayed at a hotel and I was

00:14:30.500 talking to this couple out of Richmond. They're of Chinese descent. We got talking and when they

00:14:36.660 realized that I understood the Chinese diaspora and I understood the triads and all that, they said to me,

00:14:42.900 do you realize that most of the businesses in Chinese business in Richmond are having to pay protection

00:14:49.140 money? And I said, yeah, that doesn't surprise me. That went on in Hong Kong when I was there. And it's

00:14:56.420 just been transplanted over into our country. And if you were to ask most police officers,

00:15:03.540 they wouldn't even understand it. They wouldn't even realize it. And because the Chinese diaspora 1.00

00:15:10.580 do not believe that law enforcement in this country understand the threats that are against them,

00:15:16.100 they're not going to go to the police. It's like Iranian citizens, they feel the same way. They don't 1.00

00:15:21.220 believe we really understand it or we are really interested in doing something about it. So that's

00:15:27.460 the reason all of this continues to grow and individuals are exploited. Right. In December,

00:15:34.980 the Washington Post wrote this long article about these Canadian fentanyl super labs where Canadians are

00:15:43.060 now building the synthetic fentanyl using chemicals sourced from China and we're shipping them out to 0.91

00:15:50.500 Australia and New Zealand. We're now involved in spreading this killer drug, which has been ravaging

00:15:56.100 our own people. How has this been allowed to happen? How has it become the case that Canada is now

00:16:01.860 in the fentanyl business somehow, despite the fact that we're trying to defend our own people from this

00:16:06.980 drug? Well, if you stop and think about it, Harrison, it goes right back to what I said at the outset.

00:16:12.420 Where is federal enforcement today? You know, when I started, and I think this sort of puts

00:16:18.500 in perspective, when I started in Vancouver, we had a very large drug section dedicated to drug

00:16:26.180 enforcement. We broke it out by the type of drugs. We were capable of taking on organized crime and

00:16:33.220 we would take on, at that time, I can remember we had some methamphetamine labs being set up. So we

00:16:39.940 targeted them right away and we shut down about a half dozen, very short order. But we had the resources,

00:16:44.980 we had over 30 individuals, investigators are capable of doing that. That doesn't exist today.

00:16:51.140 And so what we're seeing, again, I go back to what I said at the outset, we need to get our federal

00:16:56.420 house in order. And until we do that, we're going to see these type of labs spurring up. And so who does

00:17:02.500 it, who does that responsibility fall to? Unfortunately, it falls to the municipal police forces.

00:17:09.140 And they're already stretched to a max, let's be honest, they have every other thing on their

00:17:13.860 plate and they're stretched to a max. So we need to wake up and realize the RCMP has to stop being

00:17:19.940 all things to all people. We need to look at what is it in this very complex world we live in today,

00:17:26.340 in this complex world of organized crime, how do we end up with an organization capable of targeting

00:17:33.220 transnational organized crime? And it sure will never be doing what they're doing today. It's not

00:17:38.180 going to happen. In your article, you say that in order to really solve this problem, the debate

00:17:44.100 shouldn't be on safe supply programs. It should mostly be on trying to target and shut down the

00:17:50.340 illicit supply. However, the federal government is sticking to their guns on safe supply. So is the BC

00:17:56.340 government. So are other governments across this country. And BC just set a record this last year

00:18:02.180 for the highest amount of illicit drug overdose deaths, despite, you know, the federal government

00:18:08.100 will say safe supply saves lives. It's clearly not saving lives. And this has to be a serious

00:18:14.500 problem for law enforcement officials at this point, right? It is. And, you know, I guess

00:18:21.620 I'm surprised as a country, and maybe it goes that everybody's again going back and looking for a

00:18:27.460 band-aid approach. There's other countries that tried this and are admitting that it's a colossal

00:18:34.500 failure. Why we jumped into this, I'll never know. I mean, let's face it. People that are on drugs,

00:18:43.220 like fentanyl, that are hooked, are not capable of making an informed decision. My daughter works in the

00:18:50.420 mental health field and she's dealing with it every day. So how do you deal with that? Well, if it's an

00:18:55.300 individual on the street, and they're not and they're going wild and everything, you're probably

00:19:01.060 going to have them what they call formed, and you're going to have them in an institution to deal

00:19:05.700 with that issue. I hate to say it, and I believe in the chart of rights, and I believe in individual

00:19:11.300 rights. But why do we continue to give more drugs, which is going to lead to more health effects,

00:19:17.700 what's going to lead to more hospitalizations, and eventually a shortened lifespan, when we should be

00:19:24.500 looking at how do we treat people and recognize it. In my view, and I saw it when I worked undercover

00:19:30.740 in the streets with heroin addicts, they cannot make an informed decision on what they're going to

00:19:38.660 do because the drug is the thing that drives them. Well, the BC government now wants to give safe

00:19:45.140 fentanyl to children and provide safe fentanyl, so-called safe fentanyl to adolescents. I mean,

00:19:52.020 talk about doubling down on a failed policy. Well, and I think that's happened because whether

00:19:57.380 it's true or not, but I've read a lot where a lot of the safe drug that is being handed out

00:20:04.020 isn't strong enough for the committed users of fentanyl, so they're selling it to younger generations.

00:20:09.940 If that's the case, and I have no reason to doubt that that's happening,

00:20:14.420 what is the end goal? I would really like to ask them when they start talking about safe drug supply,

00:20:22.180 give me a response. What is the end goal for society? Because I can tell you, I don't think

00:20:27.300 they have one. They're looking at that bandaid and say, oh, look, we did. We did something,

00:20:33.060 but it's not effective. It's not helping society, and it's only leading us down a path I don't think we

00:20:39.300 want to be on. Certainly. Well, to wrap up, Gary, if you could change one thing or make one major

00:20:45.700 change to how the country deals with the illicit fentanyl crisis, the supply of illicit fentanyl,

00:20:52.340 what would it be? Well, I think, first of all, I would, I think we need a, I've said in a couple

00:21:00.100 articles I've written that we really need powerful drugs are in this country that can liaise between

00:21:09.540 law enforcement, provincial and federal governments that can make recommendations that have to be

00:21:16.260 followed. And we need the RCMP to become a federal focused organization so that we can start getting

00:21:25.860 a handle on this. Amazing. Thank you so much, Gary. Really appreciate it. Thanks, Harrison. I do

00:21:32.660 appreciate it. Take care now. Bye now.

Juno News - February 14, 2024

China's deadly drug war on Canada

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