RCMP staffing issues hindering organized crime money-laundering investigations
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, I discuss organized crime and money laundering in the casinos in British Columbia, and why the Mounties are not doing enough to combat it, and what needs to be done about it. I also discuss the need for municipal policing across the country, and how municipal policing can help solve the problem.
Transcript
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It's been two years since reports were made public about the significant money laundering
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done primarily by Asian organized crime through the casinos in British Columbia.
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In that two-year time period, the Attorney General, David Eby, commissioned a report
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done by former RCMP Deputy Commissioner Peter German to look at the issue.
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And Peter German identified at that time in that report, which was made public last summer,
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$100 million had been laundered through BC casinos.
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I know for a fact that that number is not even close to being accurate.
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As long ago as five years, a report was authored for the BC government that identified over
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$100 million in 20s alone being laundered through the River Rock Casino in Richmond, BC.
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It's taken government an awfully long time to do nothing.
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In just last week, or this past week, Peter German authored another report in which he looked
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In that report, he identified that there were 26 positions that were federally funded that
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should have been working on the money laundering issue.
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Of those 11, only five were actually gainfully employed during investigations, and they weren't
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They were working on seizure proceeds of crime issues.
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The issue of money laundering and organized crime in this country has been, or should have
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At the turn of the century, in December 1999, I wrote a column saying organized crime was the
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biggest problem facing this country going into the 21st century.
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Now, that was obviously before 9-11 and what happened in the days that followed, but still, organized
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The problem is that the Mounties, at this point in time, are just simply not able to staff
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They have over 150 municipal contracts where they provide, essentially, city policing across
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They are incredibly short-staffed when their primary focus should be on federal policing
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issues, organized crime, terrorism-related incidents and intelligence, and issues like
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In order to keep the country safe, I don't know that responding to barking dog complaints or
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break-and-enters that occurred last night in towns and cities across the country is an
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And the other problem is the Mounties just can't recruit to keep up with their current
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In BC, which is the largest complement of RCMP, there's over 5,000 members in the province,
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they're short, as many as 500 or more officers.
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Every single squad and every single detachment, including the federal sections, are all running
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Is it all as short as the money laundering section, which is less than half strength?
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Probably not in all of them, but certainly all of them are running probably 10 to 20% short,
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The RCMP has commitments, contractual commitments, in all of the provinces, well, eight of the
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And if they cannot do this, then those contracts should really be looked at.
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The city of Surrey is going through the process right now.
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The new mayor of Surrey, Doug McCallum, has said he's going to replace the RCMP with his own
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Vancouver Police Force is actually working with the city of Surrey to help them succeed
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There's a whole lot of rethinking, in my view, that must be done about the RCMP.
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And the primary focus of which is, should they even be involved in contract and municipal
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There needs to be an organized attempt, if you will, or political attempts, to right this
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Because as it continues, as it goes on, the RCMP will fail.
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I have long referred to the RCMP as 144 years of tradition, unhampered by progress.
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The whole attitude about this is how we've always done things is a significant problem
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And the other part of the problem is that the Prime Minister put in place Brenda Luckey as
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commissioner of the RCMP to move the force forward.
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And there's really nothing in her background to suggest that she is anything but an affirmative
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And it, unfortunately, needs to either come from within the RCMP, or they must be mandated
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to make some changes from the federal government cabinet level.
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And frankly, I don't see anybody doing anything about that in the short term or near future.