More fentanyl has been seized at or near border since the launch of Operation Deterrence than was seized at the entire Canadian border last year. While 43 pounds was seized going from Canada to the United States last year, the OPP, and its municipal and Indigenous police partners have seized 46 pounds.
Kinda makes you think that maybe we weren’t looking too hard before all this.
The Trudeau government in Ottawa and provincial governments across the country have been beefing up border measures ever since Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs. In late November, before being sworn in, Trump threatened 25% tariffs on all goods from Canada and Mexico unless changes were made.
“As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing crime and drugs at levels never seen before,” Trump posted on Nov. 25.
The reaction from official Ottawa and most of Canada’s political and chattering classes was to downplay any threat from Canada. Those paying attention knew the ground had shifted and officials had simply not caught up to the new reality.
The seizures in Ontario prove it — more in two months in one province than at the entire border all of last year. We simply weren’t being serious; we were taking things for granted and then came our wake-up call.
All of the seizures are described by an official as being near or adjacent to the border with police believing the intent was to cross into the United States to traffic.
“Operation Deterrence continues to deliver results,” Premier Doug Ford posted to X last week.
He praised the OPP for seizing 628 kilograms of cocaine, 41 firearms, eight stolen vehicles, and intercepting eight illegal border crossers. He also noted 14.25 kilograms of fentanyl was seized which works out to just shy of 31.5 pounds.
Since then, officials say an additional 6.5 kilos of fentanyl has been seized at or near the border, bringing the total up to 20.75 kilos or 45.74 pounds. A further 900 kilos of cocaine was seized by community partners.
Ford announced Operation Deterrence on Jan. 7, before the provincial election was called, but operations actually began about a month earlier in December. The province has committed 200 OPP officers to the operation that focuses on border areas outside of the 14 official border crossings which are staffed by federal officials from the RCMP and CBSA.
“Ontario is stepping up with Operation Deterrence to crack down on illegal border crossings and illegal guns and drugs,” Ford said in a statement at the time.
“A more coordinated, Team Canada approach that includes more boots on the ground is the only way to detect, deter and disrupt illegal activity and ensure the safety and security of Canadian and American communities.”
The province has bolstered patrols in border regions with airplane, helicopter and drone surveillance, providing thousands of hours of video recordings that have been shared with federal officials in Ottawa and with their American counterparts in Washington.
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Ford posted about 13,000 trucks being inspected, a number that is now over 17,000.
This operation proves that the dismissive nature of our elected officials, especially at the federal level, was the wrong stance to take. When Trump signed the executive order on Feb. 1 promising tariffs on Canada over border issues, he even cited a Canadian government report on Canada’s growing role in the fentanyl trade and the presence of international organized crime running those operations.
“There is also a growing presence of Mexican cartels operating fentanyl and nitazene synthesis labs in Canada,” Trump’s order stated. “The flow of illicit drugs like fentanyl to the United States through both illicit distribution networks and international mail.”
Just two weeks ago, American inspectors at a shipping facility in Seattle opened a package that had arrived from Canada to find a pound of fentanyl inside. In Swift Current, Sask., the RCMP arrested two men with eight pounds of fentanyl.
Given the lives lost to fentanyl in this country, the damage to communities across the country, we should have been cracking down on this trafficking years ago.
It shouldn’t have taken Donald Trump. That said, I’ll take the results being shown by Operation Deterrence and hope for bigger and better in the future.