Nations Hospitable to Organized Crime and Terrorism

Extract ►Transcript concerning the CANADA◄

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According to numerous intelligence and law enforcement reports, however, terrorists and international organized crime groups increasingly are using Canada as an operational base and transit country en route to the United States. A generous social-welfare system, lax immigration laws, infrequent prosecutions, light sentencing, and long borders and coastlines offer many points and methods of entry that facilitate movement to and from various countries, particularly to the United States. These factors combine to make Canada a favored destination for terrorists and international organized crime groups.

<http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/index.html> 583 Wendell Sanford, Consul of Canada, remarks for an Address: "Canada Post 9/11 – The New True North Strong

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In a 1999 Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) report entitled "Exploitation of Canada’s Immigration System: An Overview of Security Intelligence Concerns," CSIS Director Ward Elcock is quoted as saying that "in most cases, [terrorists] appear to use Canadian residence as a safe haven, a means to raise funds, to plan or support overseas activities or as a way to obtain Canadian travel documents which make global travel easier." According to the report, more than 50 terrorist groups are believed to be operating in Canada, including the Algerian Armed Islamic Group, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Tamil Tigers, Sikh extremists, the Kurdistan Workers Party, Hizballah, and extremist Irish groups.585

584 David Griffin, "Organised Crime in Canada," Police Magazine, January 2001.

<http://www.polfed.org/magazine/01_2001/01_2001_orgcrime.htm> 585 Canadian Security Intelligence Service Director Ward Elcock, in Jonathan Dube, "Safe Haven for Terror?"

ABCNEWS.com. Jan. 14, 2000. <http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/canada_terrorism000114.html> 586 Canada, Senate, Special Committees on Terrorism and Public Safety, "Response to Recommendations of the

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Crimes committed in Canada are not considered relevant to asylum requests unless they would bring more than ten years of imprisonment. 588 This provision means that most of the criminal means by which terrorists raise funds—such as fraud, theft, and counterfeiting—would not disqualify them for asylum, even if they are found guilty. The same can be said for a portion of the illegal activities engaged in by international organized criminal groups.

Upon arriving at a Canadian port of entry, an individual claiming refugee status normally is released, with no provision for monitoring, rather than being detained pending investigation, as is the practice in Great Britain and the United States.589 As their claim is under consideration, such claimants can receive work permits, welfare payments, and housing and health care from the government.590 Deportation orders seldom are carried out for those whose refugee claims are denied.591

587 Jeffrey Gettleman, "Canadians Begin to Say No to Immigrants From China," Los Angeles Times, Sep. 11, 1999. 588 These features are identified in the course of interviews conducted by the Public Broadcasting Service’s

documentary program Frontline, with Bill Bauer, former member of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board;

Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). "Is Canada a Safe Haven for Terrorists?" Frontline, PBS, 2001.

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/trail/etc/canada.html#harris 589 "Is Canada a Safe Haven for Terrorists?" Frontline, PBS, 2001.

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/trail/etc/canada.html#harris 590 "Is Canada a Safe Haven for Terrorists?" Frontline, PBS, 2001.

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/trail/etc/canada.html#harris 591 United States, Congress, 106 th, House of Representatives, The Committee on the Judiciary, Hearing Before the

Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims, "Threat to the United States," 26 January 2000.

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Terrorist groups operating in Canada generate funds from activities such as drug trafficking and arms smuggling, as well as through charitable donations. Islamic terrorist groups have engaged in both petty crime and organized criminal ventures to raise funds. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has determined, for example, that profits from a number of auto theft rings in Ontario and Quebec have gone to support the Lebanese terrorist group Hizballah.593

Specific instances of crime in Canada supporting terrorist activities have been documented. In October 2002, the National Post reported that the CSIS had determined that Hizballah had laundered of tens of thousands of dollars through Canadian banks, while drawing on the accounts to shop for military equipment. According to the CSIS documentation, Hizballah agents had sought blasting devices, night-vision goggles, powerful computers, and camera equipment to record attacks against Israeli forces.594

In December 1999, an al Qaeda-trained terrorist, Ahmed Ressam, was arrested as he tried to cross into the United States with more than 100 pounds of powerful explosives intended to blow up a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport. In Canada, Ressam reportedly supplemented his monthly welfare payments by stealing cash, credit cards, traveler’s checks, and passports in Montreal. Ressam was convicted once for theft, but he never was jailed.

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In 1999 Canada’s Criminal Intelligence Service (CISC) reported that Asian organized crime groups operating in British Columbia included triads from Hong Kong and Taiwan; the mainland Chinese Big Circle Boys; the Lotus group, comprised mostly of Canadian born Chinese; and numerous other Vietnamese and Chinese gangs. Big Circle is the most active Asian organized crime group operating in Canada. These criminal organizations engage in a variety of enterprises, regularly sharing expertise and personnel. Asian groups continue to expand their association with other organized crime groups and criminal gangs at the regional, national, and international level. An example of the cooperation between groups is the use of Big Circle personnel by triad groups for enforcement.596 Big Circle is not itself a triad group, but many of its members belong to triads in the typical pattern of overlapping membership among Chinese groups.

Based primarily in the urban centers of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal, Asian based organized crime groups are engaged in trafficking cocaine; the trafficking, production and exporting of marijuana; the importation and distribution of Southeast Asian heroin; and, recently, the production of the "designer drug" ecstasy.597

595 Royal Canadian Mounted Police, "RCMP Fact Sheets 2000-2001: Fact Sheet No. 9: Organized Crime."

www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pdfs/facts_2001_e.htm#factsno9www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pdfs/facts_2001_e.htm#factsno9 596 Margaret E. Beare, Criminal Conspiracies: Organized Crime in Canada (Nelson: Canada, 1996), 84. 597 "Asian-Based Organised Crime," in Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, Annual Report 2002.

<http://www.cisc.gc.ca/AnnualReport2002/Cisc2002/asian2002.html>

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The two largest Hong Kong triads, 14K and Sun Yee On, have increased their presence in Canada in recent years and made substantial property investments during the 1990s. Prominent 14K members from Hong Kong and Macau have immigrated to Canada during this time, and Sun Yee On triad members have settled in Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver.599

East European organized crime groups, which include organizations from the former Soviet Union, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, also are expanding their activities in Canada. Groups from the former Soviet republics tend to be the strongest. East European groups are particularly active in the urban centers of Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and the Maritime Provinces; they engage primarily in financial fraud through a variety of credit card schemes and Internet fraud, theft, contraband smuggling, illicit drug importation, vehicle theft and illegal export, and money laundering.600 Pragmatic relationships often are established with Asian groups and domestic motorcycle gangs to fulfill particular enterprises.

Colombian cartels are responsible for the majority of the cocaine trafficked into Canada. These cartels are reported to have formed affiliations with Eastern European and Italian organized crime groups to distribute cocaine within Canada’s borders. Canada is a destination and a transit point to the United States for women, children, and men trafficked for purposes of sexual exploitation, labor, and the drug trade. Trafficked migrants originate primarily in China’s Fujian Province, 601 Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Russia.602

598 "Asian-Based Organised Crime." 599 "Asian Organized Crime," in Federation of American Scientists, International Crime Threat Assessment 2000.

<http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/pub45270chap3.html#r14> 600 "East European-Based Organized Crime," in Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, Annual Report, 2002.

<http://www.cisc.gc.ca/AnnualReport2002/Cisc2002/european2002.html> 601 Jennifer Bolz, "Chinese Organized Crime and Illegal Alien Trafficking: Humans as a Commodity," Asian Affairs,

22, no. 3 (Fall 1995). 602 U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report 2002. <http://www.state.gov.g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2002>

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Toronto newspaper report, "Collaboration between trafficking organizations is evident, whereby ethnic and national groups interact, facilitating the provision of transport, safe houses, local contacts and travel documentation."603 The majority of illegal migrants continue to enter Canada by regular commercial international flights.604 Chapter II of the Report of the Special Senate Committee on Security and Intelligence explains how this is often done. Illegal migrants move into Canada by "losing" the identification they used to board an airplane, claiming refugee status when they arrive, and disappearing into a Canadian trafficking system upon their release. The trafficking system then either brings them underground in Canada or moves them across the United States border. 605

Smuggling illegal migrants is a multibillion-dollar business. Total earnings in Canada were estimated in 1995 at around US$3.2 billion per year. Alien smugglers are rarely prosecuted in Canada; for those who are, sentencing is much lighter than it is for narcotics trafficking. Migrants pay traffickers as much as US$50,000, much of which is repaid by labor in sweatshops or participation in another illegal activity.606

To minimize commercial delays, the plan includes a pre-screening system to allow frequent border crossers to enter and exit Canada quickly.607 In addition, in late 2002 Canada finally added Hamas, the Islamic Army of Aden, Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, Asbat Al-Ansar, Palestinian

603 Andrew Mitrovica, "Gangs Unite to Capitalize on Human Smuggling," The Globe and Mail [Toronto], January 8,

2001. 604 "Asian-Based Organized Crime." 605 Canada, Senate, Special Senate Committee on Security and Intelligence. 606 Bolz. 607 "Canada: Immigration, Asylum and US," Migration News, 10, no. 1 (January 2003).

Traffic into Canada," Canadian Press Newswire, Dec. 6, 2001.

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Because Canada’s immigration laws are arguably the foremost factor in making Canada hospitable to terrorists and international criminals, the changes to the existing system included in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, passed in June 2002, will make it more difficult for such individuals to gain entry or stay in Canada.609 The major changes in the law are the introduction of in-depth CSIS screening upon arrival in Canada rather than after a significant delay; establishment of nine factors, including misrepresentation of identity and connections with a terrorist or criminal group, as grounds for denial of entry into Canada; increased penalties for immigration offenses such as smuggling; measures to discourage fraudulent immigration applications; reduction of the appeal rights of individuals identified by authorities for deportation for having committed a crime; and increased authority to arrest foreign nationals suspected of a crime or terrorist act.

Together these new laws have the ability to reduce the incentives and ability for terrorists and international criminals to operate in Canada. However, enforcement will be the key. Whether these new laws are effective in reducing the use of Canada as an operational base and transit country for terrorists and international criminals will depend in large part on whether a new balance between civil liberties and security concerns will yield effective prevention. As a possible first indication of future trends, in October 2002 three Filipinos received a two-year sentence for trafficking Chinese migrants into Canada, although the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act calls for up to a ten-year sentence for such a crime.610

608 Stewart Bell, "Liberals Relent, Hezbollah Outlawed: Graham Says It’s Due to Recent Evidence," National Post

[Toronto], December 12, 2002. 609 Canada, Citizenship and Immigration, "Bill C-11 Immigration and Refugee Protection Act: What Is New in the

www.cic.gc.ca/english/irpa/c11%2Dnew.htmlwww.cic.gc.ca/english/irpa/c11%2Dnew.html 610 "Three Sailors Sentenced for Smuggling Chinese Migrants," National Post [Toronto], 31 October 2002.

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The new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act has been criticized because it does not change the definition of "serious criminal" as applied to resident aliens. To fall into that category under the new law, an individual still must have received at least a ten-year prison sentence. Thus, for example, Ahmed Ressam would not be subject to deportation because he had only been convicted of petty thefts.