‘Shutting the Gate’: Calgary panel warns Canada is wide open to cartels

Canada’s weak laws, failed prosecutions, and Ottawa’s refusal to cooperate with Washington are leaving the country vulnerable to cartel smuggling.

CALGARY — Canada’s weak laws, failed prosecutions, and Ottawa’s refusal to cooperate with Washington are leaving the country vulnerable to cartel smuggling, a panel at the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference in Calgary heard Friday.

The panel, titled Shutting the Gate: Alberta’s Fight Against Smuggling and Illegal Trade, featured investigative reporter Sam Cooper, Alberta’s new chief of sheriffs Sat Parhar, former Alberta justice minister Doug Schweitzer, and Quebec law enforcement veteran turned illicit trade expert Danny Fournier.

Cooper opened by covering revelations that Ottawa blocked an American request to jointly target Chinese fentanyl precursors entering Vancouver. “Ottawa denied a request to work with Washington in 2022,” he said. “The Americans came to Ottawa and said, we know about precursors from China coming into Vancouver. Will you work with us? Essentially, they were shut down.”

Danny Fournier: prosecutions and contraband enforcement
Fournier, a former Sûreté du Québec officer who oversaw organized crime and contraband tobacco operations before joining Rothmans, Benson and Hedges’ Illicit Trade Prevention unit, said prosecutions are collapsing under Canada’s legal system. “If the court system cannot absorb the extra volume of cases, then it becomes a moot point.”

He pointed to Quebec’s ACCESS Program as a model Alberta could copy. “For each dollar invested, they bring in $10.

ACCESS is a provincial initiative created to fight the underground economy, especially contraband tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, fuel, and other illegal commodities.

“There is no reason it can’t work in Alberta,” Fournier pointed out.

Fournier also warned that Alberta sits at the heart of the cross-country trade. “You’re the gateway to B.C. Controlling movement is key. We call it the pipeline.” He added that most contraband is visible online and largely ignored. “There’s no need to go on the dark web. You just Google it. We removed over 14,000 ads for contraband cigarettes in two years. Even the SQ couldn’t have tackled half of that.”

Sat Parhar: Alberta must take control
Parhar, the former Calgary Police deputy chief now leading Alberta’s newly created Independent Agency Police Service, said the drug crisis is visible on every Calgary street. He rejected harm reduction without treatment as “just wrong” and said Ottawa is the choke point for information sharing. “We do not share information well. The gaps are at the federal level. Don’t get a lawyer involved. You have to find a way to share.”

Parhar said Alberta needs more control over its policing. “For us to control our destiny, we need less influence from Ottawa.”

Doug Schweitzer: political will and capacity
Schweitzer, who served as Alberta’s justice minister from 2019 to 2020, said police can only act boldly if politicians back them. “If the police make a mistake, and you want them to be bold, elected officials have to have their back.”

As minister, he discovered Alberta had only three articling students feeding its prosecution service. “They don’t exist,” he said of senior criminal lawyers, describing how he pushed that pipeline to twenty. Schweitzer also warned about the growing contraband tobacco market. “Illegal tobacco in Alberta is nearly 30 per cent.”

The Alberta window
All three agreed Alberta has a narrow opportunity to act, with Parhar’s new agency, provincial tax tools, and political leadership aligned. Whether Ottawa cooperates or not, Alberta might need to move first.