Organized Crime in Canada

Organized Crime in Canada

            Organized crime has been an issue of concern to the Canadian government for several years. The Criminal Intelligence Services Canada (CISC) has been employing a series of strategies to curb the rising menace. CISC has generally been providing annual reports indicating the extent to which they have managed to control the impact of organized crime. The cooperation of the Canadians has been needed for successful processes aimed at dealing with the issue of organized crime. Besides, the citizens are on the receiving end of the impacts of organized crime either directly or indirectly. CISC has identified crime classifications that have been prioritized in the fight against organized crime. Criminal Intelligence Services Canada has employed considerable efforts in a bid to address the issues of human trafficking, street gangs, and money laundering, which have been causing high levels for the government and citizens.

Human trafficking can be viewed as modern-day slavery since people are forced to undergo inhuman practices in return for little or no favor. Human trafficking involves several activities, such as the recruitment and transportation of people under circumstances that put the people under controlled movement or communication. Also, trafficking may include sexual harassment and forced labor. The Criminal Intelligence Services Canada has identified human trafficking among its eight prioritized types of organized crime. Generally, human trafficking is organized in that perpetrators operate under ready markets with one party being involved in the sourcing of the people while the other party receives the victims for exploitation (Antonopoulos et al. 2019).

The main characteristic of human trafficking is the exploitation directed to victims through ways such as intimidation, force, sexual assault, and threats of violence, which are either directed to the victim or their families. Unlike human smuggling, human trafficking does not involve the consent of the victim, and forced recruitment is common. Also, deceit may be used to lure people into getting recruited only to discover the real intentions of the recruiter when they are late. Moreover, the issue of human trafficking has been receiving attention from the Canadian government of the years.

Human trafficking has been classified as a crime against humanity according to Canadian laws. CISC documented in its report in 2019 that a series of strategies were underway to see the menace brought under control. Generally, the extent of human trafficking is difficult to assess because perpetrators always devise new ways of covering their tracks. The fight against human trafficking has improved, and CISC has all the reasons to get credit for it. The prioritization of human trafficking as organized crime saw the government set aside $57.22 million in a plan dubbed “National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking” (Public Safety Canada, 2015). The investment was set in 2019 and has been effective in financing the activities surrounding the fight against human trafficking. Moreover, organized crime has taken a toll on the safety in the streets with streets coming in large numbers, but CISC has been fighting the development of the years.

The issue of street gangs has been a cause of concern as the race to develop effective gun-control policies keeps on shifting. The Canadian government has been investing in intervention, prevention, and suppression attempts, although most of the efforts have not been effective. The street gang menace has grown to the extent that society has accepted that gangs are part of the society, and single intervention methods have proved to be limited. Generally, the street gang menace came to limelight in 2006 when CISC reported that more than three hundred gangs were in existence in the streets. Also, the report by CISC showed that the existing groups had more than a whopping eleven thousand membership and recruitment was undergoing at an alarming rate. A large number of members made the intervention strategies less effective as the recruits were members of the society and would learn of every attempt against them and would devise ways of avoiding the traps set for them. Moreover, the fight against street gangs has been facing setbacks due to a lack of strategies that can prevent children from joining gangs.

One of the challenges facing CISC in the fight against street gangs is the lack of established strategies to prevent children from joining gangs. Street gangs in Canada promise a chance of saving young citizens from poverty by promising easier paths to wealth (Sergi, 2018). The promise for wealth is always used as a way of luring desperate kids into joining the gangs only to be left to fight by getting into crime. Besides, street gang recruiters focus on marginalized groups to promise them to hope amid purported discrimination by the government. The fight against the increasing number of street gangs has, however, taken a promising shift with bodies such as the CISC diverting their weight on more promising strategies. Currently, efforts are being directed to potential recruits as well as known members of gangs. The potential recruits are children, and the relevant bodies are coming up with effective methods of helping the children from the risk of being recruited into the gangs. Also, the known gang members have been helped to quit the activities of the gang and are being helped to become productive members of society. For example, prenatal parenting programs have been used together with parental training programs in a bid to reach more children through their parents. Also, school programs and employment training programs have been employed to reach more members of society. Moreover, the CISC also listed money laundering among the prioritized forms of organized crime that required special attention.

Money laundering was not left out in the list when CISC decided to prioritize organized crimes that required specialized attention. Large amounts of money have been in circulation in Canada with the source of the money leaving several unanswered questions. With the growing crime rate in Canada, money laundering should be dealt with since it has led to successful funding of criminal activities without traces. According to the report by CISC (2015), money laundering is greatly associated with drug trafficking as drug lords look for ways of covering their tracks from investigators. The most common ways used by anti-money laundering agencies are prevention and enforcement.  Generally, money laundering is done through financial institutions for transfers and through contractors who are paid to carry out the crime on behalf of individuals. The prevention efforts are therefore directed to the institutions to equip them with strategies to help them deal with the situation since most individuals involved in money laundering are prominent people. Enforcement, on the other hand, is associated with the efforts to make the existing strategies more effective in addressing the money laundering issue. Moreover, CISC has reported improvements in the fight against money laundering in recent years.

The efforts employed to address the issue of money laundering have, for a long time, remained ineffective. According to CISC, the use of real estate as an escape path for money laundering has been posing a significant threat to the fight against money laundering. One of the efforts that have not proved effective is the establishment of a public consultation forum in 2008. The period set for the consultation ended in 2019, and the issue has continued to develop all over Canada and other countries. However, the consultation period is expected to be reintroduced since the fight against money laundering requires the cooperation of all available stakeholders. Besides, money laundering has been associated with powerful and smart individuals who put strict efforts to cover any possible leaks of their traces. Also, the association between real estate and money laundering is bringing out the need for amendments that will see the beneficiaries of the proceedings being made public.

In sum, Criminal Intelligence Services Canada has attempted to address the issues of human trafficking, street gangs, and money laundering, which have been causing high levels for the government and citizens. The association between crimes has been one of the major concerns of CISC since the efforts to address the various organized crimes have been suffering setbacks. Generally, crimes are conducted in a network with most crimes being conducted by smart and powerful individuals who cannot be tracked easily.

 

 

References

Antonopoulos, G. A., Hobbs, D., Hornsby, R., City, P., Arlacchi, P., Business, M., … &    Resilience, D. N. (2019). Academic Publications and Books. Chinese Criminal            Entrepreneurs in Canada, 1(4), 301.

Public Safety Canada. (2015). Organized Crime – Research Highlights 2015-H001: Emerging       threats and trends in money laundering

Sergi, A. (2018). What’s in a Name? Shifting Identities of Traditional Organized Crime in             Canada in the Transnational Fight against the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 60(4), 427-454.