By Liam DeBoer | BlendrNews.com

Canada is a nation run by criminals for criminals. There’s a moment in every collapsing society when people stop asking “How did this happen?” and start asking, “Was it allowed to happen?” For years, we’ve been told that crime, disorder and corruption are unfortunate side effects of an increasingly complex world, but the more we look at the facts, the legislation, the failures, the curious relationships, the more difficult it becomes to believe that this is just the byproduct of incompetence. It looks more like a system that’s been built to fail, or worse, a system built to serve interests we’re not supposed to see.

The Fixer, The Front, The Fall Girl

Let’s start with a name few Canadians outside of Alberta likely knew until recently: Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault. Alongside his business partner, Stephen Anderson, Boissonnault co-owned Global Health Imports, a company embroiled in lawsuits over allegations of defrauding clients out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The company shared an address with Francheska Leblond, a woman detained in two major international cocaine trafficking operations, including a four-hundred-and-sixty-pound seizure in the Dominican Republic, in Edmonton’s largest ever cocaine bust in 2013. Global News confirmed that Leblond was one of the several passengers under RCMP investigation. Despite this, she faced no criminal charges in the Dominican bust.

Now, let’s hypothesize here for a second. If you are operating an international drug trafficking syndicate, you’d need three types of players. Someone in the business of international logistics—Anderson. Someone in power who can influence trade, law, or enforcement policy—Boissonnault. And someone in the shadows—a disposable pawn to take the fall when needed—Leblond. That’s speculation, sure, but it’s also a textbook configuration. Organized crime has always worked this way: legitimate fronts, political protection, and fall guys. Yet, there’s been no serious political or law-enforcement scrutiny of this arrangement. The silence is louder than any denial.

The Kingpin Who Met The Prime Minister

Then there’s former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was allegedly caught in an RCMP surveillance operation meeting privately with Paul King Jin, a suspected kingpin of transnational Chinese organized crime. Jin is no street-level dealer. He’s accused of laundering hundreds of millions through underground casinos, real estate deals, and narcotics routes, stretching from Vancouver to Mexico, Panama, and Hong Kong. He’s linked to the Sam Gore Syndicate, one of the largest criminal networks in the world. When the RCMP and DEA tried to take him down, prosecutions collapsed, investigations fell apart, and witnesses vanished.

But Jin didn’t just operate in the shadows. He ran a gym in Richmond, BC—a $7.7 million property under civil forfeiture just blocks from the RCMP. It doubled as a luxury auto body shop and private restaurant—both red flags in organized crime investigations. The gym became a hub for CCP [Chinese Communist Party] and criminal influence. A controlled environment where gangsters, Chinese officials, and Canadian politicians mingled. Several MPs appeared at high-profile events there, including a boxing tournament for China’s national team. Even BC Tourism Minister Lisa Beare held a press conference inside Jin’s facility, while the feds were trying to seize it.

Meanwhile, Jin’s operations continued. After being deported from Panama for traveling under a false identity, he returned to Canada, flagged by CBSA, and was simply waived through.

The Enemies Within

Now consider Canada’s missing persons [report] rate per 100,000 people. British Columbia, 273, Saskatchewan, 146, Manitoba, 130, Alberta, 115, Nova Scotia, 112, Ontario, 111. Now compare those numbers internationally. El Salvador, before President Bukele’s crackdown on gangs, had a missing persons rate of approximately 37.5 per 100,000. Canada, seen globally as peaceful and developed, now vastly outpaces a country once notorious for cartel activity. California, with a population more than Canada’s largest provinces, has a missing persons rate of 5.5 per 100,000. That means British Columbia’s rate is 4,864% higher. Read that again. Nearly 5,000% higher. What is going on?

Let’s zoom in on a high-profile case. In 2017, billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman were found murdered in their Toronto mansion—bound, staged, and posed upright at their indoor pool, with leather belts looped around a railing. Despite a scene straight out of a mob movie, Toronto police initially classified it as a domestic event. Barry Sherman had a net worth of $3.2 billion USD, making him the 12th-wealthiest man in Canada. He appeared on Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires for over 15 years. Ask yourself, if you walked into a room and saw two bodies dragged and displayed like that, would domestic violence even cross your mind?

This leads to a disturbing question. Are organized crime hits being buried in Canada’s missing persons data and misclassified as domestic incidents to avoid raising alarms?

And it’s not just murder. Service Ontario employees were caught working with organized crime to alter VIN numbers on stolen vehicles, enabling them to be resold without detection. Think about that. Government staff collaborating with car theft rings from inside the system.

When you combine our exploding missing persons numbers, the fentanyl epidemic, rampant gang infiltration, and a justice system that seems more interested in optics than results, this doesn’t look like coincidence anymore. It looks like a system in free fall.

An Empire Built on Dirty Cash

In 2018, an estimated $46.7 billion in dirty funds was laundered through Canada’s financial system, though some experts believe the real number could be closer to $100 billion annually. To grasp the scale, consider this: Here are legitimate Canadian industries with approximate revenues in the same range as our criminal underworld. 

• Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting — $30.6B
• Accommodation and food services — $43B
• Information and entertainment — $60B
• Transportation and warehousing — $92B
• Educational services — $104.2B

Money laundering is one of Canada’s largest industries. This isn’t a shadow issue. It’s a shadow economy on par with our biggest sectors. And it’s not just drugs. It funds gangs, inflates housing markets, runs fentanyl labs, traffics weapons, and buys political influence.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth. Every one of those legitimate industries lobbies politicians to shape policy in their favour and often succeeds. So why would we assume organized crime with comparable revenue and far fewer rules isn’t doing the exact same thing?

How To Legalize a Criminal Empire

Let’s revisit the federal policies passed under Trudeau. Ask yourself, who benefits?

Catch and release bail reform, Bill C-75: Criminals are released quickly. Even repeat violent offenders. Police re-arrest the same people repeatedly. Result? More crime. Less consequence.

Sentencing reform, Bill C-5: Mandatory minimums for gun crimes and drug trafficking removed. Conditional sentences now apply to sexual assault and major narcotics charges. Result? Softer sentencing, emboldened gangs.

Safe supply programs: Ostensibly designed to help addicts, these government-issued narcotics are often resold. Black markets thrive. Organized crime adapts and profits.

RCMP’s Ontario Financial Crimes Unit shut down in 2020: Billions in dirty money flooding our economy. The federal police shut down its specialized team. Result? Fewer investigations. More impunity.

Unvetted refugee systems: Open border policies allow bad actors to disappear into the system, exploiting overwhelmed immigration courts. Some are later tied to criminal activity.

Skipping fraud prevention measures for temporary foreign workers: Bureaucrats were told to bypass fraud checks when approving foreign worker permits. Result? Human trafficking, fraudulent labour schemes, and exploitation.

Disarming lawful citizens, Bill C-21: While criminals smuggle handguns from the US, the government bans legal firearm owners from owning certain rifles and freezes handgun sales. Criminals keep their weapons. You lose yours.

If you were writing policy to benefit cartels, gangs, smugglers, and traffickers, you’d be hard-pressed to do better than this.

Welcome to Gotham North

People often ask why I do this, why I expose these things, knowing full well what history tells us happens to those who challenge entrenched power. But here’s the truth. There’s no safe path left. Every road comes with risk. The only question is which kind of risk you’re willing to live with—the risk of speaking out, or the risk of watching your country fall into criminal collapse?

You can stay silent, and you can live in a place where your car is stolen, your bank account is frozen, and your kids are offered fentanyl outside of their schoolyard. This isn’t paranoia. It’s the reality we’re living in.

Gotham was never a fictional place. A city run by gangsters, corrupt politicians, and corporate enablers, where citizens survive through fear and compliance? That’s Canada.

The only way out of this is for ordinary people to start doing extraordinary things. And no, I’m not special. I’m just like you. I know most people don’t have hours to spend digging through documents and connecting the dots, but you don’t need to.

Take one evening off from Netflix. Skip one brunch. Pass on one night out. Use that time to walk into your MP’s office. Drop this piece on their desk and ask them one question. Why isn’t this your top priority?

Because the question isn’t whether it’s dangerous to speak out. The question is, what happens if we don’t?

Originally published on Instagram @liam_out_loud