8 ms·

Canadian here, who is also not a Trump fan. It is true that Canada has extremely lax border controls and there are complex organized crime networks that exploit

Canadian here, who is also not a Trump fan. It is true that Canada has extremely lax border controls and there are complex organized crime networks that exploit this inside of and through Canada. The US security establishment is aware of this, as is the Canadian security establishment. The 1% fentanyl headline is indeed widely reported, it’s also a red herring. The simple answer is Canada doesn’t really look, so not much is seen. More info here, by one of Canada’s best investigative journalists: https://www.thebureau.news/p/trade-based-money-laundering-is-the?utm_campaign=post&showWelcomeOnShare=false https://www.thebureau.news/p/trade-based-money-laundering-is... IMO Trump is, as the official white house press release says, trying to put pressure on Canada to address this. Are tariffs the best way to do that? A valid question, for sure. Does he have other, possibly irrational, motivations? Also an excellent question. But I see much Canadian and US commentary that assumes there is nothing rational about this at all, and that there is no Canadian border/security issues, and I would say that’s incorrect.

matthewdgreen 2y ago
Ordinarily when there's a really big problem, a President will go to some effort to explain to the public what the problem is, and how their actions will fix it. Apparently this problem is definitely motivation Trump and is also somehow so deeply hidden that we can only find out about it from random newsletter sites. I'm not saying that this makes it BS. But I'm also saying if this doesn't ring your BS meter, you don't have one anymore.
- outrun86 2y ago
  I follow what’s happening with Canadian drugs / money laundering pretty closely. The article I linked isn’t a random newsletter site, it’s from one of Canada’s top investigative journalists. Here’s the official white house statement from the Whitehouse website. I’ve heard Trump reference this multiple times: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-proceeds-with-tariffs-on-imports-from-canada-and-mexico/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-pr...
kalleboo 2y ago
> The simple answer is Canada doesn’t really look, so not much is seen Wouldn't it be the US, on their side of the border, who is looking for what is coming into their country, not Canada looking at what is leaving their country? They seem to have a pretty good handle on how much is entering through the southern border.
- outrun86 2y ago
  I think the heart of the issue is inflow through Canadian ports, as well as complex money laundering and trafficking schemes between Canada, China and Mexico. You can check the article I posted above for more info. There’s also some info about this in the Whitehouse press release I linked below. So it’s not strictly a border crossing problem.
  - card_zero 2y ago
    Explain the problem with "inflow"? Of drugs, to Canada, and not to America?
    - outrun86 2y ago
      It’s in the article I linked.
      - card_zero 2y ago
        "This post is for paid subscribers".
  - hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
    I read the article, and also a lot of the other articles on that site. I'm going to take it with a grain of salt, because that "top investigative reporter" basically seems poised to report everything in the most conspiratorial manner possible. That said, I'll still definitely grant you the following, especially after researching the issue and seeing information from other outlets: Canada has a serious problem with Chinese money laundering. Fine, but so does the United States: https://www.propublica.org/article/china-cartels-xizhi-li-money-laundering https://www.propublica.org/article/china-cartels-xizhi-li-mo.... None of this feels like anything more than an after-the-fact, invented rationale for the tariffs. Like the other poster said, the fact that so little fentanyl comes in through the US is not a "red herring" because Canada "isn't looking for it" - you don't go through Customs upon leaving a country, you go through it on entering. And again, even if your argument is that Canada is just supporting the drug trade through its money laundering operations, you could literally point to any country and come up with a host of things that happen within their borders that are somehow bad for the US. You could certainly do it in reverse (shit that the US does that's bad for other countries) 3x. None of it rises to even a teeny bit of the level needed to throwaway a deep, mutually beneficial relationship that has existed for many, many decades.

matthewdgreen 2y ago

Ordinarily when there's a really big problem, a President will go to some effort to explain to the public what the problem is, and how their actions will fix it. Apparently this problem is definitely motivation Trump and is also somehow so deeply hidden that we can only find out about it from random newsletter sites. I'm not saying that this makes it BS. But I'm also saying if this doesn't ring your BS meter, you don't have one anymore.

outrun86 2y ago
I follow what’s happening with Canadian drugs / money laundering pretty closely. The article I linked isn’t a random newsletter site, it’s from one of Canada’s top investigative journalists. Here’s the official white house statement from the Whitehouse website. I’ve heard Trump reference this multiple times: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-proceeds-with-tariffs-on-imports-from-canada-and-mexico/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-pr...

kalleboo 2y ago

> The simple answer is Canada doesn’t really look, so not much is seen Wouldn't it be the US, on their side of the border, who is looking for what is coming into their country, not Canada looking at what is leaving their country? They seem to have a pretty good handle on how much is entering through the southern border.

outrun86 2y ago
I think the heart of the issue is inflow through Canadian ports, as well as complex money laundering and trafficking schemes between Canada, China and Mexico. You can check the article I posted above for more info. There’s also some info about this in the Whitehouse press release I linked below. So it’s not strictly a border crossing problem.
- card_zero 2y ago
  Explain the problem with "inflow"? Of drugs, to Canada, and not to America?
  - outrun86 2y ago
    It’s in the article I linked.
    - card_zero 2y ago
      "This post is for paid subscribers".
- hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
  I read the article, and also a lot of the other articles on that site. I'm going to take it with a grain of salt, because that "top investigative reporter" basically seems poised to report everything in the most conspiratorial manner possible. That said, I'll still definitely grant you the following, especially after researching the issue and seeing information from other outlets: Canada has a serious problem with Chinese money laundering. Fine, but so does the United States: https://www.propublica.org/article/china-cartels-xizhi-li-money-laundering https://www.propublica.org/article/china-cartels-xizhi-li-mo.... None of this feels like anything more than an after-the-fact, invented rationale for the tariffs. Like the other poster said, the fact that so little fentanyl comes in through the US is not a "red herring" because Canada "isn't looking for it" - you don't go through Customs upon leaving a country, you go through it on entering. And again, even if your argument is that Canada is just supporting the drug trade through its money laundering operations, you could literally point to any country and come up with a host of things that happen within their borders that are somehow bad for the US. You could certainly do it in reverse (shit that the US does that's bad for other countries) 3x. None of it rises to even a teeny bit of the level needed to throwaway a deep, mutually beneficial relationship that has existed for many, many decades.