Canada's fentanyl czar Kevin Brosseau, right, is seen with Minister of Public Safety David McGuinty during a tour of the Canada Border Services Agency on Feb. 12.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
The first target for Canada’s fentanyl czar Kevin Brosseau will be attacking the illegal supply of the highly addictive opioid, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said Wednesday.
Mr. Brosseau, who spoke alongside the minister at a press conference near the Ontario-New York border, said he is planning a trip to the United States to meet American counterparts, including U.S. border czar Tom Homan, as soon as possible.
He said that regardless of the exact amount of fentanyl being smuggled to the U.S. from Canada – which is currently less than 1 per cent of what’s illegally slipping into American territory – the illicit production and distribution of the drug in this country needs to be wiped out.
“Getting the number to zero is, in fact, a goal, and should be our goal. If it’s one pound, 10 pounds, we all know the amount of deaths that possibly could represent,” Mr. Brosseau said. “This is a national security and a public safety crisis. We should be focused on eliminating the scourge that is fentanyl in this country and in the United States.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, despite evidence to the contrary, has said illegal migration and the smuggling of fentanyl from Canada constitute part of “a grave threat” to the United States. Canadian officials have pointed to U.S. customs and border-patrol data showing that activity originating in Canada is only a tiny fraction of the same illicit traffic from Mexico – but to no avail.
Mr. McGuinty said Canada needs to first target the illegal supply of fentanyl in this country and that Mr. Brosseau will assemble a team “that will give us the next practical steps that we can take to continue to make progress.”
“It’s a public-health issue; it’s an international issue; it’s a law-enforcement issue; it’s a prosecution issue,” the minister said.
Mr. Brosseau, a former RCMP deputy commissioner, was tapped Tuesday to be Canada’s fentanyl czar, as Ottawa seeks to demonstrate to the United States that it is working hard to disrupt illegal production and distribution of the opioid. While Mr. Brosseau has little national profile, he served as deputy national security and intelligence adviser to the Prime Minister until Tuesday’s appointment.
A fentanyl czar was one of several border-control measures Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Mr. Trump on Feb. 3 to avert across-the-board tariffs the U.S. President had threatened to impose on Canada this month. Those levies were delayed until early March, “to see whether or not a final Economic deal with Canada can be structured,” Mr. Trump said last week, though none of the measures promised by Ottawa relate to economic matters.
Mr. McGuinty said he hopes the swift creation of the fentanyl czar position will convince the Trump administration to hold off on the threatened tariffs.
“The focus here is on demonstrating the level of seriousness that we’re now putting forward through this appointment,” he said.
As of Feb. 9, before Mr. Brosseau’s appointment, Mr. Trump was still suggesting he’s not happy with Canada’s performance on fentanyl and border security.
When asked during a Fox News interview Sunday if the efforts by Canada and Mexico to forestall his tariffs were sufficient, Mr. Trump said, “No, it’s not good enough.”
He added: “Something has to happen. It’s unsustainable, and I’m changing it,” when asked if more must be done during the countdown on the delayed across-the-board tariffs. On Monday, Mr. Trump announced new 25-per-cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada.
Melissa Lantsman, a deputy federal Conservative leader, suggested Canada is sending mixed messages to the United States after measures such as effectively reversing a decriminalization project in British Columbia.
“It is the height of hypocrisy that the Liberal government is now claiming to take the fentanyl crisis seriously,” she said in statement.
In 2023, a decriminalization project in B.C. approved by the federal government permitted British Columbians 18 and older to carry up to a cumulative total of 2.5 grams of illicit opioids, crack and powder cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA without criminal penalties, and police were not to seize the drugs. More than a year later, Ottawa approved B.C.’s request to once again prohibit possession of illicit drugs in public spaces.
Mr. Trudeau, in negotiations last week with Mr. Trump, committed to creating the czar position, designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations and implementing an already-announced $1.3-billion in new border-security measures.
Mr. Trump’s tariff threats, however, appear to be based on faulty data. The White House justified the now-delayed across-the-board levies against Canada by noting 43 pounds of fentanyl had been seized at the northern border last fiscal year, representing a “massive 2,050-per-cent increase.”
As The Globe and Mail recently reported, however, court records and interviews indicate that about one-third of this tally was seized in Spokane, Wash., – more than 150 kilometres from the border with Canada – as part of an investigation that led to charges against three Mexican nationals. That bust has no known connection to Canada.
With a report from Andrea Woo in Vancouver