The newly named Fentanilo de Canada says that his goal is to take the already low percentage of mortal opponents of smuggling to the south to the United States to zero.
“Bringing the number to zero is, in fact, our goal and should be our goal,” said Kevin Brosseau to journalists on Wednesday, his first full day in the position.
“If it is a pound or 10 pounds, we all know the possibility of deaths they could represent. This is a public security crisis.
The former Senior Mountie asked questions after touring an entrance center of the Canada Border Services Agency near Lansdowne, Ontario, not far from Kingston. The authorities showed Brosseau and the Minister of Public Security, David McGuinty, how agents look for vehicles for illegal goods, including drugs such as fentanyl and firearms.
Former Mountie Kevin Brosseau spoke with journalists for the first time on Wednesday as the newly appointed Fentanyl Tsar of Canada. Brosseau said that one of its objectives is to obtain the amount of fentanyl that enters the United States from Canada to zero.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid prescribed for pain, but it is also done illegally and has killed thousands on both sides of the border. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has repeatedly raised the drug that reaches the United States as justification for radical tariffs, which are waiting for now.
Customs figures and border protection of the United States (CBP) show that the agency seized 19.5 kilograms of fentanyl on the northern border last year, compared to 9,570 kilograms in the southwest.
While it is a small percentage, it has not prevented Trump from demanding from Canada to take a tougher line against a medication that the United States disease control and prevention centers (CDC) said they killed more than 74,000 Americans in 2023 .
The exact parameters of Brosseau’s work are somewhat vague, but the government said that as the person of points in the archive, he will be in a coordination post and are asked to work closely with American counterparts, agencies for the application of the law, health public and prosecution services to dismantle the fentanyl trade.
“Of course, it is also a demand problem. Therefore, supply, in terms of what we are doing, will be our first objective,” McGuinty said.
The minister said that Brosseau and his team will give the government “the next practical steps we can take to continue progress.”
Ottawa
Brosseau, who was appointed for the role on Tuesday afternoon, said he hopes to meet with high -ranking officials in the US administration soon, including Tom Homan, Trump’s border tsar.
“I hope to give intensity to the work carried out by thousands of men and women in this country and the United States trying to deal with the true crisis of public security and national security that is fentanyl,” said Brosseau Wednesday, standing. In front of one of the newly leased Black Hawk helicopters.
He said he will work to guarantee collaboration and communication between officials “on both sides of the border in communities throughout the country.”
Brosseau served in the RCMP for more than 20 years, even as an attached commissioner and as a commander in Manitoba since 2012-16. He also recently served as the National Security and Intelligence Advisor of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
His position was released to Trump in a high -risk phone call earlier this month, only a few hours before imposing 25 percent tariffs on most Canadian products. Trump issued an executive order that delayed general tariffs until March 4.
According to a statement after that call, Trudeau told Trump that Canada is pressing with a border security plan of $ 1.3 billion that includes reinforcing the border with new helicopters, technology and personnel and intensifying his coordination with US officials to break Below of illegal and migrants.
“We are going to proceed as we have always done, in good faith and good will. There is a progress to make,” McGuinty said.
He suggested that the government will soon have more to say about the list of Mexican posters as terrorists, another point in Trump.
Since then, the president has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum, even its largest supplier, Canada, starting March 12.
