This.
Vito is also right - Sammy has no specific knowledge on this, the Gambino's wouldn't know anything about Canada. He's just repeating what he'd heard from friends of friends which was accurate at the time on the street circa 1992.
The Sciascia incident is what changes everything. It's the catalyst - the Rizzuto organization has grown immensely in size, power and wealth and were in a position that they had the option to break off from the Bonannos. Plus they had a border between them.
And anyone who dismisses the Rizzuto's on the basis of being "the Canadian mafia" is painfully ignorant. They may operate out of Canada but the Rizzutos are Sicilian to the core - they are a family from Cattolica Eraclea living in Montreal.
I don't think he's wrong or this is a surprise.
When Gerlando "George from Canada" Sciascia was killed in 1999 is when Canada/Rizzuto broke from the Bonanno family and by 1999 Sammy was well out of touch with everything.
Before then the Bonanno family owned the Rizzuto clan
