It is truly pitiful that retired RCMP chief superintendent Ben Soave made the remarks he did in his interview with Alain Gravel of Radio-Canada's Enquête program. Maclean's made some apt comments on its website (see http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/09/18/in-response-to-le-telejournal):

First off, let’s start with Gravel’s source.

As Gravel notes, Soave hasn’t worked for the RCMP since 2005. What he doesn’t mention is that Soave now heads the Soave Group of Companies, which according to its website provides “unparalleled security- and risk-management consulting, investigative and forensic accounting services to clients in Canada and around the world.” In other words, Gravel relied on an interview with a former cop who hasn’t worked for the RCMP for seven years—and whose current business has at best a tangential connection to his former work—to rebuke what Gravel says Maclean’s wrote two years ago. And it’s the only source for Gravel’s piece.

Even more pitiful is the remark made by Roberto Di Palma, a senior prosecutor for the Direzione distrettuale antimafia (DDA) who is quoted in the Toronto Star article. He is quoted as saying in an interview -- and the following is most likely a translation -- that "Canada is a virgin land for the ’Ndrangheta." How can you have faith in what he says when you know 'ndrangheta members first appeared in Ontario close to 100 years ago and that the Siderno Group ('ndrangheta) has been entrenched in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) for about 60 years?

The Operazione Il Crimine was a major antimafia Italian law-enforcement operation against the 'ndrangheta that culminated with mass arrests in July 2010, and four volumes of names, activities, and intelligence were published by the DDA of Reggio Calabria in relation to the operation.

The third volume identifies Siderno Group members in Calabria and in the GTA who had very close contact and intimate ties with the administration of the old Rizzuto organization (Vito, Nick Sr., Renda, Arcadi, Sollecito), members of the Caruana-Cun trera clan, and other Sicilian drug traffickers in the GTA. The volumes contain intelligence from as late as May 2010, so I'm puzzled as to how Di Palma has speculated elsewhere that the Ontario 'ndrangheta may have had a pivotal role in the decimation of the Rizzuto clan in Montreal -- this despite Di Palma's also saying that the 'ndrangheta has minimal or no presence in Quebec. (My opinion is that there is probably minimal 'ndrangheta presence in the Montreal area, but I also believe any such members had or have ties to Vito.)