The mafia is still alive and well in this country because Canada lacks the tools to deal with it, according to an elite police squad of the Italian government. The Charbonneau commission and the police operations are not enough. Should we worry?
A text Gaetan Pouliot of Survey
The tentacles of the mafia extend to Montreal and Toronto. But also in Ottawa and Thunder Bay. British Columbia and Alberta are also affected by the activities of this criminal organization. This is revealed by a report of the Anti-Mafia Investigations Directorate made public last month in the Italian Parliament.
"The presence of criminal organizations of Italian origin would be mainly due to the economic and financial opportunities offered by the country," says the 386-page Italian report, which devotes a visit to Canada.
But Canada is not always well equipped to fight this scourge, says the Anti-Mafia Investigations Directorate.
"We have a law on gangsterism. But the malaise is so great in Italy that they have been forced to adopt a law that goes further than the criminal conspiracy. They include the mafia relatives. For example, they could arrest a person who was seen with Vito Rizzuto, "says the author of the book Mafia inc. : magnitude and misery of the Sicilian clan in Quebec, which believes that this type of legislation is inevitable in Canada.
"Toronto should be worried" The heavy blows brought to the Rizzuto clan for the past ten years, by the incarceration or murder of members of its staff, have not done away with the organization based in Montreal. But the Mafia of Calabrian origin, the 'Ndrangheta, would now be the most powerful in the country, says the Italian police. And it's primarily in the Toronto area.
Cranes bustle in downtown Toronto Toronto Real Estate Construction Photo: The Canadian Press / Frank Gunn The Canadian mafia is involved in the trafficking of cocaine and heroin, but also in money laundering operations. It would recycle huge sums in the areas of catering, private security, real estate and waste management, the report says.
The Charbonneau commission, which ran from 2012 to 2015, showed that the Quebec construction industry had been infiltrated by the Rizzuto clan. In the 2000s, businessmen went to the Consenza Social Club in Montreal to hand over money to mafia bosses.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police declined to comment on the presence of the Mafia in Canada. "The RCMP does not comment on reports written in other countries," the federal police responded to Radio-Canada, adding that the "fight against organized crime is a priority."
The Anti-Mafia Investigations Directorate of Italy, for its part, is exchanging information with the Canadian authorities.
