Money laundering has been an embarrassing part of the Canadian economy for decades, and contributed to the Vancouver housing bubble (at least). Weirdly, we seem to be making money laundering one of our exports.
Here’s a quote:
Canada’s role in the international narcotics trade has been a subject of intense domestic scrutiny over the past decade. In 2022, the Cullen Commission warned about the “enormous volume of illicit funds” being filtered through the British Columbia economy, an amount estimated in the billions of dollars. Yet money laundering charges are rare, the commission found, because “police conducting investigations into profit-oriented criminal activity, such as drug dealing, are not investigating these offences.”
Original link: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-canada-border-trump-drug-crime/
There are cross border reserves where the Canadian government has little to no authority. There is literally no way to secure the border without maasive buy in from tribes of people who don’t like the Canadian or US governments.
The linked article primarily discusses Canada’s lax money laundering laws.