Politics
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested today his government is considering tougher penalties for auto theft as the head of the RCMP warned that some thefts are being carried out with “extreme violence.”
Government hosting a daylong national summit in Ottawa
Catharine Tunney · CBC News
· Posted: Feb 08, 2024 10:36 AM EST | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers his opening remarks at an auto theft summit on Thursday. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested Thursday his government is considering tougher penalties for auto theft as the head of the RCMP warned that some thefts are being carried out with “extreme violence.”
“It’s unprecedented,” RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme told a daylong national summit on auto theft in Ottawa.
“And the extreme violence that’s associated to that and what we’re seeing, it’s something that was never seen before.”
Trudeau told the gathering of cabinet ministers, law enforcement and border officials and industry players that the rise in thefts of cars and trucks over the past few years “has been alarming.”
“Organized crime is becoming more brazen, and the overseas market for the stolen cars is expanding,” he said.
Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Thomas Carrique, whose service operates in a province considered a hotbed for car thefts, said the criminal penalties typically handed down for car theft aren’t strong enough.
“It’s highly profitable and there’s very low risk,” he said.
“Only in Ontario, we saw 68 per cent of those convicted serve a sentence of six months or less. We need to see stiffer penalties. We absolutely need to have a deterrence for these crimes.”
This week Cross Country Checkup wants to know: Have you ever had your car stolen before? What story do you have about car theft? Fill out the details on this form and send us your stories. When asked what stronger measures would look like, Justice Minister Arif Virani said Ottawa already has strong measures to address auto left.
“Right now you have provisions that are set out in the Code that deal with the offences of theft and you have offences that deal with organized criminality. It’s sort of bridging the two. It’s looking at the specific focus of carjacking, which is unfortunately a new phenomenon here in Canada, but it is something that we need to address,” he said.
“It takes an individual to steal the car but it takes a complete criminal operation to get it out of the country for sales in parts of Africa or the Middle East. When we look at organized criminality, we have to look at those chains and how to disrupt them.”
Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner welcomed the prime minister’s comments.
“We want to stop the revolving door of people coming back out on our streets and doing it again,” he told the meeting. “We want to have them locked up, we want to have them in jail.”
During the morning session, Carrique told summit participants how lucrative the grand theft auto industry can be. Spotters, who identify vehicles to steal, can make between $75 and $100, he said, while exporters can make up to $80,000 by exporting a stolen vehicle overseas, where its resale value can double.
WATCH | OPP commissioner breaks down how the ‘complex’ auto theft market works
OPP commissioner breaks down how the ‘complex’ auto theft market worksDuring a summit in Ottawa on auto theft, Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Thomas Carrique explained the process of stealing a car, and says that it puts lives in danger.
“This is a very complex criminal market facilitated by criminal organizations,” Carrique said.
He said violent auto theft increased by 206 per cent in the Greater Toronto Area.
Ahead of Thursday’s summit in Ottawa, the federal government announced it would spend $28 million to help curb exports of stolen vehicles. The Liberal government said Wednesday the money will give CBSA more capacity to detect and search shipping containers carrying stolen cars.
Poilievre says Canadians are ‘living in fear’Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne also announced the government would move to ban imports of high-tech devices that have become the preferred tools of car thieves.
The summit and the influx of cash come after a week when the Conservatives hammered the Liberals over the surge in auto thefts and floated policy ideas of their own.
Earlier this week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Trudeau’s “mismanagement has allowed organized crime to take over the operations and the running of our federal ports and use them to transport cars stolen in places like Brampton to the Middle East, to Africa and to parts of Europe.
“Canadians are living in fear.”
Trudeau took a swipe at Poilievre at the summit, saying “catchy slogans” and two-minute videos won’t solve the problem.
The federal government says an estimated 90,000 cars are stolen annually in Canada, resulting in about $1 billion in costs to Canadian insurance policy-holders and taxpayers.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government will have more to announce in the coming weeks
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catharine Tunney is a reporter with CBC’s Parliament Hill bureau, where she covers national security and the RCMP. She worked previously for CBC in Nova Scotia. You can reach her at catharine.tunney@cbc.ca
Follow Cat on TwitterWith files from the Canadian Press
