Criminal Multiplicities

All societies have their share of social deviants, criminals, gangsters and low-lifes. It's a sad and simple fact of life that all societies are rife with sociopaths and psychopaths of one level or another, which goes quite far in explaining just why it is that all societies require a functioning civil security force, police units that cooperate with a system of justice that holds people accountable for their societal infractions.

Good public order, and assurance of personal safety are a requisite for any society to ensure that its population is secure and capable of pursing their place in the established order. And it is striking to think about the impact on society with the importation of criminal elements when a country absorbs migrants through the system of immigration further complicating matters.

In Canada, there is an existing problem of Italian Cosa Nostra criminal activity that has infiltrated the construction trade. Our own First Nations populations harbour groups that distinguish themselves by smuggling firearms, drugs and tobacco, and it is not only they who profit but other, foreign groups who become involved, including terror groups from as far away as the Middle East.

Canada has experienced the unsettling experience of having terrorist activities take place on our very shores, as a result of immigrants bringing with them their cultural traditions of arguments with the state they have left, like those of the Sikh separatist movement in India, resulting in the abhorrent bombing of an Air India airliner that destroyed the lives of hundreds of Canadians.

When the Tamils of Sri Lanka, in their own struggle for a homeland of their own, supported an acknowledged terror group, the Tamil Tigers, fund-raising, intimidation, and worse occurred on Canadian soil to support the fanatical terrorist activities of the Tigers in Sri Lanka, until the final civil war that brought an end to the Tigers and the deaths of thousands of helpless civilians by both sides.

Canada is hosting some measure of criminal activity in which Russian immigrants are involved. And on the West Coast of the country there has been an influx of Asian organized crime, involving kidnapping and extortion, along with drug smuggling. Currently there is a hearing of the Immigration and Refugee Board seeking to deport a high ranking member of a Macao-based crime syndicate.

One of Canada's foremost experts on Asian organized crime described for the board the tentacles of international triads with names like the Lotus Gang, the Big Circle Boys, 14K and Shui-Fung. 

"Most of the triads that we have encountered in Canada have an origin in Hong Kong but they operate independently in Canada. For example, 14K in Vancouver would have a leader here that controls a number of people. He would be related to Hong Kong through a brotherhood, but would not necessarily have to follow orders handed down by Hong Kong."

And then there is the infiltration within Canada of fundamentalist Islamist terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas who engage in fund-raising to support the carnage they engage in within the Middle East and their targets abroad. Spreading slanderous lies about their perceived enemy, Jews and the State of Israel, and engaging in public relations that expound their cause. And recruiting to that same cause, with some measure of success.

Aside from those particular Islamist groups with their specific agenda, there are the al-Qaeda inspired and loosely affiliated groups who bring the conflict they perceive between the West and ideological Islam home, through the recruitment to violent jihad of susceptible young Muslim men. Whose Sudanese or Somalia, or Yemen-based or Pakistani or Middle East backgrounds persuade them to reject the values of their Canadian citizenship and embark on militia training abroad.

A breathlessly imposing risk to civil order, public safety and security overall.