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The 2008 Report on Organized Crime aims to provide an overall strategic picture of organized crime in Canada and give an understanding of the numerous ways it impacts the lives of Canadians. The covert nature of organized crime necessitates that law enforcement establish partnerships with policy makers and the public to raise awareness and garner support for law enforcement’s efforts to minimize the threats that are present in multiple criminal markets. This report, the only comprehensive overview of organized crime in Canada available to the public, highlights a variety of criminal markets and the threats they pose to communities across the country.
The Canadian criminal marketplace is best examined in terms of the interaction between illicit markets and the individuals that play pivotal roles within them. Criminal markets are dynamic, reacting to global shifts in supply and demand, and change according to domestic pressures such as competition and law enforcement disruption. In this report, CISC aims to inform Canadians of the threat posed by organized crime by discussing the capabilities of crime groups within the evolving criminal marketplace.
Each year CISC highlights a particular aspect of organized crime to provide a more indepth assessment of its impact. The 2008 Feature Focus on identity theft and identity fraud was selected due to the growing public and political concern over the security of personal information and its subsequent manipulation by organized crime for profit.
Organized Crime
CISC and its member agencies use the Criminal Code definition to identify and assess organized crime in Canada. In using this definition, all contributing agencies base their assessments on the same criteria. This enables the CISC community to produce the broadest and most accurate assessment of organized crime groups.
The Criminal Code (467.1) definition is as follows: “Criminal organization” means a group, however organized, that
a) is composed of three or more persons in or outside of Canada; and
b) has as one of its main purposes or main activities the facilitation or commission of one or more serious offences that, if committed, would likely result in the direct or indirect receipt of a material benefit, including a financial benefit, by the group or by any of the persons who constitute the group.
It does not include a group of persons that forms randomly for the immediate commission of a single offence.
The Canadian criminal intelligence community identified approximately 900 organized crime groups in 2008, consistent with 2007 findings. These groups were found to operate in all communities, from major urban centres to rural areas.
CHIEF CONSTABLE JIM CHU, VANCOUVER POLICE DEPARTMENT
“Organized crime affects everyone in the community. From the fire that breaks out in the marihuana grow-op house in our neighbourhood to the higher insurances rates we all pay, organized crime activities pose direct and indirect harms to Canadians. It is a plague that must be stamped out.”
