Domestic Security

A wide range of criminal activities threaten Canada’s domestic security. These activities include: human and drug trafficking, including opioids; online child sexual exploitation; hate and terrorist propaganda; violent misogynist, extremist and racist content; radicalization to violence motivated by religious, political or ideological factors; transnational organized crime; and money laundering. Public Safety Canada (PS), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA); and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) have policy, programmatic and operational roles in confronting these threats.

Relevant Mandate Letter Commitments

Further Information

Human Crimes: Human Trafficking and Online Child Sexual Exploitation 

Human Trafficking (HT) involves the recruitment, transportation or harbouring of persons for the purpose of exploitation, generally for sex or forced labour. PS leads the horizontal National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking 2019-2024, in partnership with: Women and Gender Equality Canada; Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada; Public Services and Procurement Canada; Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; and CBSA. PS funds the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, which operates Canada’s Human Trafficking Hotline. While ongoing funding for the Hotline has been unlocked ($2.5M/year), funding under the Strategy will end in March 2025. An evaluation of the National Strategy is underway, which will inform its renewal and associated funding request; the evaluation report will be completed by June 2024.

Online Child Sexual Exploitation (OCSE) is occurring on many major social media sites and other Internet platforms. PS is the federal lead for the National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet, which also includes the RCMP, Justice Canada and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P). The RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre is the national law enforcement arm of the National Strategy and the central point of contact for investigations related to OCSE across the country and internationally when the victim or offender is Canadian. C3P is a key stakeholder and recipient of PS contribution funding to operate Cybertip.ca, Canada’s tip line for OCSE. Budget 2021 provided $20.7 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, for the RCMP to enhance its ability to pursue OCSE investigations, identify victims and remove them from abusive situations, and bring offenders to justice, including those who offend abroad. An evaluation report concluded in May 2022 that the National Strategy had contributed to protecting children from online sexual exploitation through enhanced law enforcement investigative capacity, increased knowledge and awareness and detection of Child Sexual Abuse Material online. Budget 2022 committed $41.6 million over five years, and $8.9 million ongoing to PS to better protect children from online sexual exploitation. This funding supports PS’ efforts to prevent and raise awareness of this serious issue, reduce the stigma associated with reporting, increase Canada’s ability to pursue offenders, enhance knowledge and understanding of the crime type, and advance collaboration with partners and stakeholders.

Forced and Child labour in Supply Chains 

The Minister of Labour—in collaboration with the Minister of Public Safety, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development—is mandated to introduce legislation to eradicate forced labour from Canadian supply chains and ensure that Canadian businesses operating abroad do not contribute to human rights abuses. Budget 2023 reiterated the Government's commitment and announced plans to introduce legislation in 2024. Bill S-211, An Act to enact the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act and to amend the Customs Tariff (the Act) received Royal Assent on May 11, 2023, and is expected to come into force on January 1, 2024. The Act imposes an obligation on certain entities and government institutions to submit an annual report to the Minister of Public Safety by May 31 of each year on the steps taken during the previous financial year to prevent and reduce the risk that forced or child labour is used in their supply chains. Reports are to be made available to the public on Public Safety Canada's website. Further, a summary of the information received must be tabled in an annual report to Parliament by the Minister of Public Safety. The Act also amends the Customs Tariff to expand the prohibition on the importation of goods mined, manufactured or produced by forced labour, to also include child labour.

Organized Crime, Opioids and Money Laundering

PS works with other government departments and agencies, provinces and territories, and international partners to identify trends and address transnational organized criminal threats, which comprises internationally connected networks of groups operating to further collective criminal goals. To address the harms caused by illegal substances, in particular synthetic opioids, PS develops policy options and supports law enforcement efforts to disrupt the illegal supply, including curtailing domestic and international drug trafficking and production. To support better access to health and social services, PS supports efforts to reduce the stigma faced by people who use drugs, and divert people who use drugs away from the criminal justice system.

In 2023, the Government of Canada renewed the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy, which focuses on integrated foundational elements that support a public health approach to substance use and access to a broad range of evidence-based services and supports. Budget 2023 provided $4.6M in new funding over five years, to pilot in up to three Canadian jurisdictions, the US-based Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program, which provides near-real time overdose surveillance data to first responders, resulting in the ability to better identify respond to sudden “spikes” in overdoses. In 2023, Canada has joined forces with like-minded countries to strengthen international efforts to detect and disrupt the global supply chain of highly toxic synthetic drugs, including through a new U.S.-led Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, and PS is leading Canadian efforts across several deliverables as part of these efforts.

With respect to money laundering, on April 1, 2021, PS launched the Financial Crime Coordination Centre (FC3). FC3 is an integrated unit of experts from across intelligence and law enforcement agencies that is testing a collaborative, public-to-public model to address Anti-Money Laundering (AML) / Anti-Terrorist Financing (ATF). The team continues their efforts in response to multiple reviews including the Cullen Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in British Columbia (BC) that examined the scope of money laundering in the financial, real estate, gaming, corporate and professional sectors in BC. Efforts are also underway to support the upcoming Parliamentary Review of the Proceeds of Crime and Money Laundering Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA). Finance Canada remains an important partner to advance this work.

Online Harms, Radicalization to Violence and Community Engagement

With support from other federal departments including Canadian Heritage, the PS Portfolio leads and supports efforts to address the growing complexity of online harms (i.e. disinformation, hate propaganda, terrorist propaganda, incitement to violence). This includes supporting civil society and academia to prevent and counter radicalization to violence, and engaging with stakeholders to develop tools that address harmful activity and to better understand the threat landscape. PS also works closely with departments responsible for the legal and regulatory dimensions of online harms and PS portfolio agencies responsible for investigating online criminal activities and threats to national security.

Efforts to counter radicalization to violence (CRV) aim to understand and address the evolving threat landscape, such as broadening efforts to tackle Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism (IMVE). There are a growing number of frontline CRV programs in Canada with significant experience applying the tools of prevention, including for IMVE, accompanied by research and evaluation about what works. Much of this work is supported by PS’ Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence (Canada Centre). As key aspects of IMVE connect with certain online harms, the Canada Centre partners with other departments, and works with domestic and international partners to help identify promising practices and effective resources for prevention.

Provincial/Territorial and Key Stakeholder Perspectives

Various sectors have signaled interest in engaging on online harms, a growing area of concern and an issue that involves a wide spectrum of perspectives and interests. Recent public consultations on the Government’s proposed regulation of harmful content on social media platforms indicate that stakeholders view the Portfolio as having a role in addressing online harms.

Concurrent with federal efforts, provincial partners are working to better understand and combat key threats and crimes. The Cullen Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in British Columbia is ongoing. The Commission released its interim report on December 10, 2020 and is expected to provide its final report to the Government of BC on December 15, 2021. The outcome of the Cullen Inquiry is likely to draw public attention to the Government’s capacity to combat money laundering.

Concerns among Provinces and Territories to address crime rates and the impacts of these crimes remains high, especially in light of the recent rise of human trafficking in Atlantic Provinces and urban centres across Canada, along with significant and growing concerns associated with opioids and money laundering in Western provinces.   

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