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In this brief news video, a former RCMP investigator says that organized crime in Canada has become increasingly dominated by complex white-collar crime, such as identity theft, mortgage fraud, and sophisticated money laundering. The relevance of the video for this project is that it shows how organized crime has transitioned from activities that are more visible at the street level to being embedded across structures of financial crime, all of which poses challenges for criminal justice actors in controlling legitimate commerce and criminalizing organized crime.

The Global News video encapsulates a radical evolution in organized crime in Canada, shifting from observable street gang activity to written schemes and white-collar crime that are rewriting the legal and financial systems, including the corporate frameworks and real estate markets. These crime networks are laundering billions through casinos, real estate companies and shell companies often with little or no notice from law enforcement agencies. This trajectory overlaps with our conversations in class regarding issues of enterprise liability and the difficulties involved in proving a criminal organization under Section 467.1 of the Criminal Code which requires showing structure and continuity. The video also highlighted how organized crime has evolved away from egregious violence to organized sophisticated networks that would encapsulate the edge of the law. This presents a significant challenge for the justice system and reinforces the necessity to align criminal law with their own realities of systemic ongoing crime and not just the acts of individuals or one individual event. To react legitimately to law, suspecting existence of, embedded, structural and societal criminal activity is an unstoppable consideration before we can put forward legitimate responses in law.

Even though im currently taking an interest in teaching, I always had a passion for Law; with that being said looking at this from the perspective of someone wanting to pursue a career in law, will definitely have a different perspective. Understanding these trends is important for careers in criminal justice, compliance, and policy making. Legal practitioners must work through financial regulations and realize the application of anti-money laundering laws in dismantling criminal enterprise. Investigators and policy advisors need to gain an understanding of financial investigative techniques, asset forfeiture terminology and enforcement of regulatory processes to disrupt organized networks.

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Organized crime making most money in fraud and drug trafficking, former RCMP investigator says | Watch News Videos Online

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Watch Organized crime making most money in fraud and drug trafficking, former RCMP investigator says Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca

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I selected a Global News investigative report named "New Organized Crime in Canada". This video explains how organized crime has changed in Canada, from being traditional street-level crime, to now be more complex, hidden and integrated into legitimate business. The video highlights how organized crime is involving itself in businesses like real estate, casinos, and financial institutions, in addition the criminal networks are more sophisticated in how they launder money that makes tracking the proceeds of crime more difficult for law enforcement and the legal system in Canada.

The Global News video "New Organized Crime in Canada" discusses how organized crime networks are shifting from traditional organized crime, to complex white-collar crimes involving real estate, casinos, and laundering money by exploiting systemic gaps. This has implications for Canadian criminal law and the difficulty of holding a leader in a criminal organization accountable for Criminal Code §467.1 which requires proof of structure or continuity to prove it is a criminal organization. The video was applicable to the course topics regarding enterprise liability and highlighted the need for the law to change in order to capture organized crime in a structural way. For those entering professions in law enforcement or criminal policy, understanding these

Being a Lawyer its important to understand the scope of organized crime activities—especially financial crime—is critical to the broader field of law enforcement or policy-making and it points to shortfalls in Canada's existing laws. Attorneys can take a stand for enterprise-based changes and apply effective cross-sector investigative techniques. When pursuing a career in a business role where compliance or anti-money laundering regulation applies, this knowledge can justify your development of pre-emptive instruments to mitigate systemic criminals infiltrating the area.

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New organized crime in Canada | Watch News Videos Online

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Watch New organized crime in Canada Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca

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In this news video segment from Global News, you will learn about the RCMP's long-time undercover program which is the "Mr. Big" technique. It describes how the RCMP creates an unseen criminal organization in order to create some circumstance whereby suspects formally admit to serious crimes including often cold-case homicides. The video segment is a strong contemporary case study for organized crime and Canadian criminal law because it highlights how law enforcement use behaviours and constructs similar to an enterprise like else, in order to investigate and prosecute persons, and thereby demonstrating organizational criminal deceit- confession- and all aspects of admissibility in law.

Based on this video, I learned that the RCMP utilizes the "Mr. Big" technique by inviting a suspect into a staged criminal enterprise, and victimizing them through staged crimes, loyalty, and acceptance. This builds loyalty, and eventually the suspect confesses, sometimes with no physical evidence, as a condition to furthering their advancement in the business. The technique raises concepts in the course, such as, mimicry in organizations, coercion to confession, and organizational deceit. In this case, the confession is now key evidence, although courts will require corroboration for the confession to be deemed reliable. The program also raises questions about constructs of the enterprise, and the fine line between legal entrapment and investigative maturity.

Recognizing the Mr. Big technique is important for anyone pursuing a career in law enforcement, legal defence, policy-making, or forensic psychology. It shows the value of admissibility rules in Canadian courts, and the ethical assessment of undercover methods. While the Mr. Big technique is beneficial for prosecutors demonstrating how legal systems can use structural constructs to access verbalized truths -- and only when appropriate judicial safeguards are in place -defense lawyers must be able to challenge and defend clients from purported coerced confessions or statements, and should question the legitimacy of the whole investigatory process. Upon more critical reflection from a policy-making perspective, the Mr. Big technique raises important questions on how criminal law is intended to find a way to innovate and support the valuable pursuit of truth and justice on complex cases, and yet, also provide a sense of fairness and protections regarding human rights in certain cases.

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How do Mr. Big sting operations work | Watch News Videos Online

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The official Government of Canada review analyzes the effects of new laws created through Bill C‑95 and Bill C‑24 (1997) addressing organized crime, and looks at the use of enhanced investigative tools (e.g., wiretaps, asset forfeiture, reverse‑onus bail) and highlights gaps and obstacles to enforcement. Its relevance to the topic comes from providing a governmental direct assessment of how Canada’s legal system has evolved to address criminal organizations, and what remains unaddressed.

From the Public Safety Canada report, I learned that while Canadian criminal law has made significant strides in targeting organized crime, major challenges remain. Legislative tools like extended wiretap authorizations, reverse-onus bail provisions, and asset forfeiture laws have empowered law enforcement to investigate and disrupt criminal organizations more effectively. These tools reflect key legal strategies discussed in criminal law, such as enhanced surveillance and financial disruption as means of weakening enterprise crime. However, the report also reveals ongoing struggles in prosecuting leadership within organized groups due to the difficulty of proving structural continuity and hierarchical links under the Criminal Code’s section 467.1. This mirrors course content on the complexities of establishing enterprise liability and demonstrates the need for legal reform that better reflects how contemporary criminal networks operate. The limited scope of predicate offences and evidentiary challenges highlight the gap between current legal frameworks and the realities of organized criminal operations, emphasizing that law must evolve alongside the strategies used by criminal enterprises.

When pursuing a career in law enforcement, criminal justice, or policy-making, understanding these legislative tools and their limitations is critical. In investigative or prosecutorial roles, knowledge of expanded surveillance techniques and bail provisions informs how to build stronger, structural cases against criminal organizations. In a policy or legal reform context, recognizing the gaps in predicate offences and organizational definitions reveals where statutory improvement is needed. Furthermore, for those interested in financial crimes or asset forfeiture enforcement, this review demonstrates how disrupting financial networks weakens criminal enterprises. Overall, this knowledge underlines why modern law must adapt to criminal structures—not just individual crimes—to uphold public safety and effective legal accountability.

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Organized Crime - Research Highlights 2015-H001

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Emerging Threats and Trends in Money Laundering; Organized Cybercrime?; Criminal Organizations and Conspiracy Laws Usage; Attempted Intimidation of Quebec’s Police Force

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This article is about British Columbia Attorney General David Eby's shout out to Canada for implementing U.S.-style racketeering laws similar to the RICO Act. He declares Canada’s current applicable laws ineffective and unable to prosecute large-scale transnational organized crime, specifically money laundering associated with the "Vancouver Model" of organized crime, linked to drug cartels and Chinese Triads. This article is important for a few reasons, as it reveals a major legal gap in the criminal law in Canada, and proposed systemic change to better regulate organized crime—thus improving understanding of the law's ability to change structurally to meet the demands of criminal activity.

The article indicates that Canadian laws struggle to address complex criminal organizations as the provisions in the Criminal Code do not focus on leadership and organizational structure; former transnational crime investigator Calvin Chrustie summarizes Canadian law as being able to 'catch "small insects"' while allowing 'bumblebees' (criminal networks) to escape unharmed. This metaphor applies to foundational course concepts such as the lack of a prosecutorial ability for enterprise liability, organizational conspiracy, or a pattern of racketeering activity. Eby's calls complement structural-functional theories of crime in that laws must target entire organizational structures - not merely isolated acts. As experts have explained, effective prosecution of these networks requires laws that allow leaders to have been made responsible for the crimes of subordinates - which Canada is not able to.

Recognizing the constraints of Canada's current organized crime statutes and the impetus for a RICO-style framework is highly relevant to those who have criminal justice legal or policy career ambitions. For those pursuing a criminal justice practitioner role, the paper demonstrates the significance of enterprise-based legislation and systemic prosecution models. For individuals interested in policy or legislative reform, this scenario illustrates how identifying gaps in the law may serve as the catalyst for institutional recommendations in legal reform—such as Canadian contextually improving RICO principles. For careers in investigation or prosecution, understanding how structural criminal networks operate while evading justice helps to form strategic plans for using investigations and prosecutorial guidelines (like to begin emphasizing financial investigations, tracing links in a criminal enterprise, and recommending changes to asset forfeiture laws). It demonstrates how, along with functional changes in organized crime, there are legal changes that must occur to bolster effective enforcement and public safety.

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Canada needs U.S.-style racketeering laws, current organized crime laws failing, B.C. AG tells Feds | Globalnews.ca

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B.C. Attorney General David Eby, troubled by Canada’s inability to prosecute international drug cartels and vast money laundering operations, has urged federal public safety minister Bill Blair to institute the U.S.-style racketeering laws that are credited for dismantling New York City’s powerful Mafia families. And some Canadian experts on the transnational gangs active in Toronto…

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In this Statistics Canada article, they examine information and trends for organized crime in Canada. This article presents statistical evidence about the magnitude and characteristics of organized crime groups and the offences they commit. The article is important, because it will provide a data-based understanding of how organized crime affects society and how criminal law can attempt to intervene. This article adds statistics to theoretical knowledge of the law. Therefore, it is especially important to gain an understanding of law enforcement and legal responses in context to the data.

The article tells the reader that organized crime in Canada is a form of crime that is multi-dimensional looking at various facets of criminality such as illicit narcotic trafficking, frauds and violent crime. The article had noted considerations of "criminal networks" and "law enforcement interventions", which related to class discussions in which we talked about how criminal law overlaps with identifying or prosecuting a criminal organization. The article also presented a data-focus with a statistical representation of practices like arrests or convictions with a view to exploring how successful the Canadian criminal justice system is in addressing organized crime. By taking an evidence-based approach, the article underlined evidence and data in law enforcement and police practice.

For those to pursue careers in law, criminology, or social work, having data on the patterns and system of organized crime allows for more informed real-world actions and strategies. A lawyer may be able to understand the larger context of their organized crime case by being aware of the patterns and data from organized crime as a whole. Criminologists and policy makers will need to access such statistics to implement their own crime prevention programs or intervention initiatives. We can understand, in everyday life, how organized crime affects us as a community creates value in terms of pressuring authorities to continue enforcing criminal laws intended to maintain public safety and a healthy order.

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Adult criminal and youth court statistics in Canada, 2016/2017

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This Juristat article uses data from the Integrated Criminal Court Survey to examine the characteristics of cases and charges completed in adult criminal and youth courts in Canada. Information on the number and types of cases completed, court decisions, types of sentences imposed, and the length of time it takes for a charge to proceed through the court system are examined. Data are presented at both the national and provincial/territorial level.

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R. v. Venneri considers whether the accused Carmelo Venneri was eligible to be convicted under Canadian law in relation to offences for membership in a criminal organization under Criminal Code Part XIII (sections 467.12 and 467.13). This case stemmed from Operation Piranha—a police investigation into a substantial drug trafficking operation in Montréal—and addressed the distinctions between Venneri's alleged position within the criminal organization versus operating in a non-membership capacity. The ultimate judgment of the Supreme Court is highly consequential in understanding how Canadian criminal law defines and differentiates criminal organization membership and association-based offences, and clarifies the threshold of structure and continuity necessary to meet the statutory requirements under section 467.1.

The ruling clarifies that under section 467.1 of the Criminal Code, a group must possess some organizational structure and continuity—but courts must interpret structure and continuity flexibly, not in a rigid checklist format. The Court found that Venneri was an associate, rather than a member of the organization, based on evidence that he operated independently—had his own clients, and financial interest, loyalty or integration into the core group. Although Venneri was convicted of trafficking in association with the group, his convictions for membership and instructing offences were quashed for lack of evidence of membership with the organization or instruction under sections 467.12 and 467.13. The case illustrates important criminological concepts related to enterprise liability, organizational hierarchy and how prosecutorial evidentiary thresholds must take account of both cohesiveness and continuity of criminal groups.

Understanding R. v. Venneri is important to jobseekers pursuing career paths in criminal prosecution, legal policy, or investigations. The case highlights the continued need to distinguish between independent criminal actors and genuine organization membership for the purposes of applying organized crime statutes. For prosecutors, the ruling is a roadmap to building cases that meet the evidentiary thresholds of structure and continuity. For those with a legal policy outlook, Venneri illustrates examples of where laws may need amending to appropriately cover loosely organized, but dangerous networks. In strategic security or compliance roles, this case signals the need to consider, not just the criminal acts themselves, but how the organizational structure of a criminal network informs liability and how it may affect enforcement.

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2012 SCC 33 (CanLII) | R. V. Venneri | CanLII. (n.d.-b). https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2012/2012scc33/2012scc33.html

Miladinovic, Z. (2019, January 24). This juristat article uses data from the Integrated Criminal Court Survey to examine the characteristics of cases and charges completed in adult criminal and youth courts in Canada. information on the number and types of cases completed, court decisions, types of sentences imposed, and the length of time it takes for a charge to proceed through the court system are examined. data are presented at both the national and provincial/territorial level. Statistics Canada: Canada’s national statistical agency / Statistique Canada : Organisme statistique national du Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2019001/article/00002-eng.htm

Cooper, S. (2021, August 19). Canada needs u.s.-style racketeering laws, current organized crime laws failing, B.C. Ag tells Feds. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/8122106/canada-needs-u-s-style-racketeering-laws-current-organized-crime-laws-failing-b-c-ag-tells-feds/

Canada, P. S. (2022, July 25). Organized crime - research highlights 2015-H001. Public Safety Canada. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/2015-h001/index-en.aspx

How do mr. big sting operations work: Watch news videos online. Global News. (n.d.). https://globalnews.ca/video/4601752/how-do-mr-big-sting-operations-work/

https://globalnews.ca/video/5473739/new-organized-crime-in-canada/

Organized crime making most money in fraud and drug trafficking, former RCMP investigator says: Watch News Videos Online. Global News. (n.d.-b). https://globalnews.ca/video/5464773/organized-crime-making-most-money-in-fraud-and-drug-trafficking-former-rcmp-investigator-says/

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New organized crime in Canada | Watch News Videos Online

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Watch New organized crime in Canada Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca