The West Block: Feb. 11, 2024 | Auto theft summit, Canadian diplomacy in US election year

It’s a crime that costs Canadians every day cars stolen from their driveways Ottawa says it has a fix I’m Eric senson sitting in for Mercedes Stevenson the West block Starts Now government’s police and Auto Experts brainstorming ways out of a Canada wide crisis Public Safety Minister Dominic

Leblon on the strategy to crack down on auto theft and laying the groundwork for a possible second Trump presidency Ottawa has rekindled a team Canada approach to smooth relations but could the Prime Minister be ruffling some feathers we speak with the Canadian Ambassador in Washington every 5 minutes in Canada a vehicle is stolen oh some are violent armed carjackings like this from 2018 to 2022 auto theft cases tripled in Canada costing Canadians more than a billion dollars a year every five minutes a Canadian is victimized and every five minutes a neighborhood in our country feels less

Safe the vehicles often end up in shipping containers which then disappear overseas it’s become so common that a federally L auto theft Summit was held on Thursday that included law enforc ment and Border officials Dominic Leblon is the Minister of Public Safety and he joins me now Mr Leblon thank you for

Being here um people who’ve had their cars stolen not only feel violated but they’re infuriated that sometimes they can be tracked and they still can’t stop them from slipping through going through the port and ending up overseas what do you say to Canadians who are angry and scared obviously we say that we

Understand uh fully that sense of fear and that frustration that people are feeling and it’s in big cities in the country but it’s also in small communities that’s why as you noted we thought it was important to bring together uh law enforcement leaders from Big Municipal police forces from

Provincial Police forces the mayors of some of the big cities where this is an increasingly worrisome circumstance we had the RCMP commissioner the head of the Border Services Agency a number of my cabinet colleagues the Prime Minister opened the conversation um precisely because the only way to really attack

This situation Eric is for everybody uh to work in a very concerted way together uh there’s no doubt that having an air tag identifying a stolen vehicle at a port for example in Montreal um the ability of the Border Services agencies to open those containers and retrieve those cars is something that we’re

Working on that’s why we announced 28 million additional dollars to allow them to buy scanners and have more officers but the most effective way is to stop the cars from being stolen in the community so the sense of of fear of insecurity increasingly violent circumstances um we need to attack that

At the level of local police Provincial Police the RCMP are working in terms of the connection to organized crime transnational organized crime so that was the conversation last week of how can we all work very effectively and quickly together to bring these alarming numbers down and that’s the question how

Quickly for example can you eliminate these jurisdictional roadblocks as quickly as possible we’re hoping in the next few weeks uh that was the consensus of the meeting last week that we have a detailed action plan all of us about what specific things we can do uh in our own jurisdictions to remove those

Roadblocks and to make sure that police forces are working together with the Border Services Agency one of the challenges Eric the RCMP tell me that up to 40% of the stolen vehicles are resold in Canada so they’re not exported they’re resold in Canada many of them with fraudulent VIN numbers they change

The vehicle identification numbers some unsuspecting buyer can buy a car that ultimately turns out to have been stolen a used car um that’s a challenge for local and Provincial Police the RCMP are working as I said in the because also we heard from police leaders that much of

This is driven by organized criminal groups that use this revenue for more violent things gun smuggling human trafficking uh so we all need to really lean in as quickly as we can and look at a whole series of instruments and that was exactly the conversation last week

And you mentioned 40% sold in this country but that’s 60% and you know where they’re going most of for the most part which is right through this portal in in Montreal uh in these containers that’s the frustration again for people is that cars aren’t small and somehow they are fitting in these containers

Like how soon are you going to have more agents and more scanners to stop these cars from getting away very quickly the answer my instruction that 28 million additional dollars the Border Services Agency will allow them to reassign and Recruit new officers there are Technologies uh that will help but to be

Realistic about it Eric there are hundreds of thousands of containers that go through that Port uh and Canadian exporters selling perfectly legitimate export goods around the world uh also need to have a port that’s efficient Mr P simplistic solution that every single container is going to be examined uh is

Absolutely unrealistic the Border Services and the ports say that that’s not the way to do it the most effective way is to have increased intelligence from local and Provincial Police and the RCMP so the Border Services Agency can best Target the high-risk containers or Goods that are leaving 100% of the

Police intelligence that the Border Services Agency Gets In terms of suspected stolen vehicles in container X all of those containers are are inspected and I went myself to the port of Montreal and saw examples of the stolen vehicles uh that were in some of the containers but again just so people

Understand the scale of the problem local police forces have to come and retrieve those vehicles uh the Border Services Agency is in possession at that point of what would be an exhibit in a criminal prosecution so it’s like evidence if you want in a criminal trial so Ontario Police Toronto police uh

Other police forces need to retrieve these vehicles from the port um it it’s a timec consuming way to do it so the most effective way to bring these numbers down and improve Community security and safety as you noted in the introduction is to prevent these vehicles from being stolen in the first

Place or catch the people very quickly before they end up in the containers and at the Port of Montreal so we need to do all of this at the same time and that was the conversation in Ottawa last week it it feels like a lot of this keeps

Coming back every question comes around to how long it’s going to take because governments aren’t always that quick at this we’re talking about perhaps stiffer penalties how soon before we might see something that is tougher because the police say that the penalties in this country are akin to bike theft and in

The US they’re much tougher are you going to see some stiffer penalties and how soon yeah so the Prime Minister noted and my colleague AR varani said that we’re absolutely open to uh criminal code amendments that would see uh stiffer penalties in the case of repeat car thieves or a connection to

Organized crime uh or the use of a weapon or violence to steal the car uh many of those measures already exist in the criminal code uh but if if if that’s going to be a deterrent we’re prepared to move quite quickly uh and we heard police leaders suggest that we’re

Prepared to move quite quickly in this regard but as you noted a criminal code amendments that work their way through Parliament and then the Senate um we want to do as many things as we can as quickly as we can and it probably starts with giving local and Regional Police

With the RCMP and Border Services increased resources and increased Personnel to prevent these vehicles from being stolen um and apprehend in the cities where they’re being stolen the people doing it an interesting thing we heard is vehical manufacturers also uh can play a role in terms of the

Technologies that uh May prevent the cars from being stolen we announced that we’re Banning devices that can copy uh electronic Keys the fobs the electronic keys from any of these cars you could buy on the Internet devices that are capable of copying these keys that criminals are using to steal the cars so

We’ve got to move in a whole series of areas as quickly as we can when I heard the autom manufacturers talk over the last few days they seem to be suggesting the problems were at the ports or in the laws not being tough enough I I didn’t

See them saying that they needed to do more are you needing to hear more from the manufacturers absolutely we are and my colleague the transport Minister said that vehicle standards either import standards or standards in terms of vehicle sales uh are something that we would look at with the manufacturers um

I’m not an expert in these Technologies and the challenge there Eric of course is this would be new vehicles manufactured prospectively in the future that has to be part of the solution to make everybody safer and these vehicle manufacturers should want their customers to have increased assurance

That their vehicle is less likely to be stolen that would certainly be if I was a car manufacturer or something that you might want to Market but that doesn’t deal with the person who’s got a car in his or her driveway tonight uh and worries about it being stolen tonight or

From some shopping center or a parking lot somewhere um so we need to do a whole bunch of things in a concerted way with vincial and Municipal Partners that’s why I thought the conversations and the commitments were so encouraging everybody shares the sense of urgency and wants to reduce the understandable

Public anxiety on this issue um but no one government can do it on its own we need to do it as a group working together and that to me was one of the important takeaways this week just very quickly uh as Public Safety Minister will you take ownership

Of seeing to it that if a year from now we’re asking questions about did this happen did this happen that you’ll take ownership of either the success or the the delays that occur I’ll take ownership of the federal elements of this of this plan Border Services RCMP on criminal intelligence and organized

Crime the RCMP aren’t patrolling the streets of Toronto or the Peele region or Montreal where these cars are being stolen so we have to that’s exactly why it’s important that Municipal and provincial leaders made the commitments they did to work with us and us to work

With them uh that’s the best way we’re going to do it not one order of government era can fix this on its own we’re certainly prepared to do our part but I’m encouraged that Partners in in big municipalities and provinces are also ready to work with us and with each

Other minister Leblon thank you for your time today thank you Eric have a great day up next navigating the choppy Waters of the upcoming US election Canada’s Ambassador in Washington on Team Canada’s plan to smooth the Way The United States is our closest Ally biggest trading partner and requires constant diplomatic attention but the prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency adds a jolt of urgency to our us relations the prime minister is resurrecting A Team Canada Approach at the same time he’s injecting provocative references to Donald Trump into the

Politics up here a conservative leader doesn’t want to talk about his failed Republican style plan what he is proposing to do is to make Canada great again that is not what Canadians want it’s one thing to score political points off Donald Trump at home but how will it

Play out with our team Canada diplomacy South of the Border Canada’s ambassador to the United States Kirsten Hilman joins us now Ambassador let’s start with Team Canada you know diplomacy withing it seems to me is always the most important NeverEnding work in progress so what is the prime minister’s Team

Canada approach the team Canada approach is is an extension of the kind of work we’re always trying to do down here which is to build Broad and deep relationships across the country um in all regions and on both sides of the aisle uh the team Canada approach that

Was announced at the cabinet uh Retreat a couple of weeks ago in Montreal is like the the Canadian overlay to that with Canadians so what we’re really trying to do over the next year um and and perhaps you know onward in perpetuity is to make sure that Americans across the country and in

Regions outside of Washington DC understand the degree to which their prosperity their resilience their security um their ability to protect their jobs their environment uh depends on strong and deep relationships with Canada because what we’ve seen over the past couple of years certainly postco is that those relationships if anything are

Getting stronger and stronger it’s just they’re not talked about enough so that’s the the focus here in an election year do you have to prepare with sort of a broader array of possibilities because you could have somebody reelected or not reelected and somebody from another party suddenly there you have almost a

Double track your message to both sides absolutely and and and you know there’s a lot of emphasis put on the election in the white house for good reason but it’s important for Canadians to recognize that all 435 members of the House in Congress behind me are up for re-election a third

Of the Senate and 11 Governors are also up for re-election this year and a lot of those relationships are as important to us when we are trying to uh either promote issues of interest to Canada or resolve challenges that we have because sometimes they are really much more

Localized and so having all those relationships in place is crucial to being able to do job I was more seized of uh what was happening with President Biden in these last few days heading into this interview with you because there are now more questions about his

Mental sharpness and his age and I start to think we have to take even more seriously the possibility that it could be a trump Administration have you reached out to Trump officials to begin laying the groundwork with them we’re absolutely talking to Republicans that are advising uh former president Trump

And to um rist that are advising him and of course to his allies in Congress and at the state level absolutely Trump and Trudeau already have a history and it’s not necessarily A positive one the age-old advice to any prime minister is to not take sides but as we heard at the

Beginning um you know the Prime Minister has invoked magga politics and uh and not in a positive way with respect to to his opposition leader and also with respect to the former president does that make diplomacy a little more challenging well you know I guess what I

Would say to that is is this the issues that are really important for us to highlight in order to navigate um either as I say Canadian priorities or to protect our interests tend to be around economic Prosperity um environmental security uh National Security National Defense um

And and making sure that were you know making the most of the relationship in these areas that are very uh local and are very important to individual Americans in their communities and my experience I’ve been here you know for six years for four years as Ambassador my experience is that on those local

Issues Economic Security environmental Security National Security food security you know those are not partisan issues both Democrats and Republicans want to assure those things for their voters and for their constituents and so what we do is we talk about the issues we talk about how those U goals of theirs are

Enhanced by making sure that their partnership with Canada is as strong as it can be have have any Republicans or Trump officials said anything about this relationship the Trudeau Trump Dynamic and anything that he may have been saying more recently no I have not had

Anyone comment on that to me and in fact more recently in in discussions that I had just this week um we tend to focus more on the fact that under the last Administration Canada and the United States under the Trump Administration Canada and the United States and president Trump and prime minister

Trudeau uh together with Mexico were able to renegotiate the NAFTA and that that was a really important success there’s a lot of people in this town that are very focused on that success and um you know the achievement that was made so I you know we tend to focus on

Results we tend to focus really on what is uh the the policy issues that are core to Americans and Canadians I’ll only ask like one more question around this just because you know in some respects you’re saying it’s about results it’s about things like trade but things can be personal particularly as

We discovered with with Donald Trump and some former diplomats have weighed in on this Louise bla quoted n gingr from uh from 2016 saying that you know we hear what you’re saying about about our guy Trump up there and uh it doesn’t play well down here she seems to be saying

Keep the rhetoric in check is that generally good advice you would say in terms of you doing the diplomacy you have to do well you know I guess I would say this the people in the United States who support president Trump uh support his policies and some of those policies

Work well in the Canada US relationship some of them don’t uh the same thing is true of President Biden you know there are some policies that he has that have been difficult for us and so we stay focused on that um but people who are supporters of President Trump are not

Um distressed by being uh pointed out as being supporters of President Trump they’re proudly supporters of President trump it has been the case at times where it’s Republicans who kind of take a wide-eyed approach and say they actually have very good feelings about Canada uh do you discover that as well

That you might think you’re going to go into meetings in one way with Democrats versus Republicans but you can find that you just never know where you might have some positive results oh I you know what I couldn’t agree more so recently um Congress created a bipartisan and a byic

Camal committee so it’s House and Senate Republican and Democrat and it is uh a committee that is focusing on deepening and strengthening the relationship with Canada both from an economic and a security perspective and the interesting thing about that caucus is that it was spearheaded by Republicans and it was

The brainchild of Republicans it now has I think 66 67 members um and it’s more or less even between Republican Democrats but for the longest time there were many more Republicans that were saying yes we want to focus on on the Canadian relationship we really are very

Deeply committed to it we’ve got members of that committee from you know Tennessee and Arkansas and many from Texas and you know from from very very Republican states and we had all of them over here to the Embassy for a you know a reception and a discussion and they

Couldn’t be more bullish on this relationship and I don’t think that should be a surprise to Canadians because ultimately um Americans regardless of the stripes are deeply concerned about ensuring resilience in their country right as I say whether it’s economic resilience energy resilience um making sure that their

Homeland is safe and that’s very much a Republican and a democratic priority so I I just I think there’s just a lot of common ground here for us uh every uh us election year is an important one for our diplomacy in Washington are the stakes particularly high this year the

World is really complicated right now right all Canadians know that the world is really complicated right now and I think that the stakes are high with regard to making sure our most important alliances are strong making sure our Canadian economy is strong making sure our people are safe that we have what we

Need um to to be prosperous and and healthy and in that regard yes I would say given that the United States is our closest Ally our most important trading partner our most important security partner um making sure this relationship is as strong as it possibly can be is job one

Really appreciate your time with us today thank you thanks for having me up next as Ukraine prepares to Mark a grim anniversary worrying signs of softening Support Now for one last thing two years ago Ukraine was attacked by Russia and could have fallen within Days by the first anniversary Ukraine remarkably had turned its fortunes around Russia was backed into four Eastern provinces and NATO was United delivering weapons and hope to Ukraine now on the eve of the

War’s second anniversary the Outlook is much more Bleak Ukraine is running low on troops and arms Russia is dug in almost immovable in those four provinces a baguer president zeny has replaced top military figures while Vladimir Putin looks more confident finding a sympathetic American audience with Tucker Carlson on Elon musk’s xplatform

While in Washington Republicans are blocking military aid in this election year it is vital that the United States Congress agrees on continued support for Ukraine in the near future and I count on all allies to sustain their commitment but even in Canada interest in the war appears to be softening a

Year ago 65% of Canadians were just as concerned about the war as when it started that concern has slipped to 58% and while 39% of Canadians believe Ukraine should fight to drive Russia from all its lands almost onethird support negotiation even at the price of giving up some land the stakes are

Enormous a weakened or defeated Ukraine means a stronger Russia posing a greater threat to Europe and to Nato and that’s even before Donald Trump potentially returns to the White House the third year of the war is about to begin and for Ukraine it may be the hardest to

Succeed allies like Canada must stay engaged if necessary to spend more even when the public cares less that’s our show thanks for watching we’ll see you next Week [Applause]

The federal government convened a national summit to combat the growing problem of auto theft in Canada. ‘The West Block’ guest host Eric Sorensen interviews Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc about the jurisdictional roadblocks in tackling organized car thefts, possible new penalties for repeat car thieves, and more.

Plus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously announced that he’s reviving his government’s ‘Team Canada’ approach ahead of the U.S. presidential election. Sorensen is joined by Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman to discuss the ‘Team Canada’ strategy, preparations for a possible Donald Trump re-election, and concerns over PM Trudeau’s anti-MAGA rhetoric.

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