Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Wednesday that he will change the Criminal Code if he’s elected so that all drug “kingpins” convicted of trafficking what he’s calling major quantities of fentanyl are hit with a mandatory life sentence in prison.
The policy announcement comes as President Donald Trump presses neighbouring Canada and Mexico to take a harder line on fentanyl to stop the flow of the deadly drug into the U.S. or face big tariffs.
U.S. government data shows comparatively little of the drug is coming over the northern border, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed more money and resources — including the appointment of a fentanyl “czar” — to crack down and satisfy Trump’s concerns.
“Making and selling fentanyl is mass murder,” Poilievre said in a statement.
“I will lock up fentanyl kingpins and throw away the key. It’s like spraying bullets into a crowd — even if you don’t aim, you will kill people. The penalty should be the same as murder. I will pass mandatory life sentences so fentanyl kingpins never get out of jail and stop killing our kids.”
Poilievre said the mandatory life sentence would apply to all people convicted of selling “40 milligrams of this poison,” which he said is enough to kill 20 people. He’s pitching a 15-year sentence for traffickers convicted of selling smaller quantities, between 20 and 40 milligrams.Â
The Criminal Code already allows judges to impose a life sentence for trafficking fentanyl and other drugs. Poilievre’s policy would take away the judge’s discretion.
Mandatory minimum sentencing policies have been overturned by the Supreme Court in the past, but Poilievre has said he’s open to using the notwithstanding clause to pass criminal laws through Parliament if his party forms the next government.
A spokesperson for Justice Minister Arif Virani said the Conservative proposal “would potentially expose every fentanyl user in Canada to an automatic life sentence,” and pointed to the existing Criminal Code provisions that allow judges to send traffickers away to prison for life, if warranted.
Poilievre said a tough on crime approach would deter criminal organizations from opening fentanyl superlabs, like the one RCMP busted in B.C. late last year.
The police described that Falkland, B.C., site as “the largest and most sophisticated fentanyl and methamphetamine drug superlab in Canada,” with enough drugs and precursors on hand to produce 95.5 million potentially lethal doses.
Police said the lab, which they have linked to an unnamed transnational organized crime group, was likely producing drugs not only for the domestic market, but also for export.
The Vancouver Sun has reported a B.C. man arrested in connection to the superlab bust, Gaganpreet Randhawa, has ties to the Wolfpack gang, a crime syndicate that has been associated with the drug trade in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
In a nearly six-minute video on fentanyl and his new policy, Poilievre said kingpins associated with the Falkland lab and other sites are “killing our people” and “endangering our trade with our closest ally,” because Trump has made rooting out fentanyl a top priority.
“Whether we agree with him or not, we shouldn’t be taking action to stop drugs just to please him,” Poilievre said of Trump. “We should do it so not one more mother must bury her face in her hands in agony after her son overdosed and died in a back alley.”
“By locking up the big bosses and throwing away the key, we will cut the head off of the poisonous fentanyl snake,” he said.
Trudeau is pursuing anti-fentanyl policies of his own in the wake of Trump’s trade threats.
In addition to appointing a czar to co-ordinate a nationwide crackdown, the federal government is going to list cartels — among the largest purveyors of deadly drugs in Canada and the U.S. — as terrorist entities under Canadian law.
The decision to designate the cartels as terrorists comes with serious criminal and financial consequences; Canadian banks can freeze the assets of a designated terror group and police can charge anyone who financially or materially supports them.
The government is also standing up a new Canada-U.S. Joint Strike Force, with a mission to combat organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering.
