The situations surrounding hard drugs and immigration make Quebec a “bad neighbor” of the United States, according to the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who believes that these problems must be resolved to convince Donald Trump to give up on 25% tariffs.
“On immigration, as on fentanyl, I think the Americans are right. We have been bad neighbors,” said the PQ representative on Wednesday in Terrebonne, where he is holding a pre-session caucus meeting between now and Thursday.
Canada and Mexico have been targeted by Donald Trump in recent days for illegally smuggling “large quantities of people and fentanyl” to the United States. According to the new tenant of the White House, Canada in particular is a “terrible abuser”. In its trade plan tabled on Monday, the America First Trade Policy, the Trump administration undertakes to “assess” and “resolve” as quickly as possible the “urgency” associated with these two issues.
And according to the leader of the PQ, the 47e President of the United States is not mistaken in associating part of the problem with Canada and Quebec. “On drugs and fentanyl: in Quebec, last year, there were 600 deaths [par] overdose […]including a large proportion of deaths linked to fentanyl. It’s happening with us, it’s happening with them and, yes, the border is porous at that level,” said Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon on Wednesday.
“A problem for us is that American firearms cross this porous border, which creates a proliferation of firearms, particularly in Montreal. But it is also true for fentanyl in the other direction,” he continued.
While condemning Canada’s “laxity” on the issue of hard drugs – he hopes that the federal government will “toughen [sse] the penalties for traffickers and manufacturers” —, “PSPP” reiterates the need for Quebec to intervene through the Sûreté du Québec. “We have been proposing for quite a while to increase the workforce […] at the crossing points, which are sieves,” he insisted.
“Anything”
At a caucus meeting in Saint-Sauveur, the Minister of Public Security made a point of contesting the PQ leader’s reading. “I don’t know where he gets his information. “Does he have information that the Sûreté du Québec does not have? I have mentioned it time and again: the intelligence services confirm to us that, yes, there is a fentanyl problem, but in Western Canada, there is no fentanyl problem on the Quebec side. , he stressed.
-“It’s nonsense from the leader of the Parti Québécois,” he added.
According to data from American border services first collected and published by the daily The Sunthen confirmed by Duty23 kilograms (kg) of fentanyl were seized by American authorities at the border with Canada last year. This represents 1/400e quantities intercepted at the Mexican border in 2024.
In the Swanton border sector, between the cities of Sherbrooke, in Quebec, and Cornwall, in Ontario, the quantities seized by American authorities in 2024 amount to less than 0.2 kg.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon was invited on Wednesday to react to these statistics, during a press briefing held in the morning. His team declined to allow him to respond, citing time issues, but released a statement to the media a few minutes later.
“In fact, Canada is a producer of fentanyl, as demonstrated by the dismantling of several clandestine laboratories across the country and the search of millions of doses, in quantities sufficient to kill all Canadians, as illustrated in 2023 -. […] We must attack the crossing points that facilitate the trafficking of this drug and others, regardless of what is happening at the Mexican border in terms of seizures compared to our border,” it reads.
