On the Deteriorating Rule of Law in Canada

Some updates to recent posts on The Audit

I’ve got a couple of updates to some recent crime-related posts here at The Audit. In just a bit, I’ll cast some more gloom on the state of public safety in Canada - even beyond the already-dark What if Canada’s Police Can’t Keep Us Safe? But first up is a different perspective on last week’s car theft post.

Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied

Subsequent feedback added to my confidence that most - if not all - of the 50,000 used cars that Statistics Canada reported as “exported” from Ontario were actually stolen. The numbers, destinations, and state of the domestic used car market all tell a pretty clear story about what’s going on.

But I thought I’d take a quick look at how law enforcement - at least in Ontario - has been responding to the crisis. In fact, many millions of dollars have been allocated to law enforcement agencies to disrupt the work of those gangs. Here’s a list of publicly-announced anti-car theft operations in Ontario since 2015:

For clarity, “OPP” stands for Ontario Provincial Police, “TPS” is Toronto Police Services, and “CBSA” is the Canada Border Services Agency.

The vehicle recoveries are certainly better than nothing, but they probably represent less than 2% of the total losses over those years. However, I was curious about all those arrests: would the removal of 212 accused car thieves from the streets have a positive impact on ongoing crime rates?