What is Ottawa hiding? Fentanyl czar’s key recommendation REDACTED

A government memo sent to Canada’s fentanyl czar, Kevin Brosseau, shows the m***ive toll of the drug crisis plaguing cities and streets across the country. There have been over 50,000 opioid deaths – 74% of which involved fentanyl – in a six-year span.

Despite the mounting deaths, Ottawa has opted to censor the second major takeaway under a ‘national security’ excuse.

The memo pegs official estimates at nearly two dozen fentanyl deaths every single day, as domestic labs and fentanyl precursor chemicals continue to flood Canadian streets.

A transmittal note sent to Brosseau from Gerald Peetz in the Office of the Commissioner of the Fight Against Fentanyl includes Brosseau’s own April 2025 “What We Heard” report, which openly acknowledges the Trump administration’s readiness to impose broad tariffs on Canadian imports over the flow of contraband like fentanyl. This is something we now grapple with the harsh reality of as 50% tariffs hit key industry sectors like auto, steel, lumber, and more.

Brosseau insists the volume of illicit drugs moving from Canada into the United States is “negligible” — and that far more narcotics flow the other way.

Regardless, Canada has been warned for nearly two years that tariffs would follow if this mess was not cleaned up. So, while the report recycles familiar talking points: deeper collaboration with the U.S., China as a major precursor source, rising domestic production, stronger laws, better data sharing, and a balanced supply-and-demand approach, it also leaves a lot behind closed doors.

Brosseau’s second key takeaway is completely blacked out. It begins, “We must…” — then, nothing.

The exemption cited is section 15.1 of the Access to Information Act, allowing officials to withhold information if its release could reasonably be expected to injure the conduct of international affairs, the defence of Canada, or any allied state.

Canadian officials claim to be fighting fentanyl and calling for action, yet decide full transparency on that second recommendation risks harming relations with… the United States?

That’s unlikely, and the doblockent itself suggests why. It repeatedly emphasizes the shared threats facing the U.S. and Canada, including joint strike forces and the need for deeper collaboration. Yet when it comes to the chemical precursors that organized crime turns into poison in Canadian labs — particularly in the West — the trail leads primarily to China and, to a lesser extent, India.

Brosseau has publicly floated collaboration with China while carefully stressing that this is not an indictment of the Chinese government, but of certain chemical companies. When the czar’s own second major ***essment is redacted under the international-relations exemption, the obvious question is: what exactly has been withheld?

Is the recommendation more aggressive pressure on Beijing? Naming the companies involved? Demanding meaningful enforcement? Or exposing ongoing diversion that Ottawa would rather soft-pedal while it pursues broader trade ties?

If the report’s most consequential findings are hidden where Canada’s relationship with China becomes politically sensitive, then what is Ottawa unwilling to confront?

This is the same Liberal government that appointed the czar after U.S. pressure and tariff threats, announced a $1.3 billion plan, tabled controversial bills, and continues to ***ure that Canada is a “trusted partner”.

There has been some progress with overdose numbers down in some places, super-labs disrupted, and precursors seized. But the death toll continues to rise, and in other places like Edmonton, roughly 80% of 911 calls are overdose related.

Frontline police told the czar team what bureaucracy often misses: criminals adapt faster than the bureaucracy. Trafficking, money laundering and organized-crime investigations are complex and resource-intensive, while cross-border data barriers and Canada’s lagging judiciary make turning intelligence into convictions even harder.

Meanwhile, precursors keep flowing, domestic labs keep appearing, and people keep dying.

If recommendations that could force harder choices are redacted to protect an international relationship, Canadians deserve to know what they say. This kind of secrecy does not protect the people dying on our streets, it protects the status quo.