Early this summer, Interpol registered Canada among the top 10 worst countries for car robberies out of 137 in its record – an “extraordinary” feat, said a representative, as the country only started integrating its statistics with the international police organization in February. Authorities say when these cars are pilfered, they are either used to carry out other vicious misconducts, sold locally to other unwary Canadians, or shipped abroad to be resold. Interpol says it has distinguished more than 1,500 cars around the world that have been pilfered from Canada since February, and about 200 more remain to be acknowledged each week, typically at ports in other countries. Car robbery is such an epidemic that it was acknowledged as a “national crisis” by the Insurance Agency of Canada, which says insurers have had to put out more than C$1.5bn ($1bn; £860m) in vehicle robbery claims last year. The problem has forced police authorities across the country to issue public announcements on how to guard vehicles from theft. Meanwhile, some Canadians are doing everything from fitting trackers on their cars to employing private neighborhood security.
Some who can afford it have even connected coverable bollards in their driveways – like to those seen at banks and embassies – to try and discourage thieves. Nauman Khan, living in Mississauga, a city just outside Toronto, initiated a bollard-installation business after he and his brother were both victims of car robberies. In one attempt, Mr. Khan said the robbers broke into his home when his wife and young children were asleep. Through his business, Mr. Khan said he now receives similar stories from individuals throughout the district of Toronto.
“It’s been very hard,” he said. We had one customer whose area had so many home assaults that he’d employe a security guard every night outside his house as he just didn’t feel safe. Canada also does not have as many port towns as the US does, said Mr. Piquero. While the US, Canada, and the UK have all noticed an increase in car thefts since the COVID-19 epidemic, Canada’s degree of thefts (262.5 per 100,000 people) is higher than that of England and Wales (220 per 100,000 people), conferring to the latest accessible information from each country. The increase in recent years is partially due to a pandemic-driven worldwide car shortage that has augmented demand for both used and new cars. There is also a rising market for specific car models globally, making vehicle theft a top income generator for organized crime groups, said Elliott Silverstein, administrator of government relations at the Canadian Automobile Association.
However, Mr. Silverstein informed the way that Canada’s ports function makes them more susceptible to this category of theft than other countries. In the port arrangement, there’s a larger focus on what is entering the country than what is leaving the country, he said, adding that once the vehicles are prepared in shipping containers at a port it becomes more difficult to get to them.
Police have managed to seize some pilfered cars. In October, the Toronto Police Service publicized an 11-month inquiry that recovered 1,080 vehicles valued at around C$60m. More than 550 charges were placed as a result. Between mid-December and the end of March, border patrol and police officers found almost 600 pilfered vehicles at the Port of Montreal after examining 400 shipping containers. These sorts of actions, however, can be hard to carry out given the bulk of goods that move through that port, professionals have said. Around 1.7 million containers moved through the Port of Montreal in 2023 alone. Port employees also do not have permission to examine containers in most cases, and in customs-controlled areas, only border officers can examine a container with no warrant. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has been wrestling with chronic understaffing, according to a report submitted by its union to the government in April. Obsolete technology is also a problem.
Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton – another Ontario city hard-hit by car robberies – lately paid a visit to the Port Newark Container Terminal in New Jersey to compare examination strategies between the US and Canada. He stated in the National Post newspaper that US authorities have “got electronic scanners. This technology measures density. They work strictly with local law enforcement. These are items that we do not use in Canada, he said. In May, the Canadian government informed us it would devote millions to strengthen the CBSA’s capability to examine shipping containers. Forces will also get further finance to battle auto theft in their societies. But Mr. Silverstein said he thinks a missing puzzle piece is the auto manufacturers themselves.
Everyone is talking about recovering vehicles, and a major part of my focus has been on why we are not manufacturing vehicles tougher to steal in the first place, he said.
