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It's a cold and dreary Monday afternoon in Ottawa. The nation is awash in a newfound wave of pride and determination, yet there is an unmistakable fear in the eyes of every citizen. Lame duck prime minister Justin Trudeau enters the situation room with his closest aides and allies. The prime minister takes a deep breath as he awaits the call. The prosperity of his people hangs in the balance. Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of jobs could vanish by the end of the week. The phone rings. The unmistakable voice of the orange man in the White House booms out of the speaker. Will he demand an anschluss?
"Mr. President, these tariffs will lead to needless suffering and destruction. Is there any way we can set this aside for the moment?"
"Fentanyl is a big problem Justin. Hire someone to work on that and you've got a deal."
Listing cartels as terrorist organizations is actually a big deal. It enables the government to aggressively track money.
It's widely suspected that payments from the cartels to Chinese chemical companies are being laundered through Canadian real estate.
I don't think Canadian government policy towards drug cartels depends on whether it calls them terrorists or not. The way you deal with a sophisticated, wealthy, armed criminal organisation that you actually care about stopping is the same way you deal with a sophisticated, wealthy terrorist organisation that you actually care about stopping.
But the terrorist designation activates specific regulations in the financial system. Sure, they could pass new laws and regulations to do the same thing. But this does have an impact on it's own.
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