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Matt330's avatar

Whenever I hear a politician go "no, there's no problem. It's just your imagination. See, these studies from my political consultants prove it!" My first reaction is not, "whew, that's a relief." It's, "holy crap things are worse than I thought."

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Yep, I think Katarina made a salient point that it wasn't all the fentanyl deaths that led to Canada creating a fentanyl czar - it was threat of tariffs...

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Daniel Helkenn's avatar

This was fascinating. As I have told you before, Katarina’s story was better than stuff you can watch on Netflix. Keep it coming Ioan.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Thanks there Daniel. Yep Netflix follows what journos dig up from reality. Talking of Netflix I have some commentary on the hit series Adolescence I will try and bang out.

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

What did you think of the narcos series? I thought they were fun and entertaining and albeit not the most accurate but they still stayed true to the real stories for the most part. Of course they added Hollywood fiction in there at times that's a given

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

It was good TV and reasonable in its facts if showing a glamorous side of narcos life - but TV watchers don't really want to watch death camps...

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Most definitely ioan as much As narcos is entertaining tv it definitely has alot of that scarface, Scorsese eque gangster flare. But I think stuff that truly captures the horrors of the drug war is works like narco cultura, sicario 1, and cartel land

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Even the highly underrated 2013 Mexican movie heli.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

I never managed to see Heli. I like Infierno, which manages to make a narco film as black comedy and actually be good...

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Their is a YouTube channel on YouTube called history buffs. He's a British amateur historian that covers historical films and TV shows and rates their accuracy. He did the first three seasons of narcos. The Colombian seasons. It's really informative and entertaining. He hasn't done narcos mexico yet but we are waiting on his take on those.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

I'll have to check it out. I love that kind of thing about other places but when it's about a subject I have investigated a lot I find it hard to watch without a voice in my head screaming "that's not right."

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Also a bit of an unrelated topic but since we are talking about tvs shows I've been watching 1970s tv series. And which ones did you like the most? I like swat, the incredible hulk, and charlies angels, starsky and hutch. The 70s was such a cheesy but also simpler time

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Ha ha. I grew up with that stuff. Incredible Hulk. Starsky and Hutch. (I'm born in the 7-3)

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Classic TV. I do like how the incredible hulk was just lou ferrigno in green make up lol. That was before CGI so they actually had to hire a body builder for that. And starsky and hutch was the very first buddy cop show. They made being undercover cops seem cool and suave with the fur coats and bellbutton pants ha.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Totally iconic, especially Starsky and Hutch. Car chases. Flares. Funky music. It's like defining the era.

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

I do like how the charlies angels were supposed to be these police women turned private investigators who kicked criminal's butts but they looked more like underwear models who probably couldn't bench press 90 pounds lol

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Daniel Helkenn's avatar

Yeah most of the Netflix stuff is pretty much Scarface light. It doesn’t reflect a lot of the gritty reality aspects.

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Justin Swanson's avatar

The Liberal Party actions enabling fentanyl need to be investigated. They purposely under fund the Detector Dog Service Teams responsible for $203 000 000 in seizures for 2022. In 2025 the Liberals announced they’re starting to think more about stopping precursors coming in from China. They also refuse to use the Special Economic Measures Act against fentanyl traffickers but in February changed the act to allow special side deals with those sanctioned by it in China.

https://1911ranch.substack.com/p/chin-ada-liberal-party-provides-back?r=59oa6p&utm_medium=ios

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Thanks there Justin this is very interesting.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Thanks much for these Tom and added to the file.

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Justin Swanson's avatar

Hello Tom, you seem like the kind of person who might be able to find out why The Liberal Party amended the Special Economic Measures Act in February to allow for “exceptional” deals with CCP affiliates under sanction. Let me know if you do.

https://1911ranch.substack.com/p/chin-ada-liberal-party-provides-back?r=59oa6p&utm_medium=ios

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Tom Johnston's avatar

These two links will provide a guideline to how the corruption started and how imbedded the CCP is in Canada-

https://hectorheisler.wordpress.com/2023/08/18/origins-of-the-liberal-party-of-canada-communist-china-connection/

https://theblogginghounds.com/2023/09/18/chinas-ceo-whisperers-chinese-communist-party-takes-over-canada/

Also I think the biggest reason is still the transfer of Triad billions to every bank from Vancouver, BC to San Diego, CA before the transfer of power in Hong Kong from the British to the Chinese in 1997. The banks were suddenly flushed with cash and were more shielded from economic downturns. Also Sinaloa operations in Southern California also provided an underground economic stimulus.

Also all browsers are censored and you should only use Yandex. It is the last frontier of a uncensored internet.

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Jay's avatar

You video appears to support the idea that Canada is indeed not doing enough to combat fentanyl. To suggest that Trump is interested in Canada over real estate suggest the Republicans want 40 million aspiring democrats to vote in their elections. It’s fear-mongering to take the focus off of the Liberal-NDP coalition’s abysmal failures over the past 9 years. We have lost work where I live in Canada, largely due to Chinese tariffs and no one is talking about them. Canada could’ve made genuine efforts like Mexico, but chose to play politics. There are 60,000 addicts in a 16 block radius around East Hastings and not even Trump can make our government get off its hands.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Thanks much for the first hand insight here Jay. It really does sound an impactful and under-covered story of the fentanyl crisis in Canada. All best there and thanks for having your voice here.

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joe schmoo's avatar

interesting. got to wonder why is the level of violence so much lower compared to mexico? Is it due to it being decriminalized? That's definitely one of the goals of decriminalization. it seems pretty clear that cannabis decriminalization and even legalization has decreased the violence.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Yeah, good point. I guess Canada as a trafficking point for drugs besides weed is still in its infancy. The violence may come. But also in Mexico, massive drug profits combine with a lot of poor youths and very corrupt police who don't solve murders.

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

I wonder if Canada will also classify these cartels as FTOs too. This isn't just a Mexico usa problem anymore more this is clearly a global problem now. The Euro countries have to follow suit too as well. Everybody needs to hit these cartels and their global markets and reach asap.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Actually, already classified them as terrorists. Trump looks like he is setting trends on this...

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

And the European nations?

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

The uk especially?

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

They should all be utilizing their military and navy intelligence to counter narcotics trafficking into their countries too. I know Spain has made some seizures

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Spain has even been busting narco subs...

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Chris Adams's avatar

Very salient and enlightening commentary from y'all.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Well appreciated friend

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Stevie Abbott's avatar

Naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan is an opioid antagonist.

It basically revives people after they have overdosed.

The underground bar scene in Vancouver will train staff on their first day in their first hour of work in the first 10 minutes. It's really important as it saves lives. And many there need their life saved.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Thanks there Stevie. So it's situation like San Francisco with a lot people going to death's door and coming back....

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Stevie Abbott's avatar

The entire province of British Columbia is a drug flea market

Nothing is illegal basically

Its craziest in Vancouver near the port where its basically warm year round so they can live outside and they can get drugs from the port where they import drugs.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Wow. We'll have to get some good footage from the streets there.

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Dave Wertz's avatar

Yeah I agree. But when we go down to Vancouver and East Hastings it is a war zone... We have our mini homeless encampment and drug issue here in small town Northern BC.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Crazy, the North American urban problems definitely crossed into Canada...

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