Sam Cooper warns that Canada has become a central hub for global money laundering and foreign interference, particularly through what he terms the Vancouver Model. This system channels illicit funds from Chinese, Iranian, and Mexican criminal networks into casinos, real estate, and banks, distorting the housing market and fueling the fentanyl crisis. Cooper links these activities to the broader influence of state‐sponsored actors, especially the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which he argues uses transnational crime, business ties, and political donations to infiltrate Canadian systems. He contends that major institutions—including the RCMP and key political offices—have been either politically constrained or willfully blind, allowing corruption to spread into legitimate sectors such as finance, immigration, and resource development. The result, he says, is a systemic vulnerability in which organized crime and foreign state interests overlap, eroding Canada’s security, economy, and sovereignty.
The geopolitical implications, according to Cooper, extend far beyond domestic policy. Canada’s exposure to covert Chinese and allied state operations threatens its reliability within Western alliances like the Five Eyes intelligence partnership. Cooper warns that cognitive warfare, cyber intrusions, and economic dependence are shifting Canada toward a position of strategic compromise, potentially undermining its democratic foundations and foreign policy independence. He argues that unless Canada enacts stronger anti‐interference and anti‐corruption measures—while reaffirming its alliances with the United States, Japan, and other democracies—it risks becoming a conduit for authoritarian influence rather than a defender of liberal values.
