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Canada’s New Fentanyl Chief Confronts a Crisis Most Locals See as Trump-made

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WSJ

Mar 19, 2025 10:26 AM IST

Kevin Brosseau is seeking to stem the flow of a deadly opioid not only to reverse U.S. tariffs but to end domestic drug deaths.

OTTAWA—As Canada’s new fentanyl czar, Kevin Brosseau is tasked with stopping a problem that many people in Canada say has been overblown by President Trump.

Canada’s New Fentanyl Chief Confronts a Crisis Most Locals See as Made Up by Trump PREMIUM

Canada’s New Fentanyl Chief Confronts a Crisis Most Locals See as Made Up by Trump

The former Canadian law-enforcement official said he wants to halt the opioid’s flow not only to address U.S. concerns but to end a deadly domestic scourge.

“Getting the number to zero is in fact a goal, and should be our goal,” Brosseau said while visiting a busy Ontario border crossing during his first day on the job last month. “If it’s 1 pound, 10 pounds, we all know the amount of deaths that could possibly represent.”

Brosseau must strike a delicate balance. He wants to show the U.S. that Canada is strengthening security along their immense border after Trump hit Canada with tariffs because of what he calls a “massive” flow of fentanyl entering the U.S. from the north.

Most Canadians see Trump’s claim as a smokescreen to justify a trade war against a longtime U.S. ally he has repeatedly talked about annexing through “economic force.”

The U.S. Border Patrol’s seizure of fentanyl at the Canadian border last year was equivalent to 0.2% of the more than 21,000 pounds seized at the southern border with Mexico, by far the main source of fentanyl. During the first two months of this year, the amount of fentanyl confiscated at the Canadian border weighed about as much as a can of soup.

“This is a manufactured crisis at the border in terms of alleged flows of fentanyl,” said Wesley Wark, a Canadian security expert who previously served on an advisory council to the prime minister. “Canadian officials are doing their best to display the fact that Canada takes border security seriously.”

Brosseau, a Harvard-educated former national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister, is now charged with overseeing Canada’s efforts to dismantle the fentanyl trade. He is coordinating the work of Canadian law-enforcement agencies, prosecutors and other government agencies responsible for regulating precursor chemicals used to make the opioid. Critically, he is also Canada’s point of contact on fentanyl for the U.S. as officials in Ottawa hope to ward off an escalating trade war.

“I’m hoping to give an intensity to the work being carried out by thousands of men and women in this country and the United States,” Brosseau told journalists recently. “Bringing that integrated approach, bringing the teams together, ensuring that collaboration.”

While Canada has said the drug flow into the U.S. doesn’t represent an emergency, security experts are hoping that Brosseau’s position could push Canada to give more attention and resources to its own domestic opioid crisis.

Nearly 50,000 Canadians have died of opioid overdose since 2016, according to health officials, as fentanyl has ravaged such Canadian cities as Vancouver, British Columbia, which has some of the highest overdose rates in North America.

“Fentanyl is a significant issue in terms of deaths and not a significant issue in terms of exportation to the United States,” said Bob Paulson, former commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the national police force known as the Mounties. Brosseau was his deputy.

Trucks entering Blaine, Wash., from Canada.

Paulson described Brosseau as a “decisive leader” with outstanding interpersonal skills that allow him to bring people together to achieve results. “He’s not a talker, he’s a doer,” said Paulson, adding, “He’s interested in accomplishing the mission.”

Cheyenne Johnson, executive director of the Vancouver-based British Columbia Center on Substance Use, said she would like to see Brosseau not only strengthen law enforcement but also address demand for opioids by treating addiction. In 2016, British Columbia declared a public-health emergency related to the rise of overdose deaths.

“Not a lot of progress has been made,” she said. “We will always have this demand side, and the focus really needs to be on developing treatment and harm-reduction solutions.”

Ray Donovan, former chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said it would be a mistake for Canada to interpret the Trump administration’s border concerns as simply a false justification for implementing tariffs. He said the amount of fentanyl entering the U.S. from Canada is likely higher than the U.S. Border Patrol figures suggest.

“If you think this is purely a trade issue, I would say that is wrong,” he said. “It is not purely a trade issue, it is a border-security issue.”

Recent raids of so-called fentanyl superlabs underscore the expansion of fentanyl production and growth of organized crime in Canada, said Donovan, who oversaw the capture of the head of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

In October, Canadian police busted a superlab in British Columbia and seized hundreds of pounds of fentanyl and methamphetamine. The lab had enough chemicals to operate for weeks and produce 95 million lethal fentanyl doses, police said.

“That’s a scary sign of a growing problem,” said Donovan, who recommended that Brosseau travel to Mexico to understand the role of cartels in Canada better. “The first thing I would say is they have to understand the threat. I would want to understand the Mexican cartels, and know their role in the Canadian market.”

Canada has followed the U.S. in listing Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, while working with the U.S. to create a joint strike force to fight organized crime, drug trafficking and money laundering.

Authorities in Canada are worried about the growing presence of cartels in Canada, said Public Safety Minister David McGuinty, who is in charge of Canada’s border patrol and the Mounties. “We have an incredibly close relationship with U.S. law enforcement,” he said. “We need to keep at it.”

Canada has pledged to invest $900 million over six years to improve border security by acquiring dogs, drones, helicopters and mobile surveillance towers, as well as deploying new border agents. The government is also speeding up efforts to better monitor and control the precursor chemicals that come into Canada, mostly from China.

Brosseau’s appointment is the culmination of a lifelong passion for law and police work. While growing up on a family ranch in Alberta, Brosseau tagged along with cops in their patrol cars, fascinated by their stories of helping people out, according to a 2002 profile in the Edmonton Journal. At a family cabin, his uncle, a lawyer in Edmonton, Alberta, instilled a love of the law.

After joining the Mounties, Brosseau was stationed in small Canadian cities, including Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon in the north. He left the police force to study law at the University of Alberta, where he still keeps in touch with professors and visits students.

“He’s a very outgoing fellow, very easy to talk to,” said David Percy, who was dean of the faculty of law while Brosseau was a student. “As a public face for Canada on this issue of fentanyl, I think he’s excellent because of his skills and affability, and frankly his imposing presence.”

Brosseau later completed a master’s in law at Harvard, which he paid for with a Fulbright scholarship and by remortgaging his home. After graduation, he spent three years working as a corporate lawyer in New York before returning to Canada and the Mounties.

He rose quickly through their ranks, developing a reputation as a highly intelligent, results-oriented officer. Before he was appointed deputy commissioner, he served as the top cop in the province of Manitoba, where tackling drug use was a priority.

“You could see the pain in his eyes when you told him stories about someone just dying in one of the villages, no matter how far away it was,” said David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Métis Federation, which represents people of indigenous and French descent. “He proved himself over and over. He did make a dent for sure, no question.”

Chartrand still recalls when Brosseau, who is Métis, became livid when he heard that drug addicts had beaten an elderly man in the village of Duck Bay to steal his prescription medication. The police chief stepped up patrols in the remote village to catch the perpetrators and send a message that such violence wouldn’t be tolerated, said Chartrand, who is from Duck Bay.

“He took it personally,” said Chartrand. “And then he did something about it.”

Write to Ryan Dubé at ryan.dube@wsj.com

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