A former trucker from Florida has been sentenced to more than four years in U.S. prison after smuggling handguns into Canada that were later recovered at 10 crime scenes in Ontario and Quebec, and linked to two killings.

Court documents reviewed by CBC News provide a rare glimpse into a cross-border pipeline for crime guns.

The scheme saw U.S. firearms purchased legally, then transported up to 2,000 kilometres north to be re-sold to a Canadian trafficker for the retail price of the gun, plus a $1,000 fee for each weapon.

One of the weapons was found in Toronto after what police described as a "reckless" shootout in November 2024 that they said highlighted the "real and present danger" posed by illegal firearms.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

After the Clownvoy, 'trucker' is a term that carries a specific kind of weight here

I don't personally associate "trucker" with the convoy automatically. There were a lot of yahoos in the convoy who weren't truckers.

[–] Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Tl;dr: Fair, and there's a decent chance I'm just losing my mind.

Absolutely - the vast majority weren't truckers at all. But in a lot of the discourse at the time, trucker kinda became a shorthand for those ass clowns. Terms like 'trucker convoy' and 'truckers' were used as shorthand for the situation and its participants. Many legit transport truck drivers (aka 'real truckers') who didn't participate were understandably pissed about it.

Seeing it in this context conjures up a lot of those associations - U.S. backed interests stirring up trouble in Canada, people executing or caught up in a transnational grift etc. - when this isn't all that related in this case. This is just another guy likely involved in organized crime making a buck selling illicit products over the border. Tale as old as time, and the convoy stuff isn't directly relevant. But it carries with it those broader associations in the minds of folks like me. And I wonder if that's purposeful, particularly given this moment in US-Canada relations - much as I harbour legitimate anti-US sentiments at this time in history, it just feels weird.

Then again, this could just be me. I have a tendency to overthink things, and I have direct personal experiences/gripes with the convoy that could be informing a bias that sends up a red flag. It's just a weird feeling, and I was curious if other folks a) had these feelings reading the lede, b) could articulate the phenomenon better than I can, and/or c) provide some evidence/comments that I'm waay otherthinking this.