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Method Section
Report on the Illicit Drug Situation in Canada - 2008
Methodology
The Report on the Illicit Drug Situation in Canada — 2008 is an overview of illicit drug production, trafficking, and smuggling activity involving Canada, during the calendar year. This year’s report includes a new section which provides additional information on specific enforcement programs geared towards reducing the demand for illicit drugs.
The Report on the Illicit Drug Situation in Canada — 2008 includes information provided by the RCMP. In order to acquire this information, analysts used the following sources:
Sources:
- RCMP Databases and operational information
- Seizure records
- Investigative reports
- Other government agencies’ information
- CBSA Monthly reports
- Statistics Canada reports
- Domestic and international law enforcement contacts
- Domestic and international joint operations with partner government agencies
- International documents (such as the annual UNODC World Drug Report and its associated Annal Reports Questionnaire)
- Open source information (such as media reports)
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)
While a variety of law enforcement agencies make drug seizures within the borders of Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is the only Canadian agency responsible for the monitoring of all Canadian ports of entry, and for the examination of all incoming (and outgoing) international mail at Canada’s three mail processing centres. As a result, CBSA is the first enforcement agency to intercept shipments of illegal drugs entering (or exiting) Canada. Following the discovery and examination of such shipments, CBSA contacts the RCMP and transfers custody of the seized drugs to the RCMP for follow-up investigation. When collecting data for the annual Drug Situation Report, RCMP analysts cross-reference CBSA seizure data with data from various RCMP databases and information sources, allowing for a more complete and robust analysis. The “Major Seizures” sections in this report have, in particular, drawn upon seizure information shared by CBSA.
The Nature of Intelligence Analysis
The quantitative data provides an easily measureable benchmark for a comparative analysis of the drug situation from year to year. However, the data limitations require the analysts to look beyond the raw data, draw upon their own observations of trends or related domestic and international events, in order to form judgments and provide the contextual analysis which adds value and meaning to the numbers. Where data is irreconcilable with the operational picture that emerges from reports from the field, intelligence analysts must examine these gaps and assess whether the data is flawed, whether information required to complete the picture is missing, or whether they have to use their experience and knowledge to provide the full context.
Data Limitations
Despite data limitations that are endemic to any national policing organization, the RCMP’s Report on the Illicit Drug Situation in Canada — 2008 strives to represent the most complete national picture that is currently available. The Criminal Intelligence Program continues to work with its partners to develop new collection methods that will improve the quality and reliability of drug seizure data in Canada. The 2008 seizure data reported in this document were approved by the RCMP and Health Canada as part of Canada’s annual submission to the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime.
In terms of specific types of data limitations experienced by the RCMP and its partner agencies, the following factors must be considered when examining the data sets available for this report:
- Ongoing Court Cases and Investigations: Currently the data regarding the amount of drugs and the number of drug seizures in Canada is collected by Health Canada from all police forces across Canada. This information is entered into the Controlled Drugs and Substances Databases (CDSD) maintained by Health Canada. However, if a case is in the court system, or the seizure is a part of an ongoing investigation, this information may not be conveyed to Health Canada until the termination of the case or investigation, both of which can continue beyond the calendar year in which the drugs were seized. As a result, such seizure information will not be entered into the CDSD and captured for that year.
- Quality Control: With the ever-increasing reporting requirements for police in the field and the ever-decreasing amout of resources needed to meet these requirements, data is occasionally entered into the systems incorrectly or is missing altogether. Steps are being taken to educate and inform front line officers of the importance of timely, accurate reporting.
- Different Operational Environments: As a result of differences in roles, mandates, and environments, police forces and government agencies count and measure seizures in different manners. Indeed, different police forces (municipal, provincial, federal) within Canada have different methods of collecting data. All organizations will collect data in a manner that is most efficient for them, leading to significant differences in the type of data and level of detail available as well as the manner in which it is collected.
- Technological Limitations: Numerous and complex data collection systems are used within the RCMP to collect information on drug seizures; unfortunately, some of these systems are not interconnected, nor do they process the data in a uniform manner. Steps are being taken to address these issues.
Without a single, comprehensive, cross-jurisdictional database for the collection of drug seizure information from all law enforcement (including customs) agencies in Canada, these data limitations will continue to affect the ability of the RCMP to accurately describe and report on the national drug situation in Canada.
