Justice committee  This was back in the 1980s and 1990s, during the investigation of Hezbollah in Quebec and Ontario. They were looking at it and had evidence at that point in time that suggested stolen vehicles were being used to fund Hezbollah, both here in Canada and over in Lebanon. That was documented back in the late 1980s and early 1990s and produced in one of their national reports.

Justice committee  I've seen them all. When I was in Africa I saw them with Canadian plates, Quebec plates. I saw them running around with Texas plates, and then they would hang their own national plates on it. In 1998 I did a peacekeeping mission over in Bosnia with the RCMP. I saw a lot of vehicles from Ontario and Quebec being driven around the country with Canadian plates on them and no questions asked.

Justice committee  It's to know the various stages of what happens here. For the local freight forwarders, there are no regulations, and they're not governed by any laws. You can run a freight forwarding business from the basement of your house. You can order up a container, and it could be dropped off in your back yard or in some parking lot or behind your local church.

Justice committee  Thank you. To explain part of the question, what we're seeing for the most part in terms of vehicles leaving Canada is that we're losing over 20,000 a year out of Canada through the ports. The U.S. has a rate of over 200,000. In Canada, for the most part, we're seeing high-end vehicles being put into ocean-going containers.

Justice committee  Exporters have to fill out a customs declaration form called a B13A. What we see for the most part is that the declarations that are filled out are false. They'll say that household effects, used furniture, or whatever is going off to Africa in these containers.

Justice committee  The export of goods from Canada is a low priority for CBSA. They're looking at the exports from Canada as an import into the other country. They concentrate on imports into Canada, not the exports; less than 1% of the exports from Canada are examined. CBSA has already told us in our meetings in Ottawa that they're not interested in stolen vehicles, and it's not mandated under the Customs Act.

Justice committee  They were numerous, from Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick. I'd be guessing at the numbers, but I would say probably about 60.

Justice committee  Yes, in the various provinces.

Justice committee  No, that's an extremely large one. Normally they're not that big, with so many police forces involved. A lot of it is a few investigators from Ontario who would partner up with other investigators across Canada. In this case, we had so many locations in Quebec and New Brunswick, especially for searches, that we needed a lot of people involved in those.

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to address this committee. I am a director for the North American Export Committee, which is made up of various persons from law enforcement and the private sector in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The mission of the North American Export Committee is to bring together those entities that share a common goal of combatting the exportation of stolen vehicles.