In the midst of the noise and the enormous challenges facing the world, especially due to the barbaric war waged by the Israeli occupation army against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which causes great insomnia and immense psychological pressure on Arab communities and others in Canada, there is a very dangerous phenomenon that has begun to grow frightfully and with great complexity through organized networks, including Arab individuals who have become professionals in criminal activities, including car theft.

This situation has recently prompted the Canadian government to announce a comprehensive national plan to confront this dangerous phenomenon, and a large budget has been allocated to implement this plan, which has become an urgent necessity to face a significant threat to the local economy and Canadian national security.

We have also noticed in the recent phase the strong deterrent power of the civil police as they arrest and pursue these highly dangerous networks and confront the audacity of the gangs and individuals who commit these criminal acts, as they have started to collude with some car owners of sick souls at times in exchange for a sum of money, after notifying the insurance company to claim compensation commensurate with the market price of the car at the time of the criminal theft.

On our part, we investigated this matter to find out whether this phenomenon is new to society or has deep roots.

It has become clear to us that this phenomenon is old, and unfortunately, the lax security response to its risks from the outset and the failure to uproot it from its roots has allowed it to grow bolder and expand, adding new criminal elements in this treacherous path that targets the economy, security, and stability of the state.

This matter has evolved into more criminal methods with the transition of car systems to the digital state, making many modern car models easy prey for hacking and thefts that occur, and after being dismantled and sold as spare parts for cars or exported abroad to sell for huge amounts or used in terrorist operations abroad.

What is striking in this matter is that the ferocity and expansion of fraud methods increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, especially in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, and in Montreal and Toronto. This has led some individuals with deviant criminal inclinations and those seeking quick wealth from among the Arab community to seek ways to engage in such criminal activities, which also paved the way for more extensive criminal operations, including money laundering after obtaining it from these thefts, and then using this illegally acquired money to buy real estate in cash, thinking that this becomes a legal investment away from the criminal suspicions perpetrated by some individuals who have professionalized such highly dangerous criminal work, perhaps in collusion with legal offices that provide them protection and legal cover by exploiting some legal loopholes, which keeps them free from legal accountability that they deserve and that should deter them to ensure the safety of society and its freedom from crime.

This matter emphasizes the necessity of adopting a policy of early deterrence and enacting special laws to uproot those individuals who are tempted to engage in such criminal matters through immediate, severe, and strict penalties, even if it reaches the extent of immediate expulsion from the country or imprisonment with the maximum penalty.

In my opinion, car theft is no less dangerous than the terrorist concept or the incident carried out by an Indian refugee in Canada, for whom a deportation decision was recently issued.

I believe that in order to have a strong deterrent in this context, especially concerning issues that touch on national security and the national economy with conclusive evidence, there should be no room for objection or negligence, and there should be deportation decisions accompanying local, regional, and international legal penalties that are not subject to postponement or objection to contain these criminals and pursue them everywhere until this phenomenon is completely eradicated.

Here, I would like to clarify that these steps do not at all violate human rights or infringe upon dignity or take away an individual’s freedom to defend themselves, but rather reinforce the culture of preserving the security of the country, community, and individual as a top priority. Thus, they become a strong deterrent to anyone who dares to engage in such matters that affect the security and safety of the country and its citizens.

Indeed, the laxity toward these issues and the absence of a clear and comprehensive deterrent plan have undoubtedly opened the door for the growing power of gangs to commit crimes, murders, kidnappings, sexual exploitation, and money laundering. These have even gone beyond all limits, challenging security controls and falling into the quagmires of encouraging individual, intellectual, and behavioral corruption, perhaps through practicing bribery under various names and exploiting security conditions that perhaps prioritize more urgent matters than these internal challenges imposed by cultural, societal, and economic challenges, and perhaps deep conflicts in political ideologies that have made themselves prisoners of priorities other than the domestic national priorities.

In conclusion, while the national plan to combat car theft may have come late, it is a step in the right direction. However, it will not succeed in the face of the professionalism of the criminals conducting these criminal operations unless it takes into account the necessities of strict, strong, and effective confrontation and grants security agencies greater freedom to deal with such crimes and their severe consequences on the community and on the national, security, and civilian economy. I can even describe it as a form of treason that requires a fundamental, strong, and comprehensive deterrent response.