Security loopholes at small northern airports are being exploited by drug traffickers, turning remote communities into easy targets in Canada’s fentanyl crisis, according to Sen. Dawn Anderson of the Northwest Territories.Appearing before the Senate national security committee, Anderson said inadequate screening outside major hubs like Yellowknife has left rural regions dangerously exposed. “I think this is a weak link in the chain,” she told senators.“Our drugs are coming in on the airlines where no flights are being checked by security,” Anderson said. “For the Northwest Territories, when we have security, the security goes no further than Yellowknife. Anyone flying out of Yellowknife further north does not undergo any security checks.”She described discussions with the RCMP about how individuals could allegedly exploit the system. “You can board a plane in Inuvik, Northwest Territories with something illegal, whether it be a gun or drugs, stow it in the plane, get off to do your security check in Yellowknife, go back on the plane and retrieve it,” she said.“Those gaps are still there,” Anderson added. “There are huge gaps in terms of management of what comes into the smaller communities in the Northwest Territories.”.The consequences, she said, are visible across the North. In Hay River, a community of roughly 3,300 people, there were 10 drug overdoses in eight days last October. The same month saw 87 emergency calls. “Living in the North I can see how it changes,” Anderson said. “I can see how those gaps are used to get drugs.”Her remarks followed testimony from Kevin Brosseau, Commissioner of Canada’s Fight Against Fentanyl, who acknowledged the vulnerability of remote regions.“You describe a scenario that obviously manifests itself in communities around the country but it’s particularly acute for remote and isolated communities where the small introduction of a limited amount of a drug like this can have devastating impacts,” Brosseau told the committee.Committee chair Sen. Hassan Yussuff said the human toll demands urgent attention. “Losing a loved one to these awful drugs that are so devastating for families is a very, very political matter we all have to put our minds to,” he said. “What has been going on for so long is unacceptable. There is no magic solution.”
