Vancouver Liberals mayoral candidate Kareem Allam announced today that he plans to address Vancouver’s “Tony Sopranos” if elected in the upcoming municipal election.
In a release, the Vancouver Liberals said that to address poverty, drug use, and homelessness, they must also address high-level organized crime.
“Vancouver’s worst criminals don’t live in the Downtown East Side; they live in penthouses in Yaletown and Coal Harbour, funding their lifestyles with the proceeds of crime that are often money laundered,” Allam said in the release.
“We’re tired of seeing ineffective attempts to deal with organized crime in our City and want to go after the ‘Tony Sopranos’ — the highest-level kingpins and traffickers.”
He said that his party will implement new policies and strategies, along with working with provincial and federal law enforcement “to target those at the top of the supply chain instead of only those at the bottom.”
The Vancouver Liberals asserted that incumbent mayor Ken Sim’s focus on street-level crime hasn’t worked, pointing out that Vancouver is perceived as one of the least safe cities in the country.
“Those who supply drugs to our streets perpetuate cycles of crime and poverty, which creates an uphill battle for the City of Vancouver in preventing the flow of drugs, supporting those with damaging addictions, and lifting people out of poverty,” reads the release.
What would the Vancouver Liberals do?
Allam said he would increase VPD funding so that more officers would join the RCMP’s Federal Serious Organized Crime unit to investigate high-level threats crossing international and inter-jurisdictional borders.
He would further “increase local cooperation” with Canadian Border Services agents, as well as “advocate for the increases in the Canadian Coast Guard’s underwater marine intervention capacity.”
Allam said that Vancouver is “over-exposed” to the international drug trade, due to the fact that it manages more cargo than the next five largest ports in the country.
“If a cartel suddenly doesn’t have someone to organize their logistics, that’s a meaningful blow to their supply chain. We want to hit the problem upstream, not downstream,” Allam said.
Allam added that if the Vancouver Liberals were elected, they wouldn’t “neglect street-level crime.”
“Ken Sim’s sole focus on the bottom of the food chain is nothing but an electoral puff piece — he just wants to be in office, and doesn’t have a plan to meaningfully tackle Vancouver’s problems and create a safer city,” Allam said.
While Allam is critical of Sim’s policies now, he was actually Sim’s and ABC Vancouver’s former campaign manager who helped them win in 2022. After ABC won, Allam was the chief of staff for Sim’s mayor’s office for about four months, until February 2023.
Aside from Allam and Sim, the other major mayoral candidates in this election include Pete Fry for the Green Party, Colleen Hardwick for TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, and Rebecca Bligh with Vote Vancouver.
Voting day is on Oct. 17.
With files from Kenneth Chan