News releases

OTTAWA – The growing and devastating toll that illicit opioid use is taking on Canadians and communities is shocking. No responsible person or organization wants anything to do with the distribution of these deadly substances.

With nearly 300 million parcels moving through Canada Post’s network in a year, it is arguably predictable that some criminals use the postal service to ship these illicit drugs. This has Canada Post concerned about the risks to the health and well-being of its employees, and to the Canadians we serve. Beyond our moral and legal duties to keep employees safe and to prevent illegal use of the mail, our employees work in neighbourhoods where opioid use is widespread. They see some of its impact on Canadian streets. They care – and so do we.

Canada Post has not opposed any legislative changes suggested by law enforcement. In fact, we are open to ideas that legislators and policy-makers believe could better protect Canadians and our employees.

Until such time legislation or regulations change, our highly trained postal inspectors will continue to cooperate and collaborate fully with all law enforcement and government agencies to intercept and remove illicit drugs from the mail. Postal inspectors have the authority to inspect mail, and if illegal drugs are found, they are removed from the postal system and turned over to law enforcement.

Our collaboration with law enforcement occurs in several ways, including coordinated inspections, joint investigations, enhanced real-time security intelligence, and collaborating with them to execute search warrants for items that have been posted. In addition, we have several security, screening and safety protocols in place to help us identify suspicious items. As a precaution, we have also made naloxone kits available at our processing facilities, and we work with Health Canada and our Joint Health and Safety Committee to ensure our approach is effective.

We believe that through increased collaboration, enhanced intelligence sharing, joint training and awareness, and better coordinated joint investigations, we would all be in a better position to combat the public health threat that opioids are.

For more information:
Media Relations
613-734-8888
media@canadapost.ca