Canada's car theft problem

In Toronto, 9,600 vehicles were stolen in 2022.

Most of the things they discussed seem pretty basic.

The profits from the sales are used by these criminal groups to fund other illegal activities.

Canada held a national summit on car theft.

You know, in Canada, we've got a car theft problem. Here's one example: In our government, we have someone called the Minister of Justice. This is the person in our government who advises on legal policy: law enforcement, how we prosecute criminals, things like that. Well, it came out recently that our Minister of Justice had his car stolen in November. And the guy who was Minister of Justice before him had his car stolen last February. And he had another car stolen from him in February of 2021. You know when your Justice Ministers' cars are getting stolen this regularly, it's a sign that you have a car theft problem. We're averaging one stolen Justice Minister's car every year for the last three years. Another minister in our government also had his car stolen last year, and so did the head of our tax agency. Maybe government officials should just ride bikes?

Yeah, it's pretty bad for regular citizens too, especially in major cities. In Toronto, 9,600 vehicles were stolen in 2022. Across the country, we average one car theft every six minutes. Apparently, car theft is a big focus of organized crime here - most of the stolen cars get shipped abroad, and sold in other countries. The profits from the sales are used by these criminal groups to fund other illegal activities. I was surprised to learn that most the cars are shipped abroad; you'd think it would be really difficult to constantly be smuggling stolen cars across the Atlantic. But I guess shipping companies aren't required to double-check your ownership documents and identity when they ship something for you. 

Anyway, it's a bad situation. So, this past week, Canada held a national summit on car theft; inviting police and officials from cities all over the country to meet with federal officials and share information. Most of the things they discussed seem pretty basic; they talked about tougher sentences for car thieves, improving communications between police officers in different areas, and taking a look at our ports, where the cars are being shipped from.

The most interesting thing they said was, they plan to ban sales of something called the Flipper Zero. It's a tool used by people in IT to test wireless connections. But you can also use it to hack different digital devices. And apparently, it can be used to mimic the digital signal from a car's keys to unlock or start a car. So, hopefully banning it will help a bit. Although I'm sure there are enough tools already in the country for thieves to do their job for the foreseeable future.

So, after this summit, we'll have to wait and see if the problem gets better. At least insurance premiums don't typically go up if your car's stolen. In the mean time, if you're in Canada, make sure you don't leave your computer or anything important in your car – especially if you're a minister in the Canadian government.

Listening Homework |
by Homework Cat

Listening Homework
by Homework Cat

Warmup

How many times have cars been stolen from Canadian government officials in the last 3 years?