My name is Will Vasseur. I am a news and journalism student, and a proud Canadian. Since coming into office, President Donald Trump has labeled Canada as a “massive” source of fentanyl entering the United States. This claim contrasts with historical norms, and it is also a bold statement to make against the United States’ closest ally. Because of this, I wanted to utilize my passion for data journalism to craft a scrolly-tell article that analyzed the flow of fentanyl from Canada to the United States, aiming to determine the accuracy of President Trump’s assertion.
The building process
This search began by finding the U.S. Customs and Border Protection records of drug seizures at every U.S. border and refining the data to show information from January 2022 to April 2025. I then sorted the data by the region of the border (northern [Canada], southwestern [Mexico] and coastal/interior). Finally, I filtered the data to show only fentanyl seizures.
After organizing the data, I discovered that CBP seized 81.7 lbs of fentanyl at the Canadian border from January 2022 to April 2025, which accounts for 0.12% of the total quantity of fentanyl seized at American borders during that period. The rest of the fentanyl came from the Mexican border (65,088.3 lbs or 97.5%) and the coastal/interior border (1,580.9 lbs or 2.37%).
President Trump also likes to point to the quantity of fentanyl (42.89 lbs*) seized at the Canadian border in 2024 as a reason why Canada is a “massive” source.
With this in mind, I analyzed the year-by-year data and discovered that 14.83 lbs of the 2024 total came from the Spokane, Washington sector in July. This quantity is significantly higher than every other data point.
After googling for more information on this figure, I found an article from The Globe and Mail (one of the leading newspapers in Canada), which illustrated through documents and anonymous quotes from the Spokane DEA, that a 14 lbs fentanyl seizure in Spokane involving individuals with no connection to Canada or the Canadian border, had been falsely labeled as “seized at the northern border.”
It became clear that Canada is not a “massive” fentanyl source, but 81.7 lbs should not be ignored. The quantity seized at the Canadian border could have potentially led to 18,529,248 fentanyl overdoses, significantly less than 15,138,851,500 (the number of potential deaths from all of the fentanyl seized at every American border), but not insignificant.
The Canadian government recognized the concern, and following the request of President Trump, they instituted a “Fentanyl Czar” to oversee actions to combat the flow of fentanyl traveling in either direction of the Canada/U.S. border.
However, in conclusion, I discovered that President Trump’s claim that Canada is a “massive” fentanyl source is factually inaccurate.
Lessons learned
From this project, I learned about the power of data storytelling and how it can bring issues to public knowledge. It requires digging to uncover data and dissecting the data over time, but in the end, datasets are filled with powerful stories waiting to be told.
I also learned about the importance of taking raw data and presenting it in a simplified form for the public to understand.
Here is a link to my article: https://preview.shorthand.com/PpcUo3fBUrEAdA5P