A Toronto model says her Uber driver kicked her out of the vehicle into the dark night because she was Jewish.

“What happened isn’t just an unpleasant moment. It’s a reminder of why speaking up matters,” Miriam Mattova, 33, told National Post. “And discrimination must be met with accountability, not silence.”

Mattova is a Jewish Slovakian-Canadian model and former Miss Slovakia. She said the incident occurred just after midnight on Nov. 30. Her friend ordered her an Uber so she could get home. After she got into the car, she FaceTimed another friend and was “speaking casually” about a recent trip to Israel a few weeks prior.

The female Uber driver slammed on the brakes, said Mattova, and told her to get out of the car at a busy intersection.

When Mattova questioned the driver, the driver told her she didn’t feel “comfortable” with Mattova in the car. “So I asked why, and the driver told me that they do not drive Jewish people,” Mattova said.

Mattova got out of the vehicle and ordered another Uber to get home. She reported the incident to the ride-sharing company, as did her friend who ordered the ride. A representative from Uber called her in response to her complaint on Dec. 4. Over email later the same day, a representative apologized for her experience and said they would be “following up with this driver to try to ensure an incident like this does not occur again.” The fare would be refunded, they said.

“A serious incident involving hate should trigger immediate action within 24 hours. Anything less allows prejudice to just go unchecked. Basically, it took them four days to get back to me,” Mattova said. “I want to be clear that what happened is about far more than an uncomfortable ride home or a refunded fair. The incident I experienced was a direct act of antisemitism, and the reason I’m speaking about it is because moments like this must be confronted openly.”

In a statement to National Post, an Uber spokesperson said: “Discrimination is unacceptable, and we’re deeply sorry for the experience this rider had. Everyone deserves to feel safe, welcome, and respected when using Uber. We’ve contacted the rider directly and taken appropriate action on the driver.”

Uber did not clarify to National Post what action was taken.

“What concerns me most is that Uber refuses to confirm whether the driver is still operating on the platform,” Mattova said, adding that Uber cited the privacy rights of the driver.

“Any responsible company, in my opinion, would immediately remove a driver who refuses to take someone because they are Jewish,” she said.

Mattova has been using her platform as a model and public figure to speak out against antisemitism since the October 7 attacks, when 1,200 people were murdered by Hamas terrorists in Israel and 251 taken hostage. Despite backlash on social media and receiving hateful messages about her support for Israel, she said she remains strong in her convictions because she’s heard stories of how insidious antisemitism can be.

Her Slovakian grandmother, now 90, is a Holocaust survivor who was held in a concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic.

“She used to tell me these horrible stories of what happened, even a year or two before the war actually started,” she said. “These moments remind me of exactly what she was telling me, and this is why I’m speaking up. If we let these things slide, will the same thing repeat itself? That’s my biggest question: Where are we heading?” she said.

Most recently, her advocacy work included a visit to Israel along with nonprofit group Israel Friends, dedicated to providing life-saving aid across Israel, including trauma care. She spoke to Israeli soldiers “fighting for our freedom and for our safety and the safety of the Jewish nation in Israel,” she said. She also travelled to the kibbutz where Hamas terrorists kidnapped Ofir Engel and spoke with him about his experience.

“The scourge of antisemitism has to be confronted by courageous individuals such as Miriam who are prepared to vigorously fight back,” said her lawyer Howard Levitt. Levitt is also a contributor to National Post and Financial Post.

“I am demanding of Uber that it terminate its relationship with this driver and ensures that all of its drivers commit and adhere to principles of non-discrimination,” he said.

“Unfortunately, as we permit demonstrations to take over our streets, often focused on Jewish neighbourhoods, replete with criminal hate speech, terrorizing the Jewish community, antisemitism is increasingly normalized allowing residents, such as this driver, to believe that such conduct will be tolerated,” Levitt said.

When the

Palestinian flag was raised at Toronto City Hall in November

, Mattova attended and held the Israeli flag.

“I think in Canada, the only flag that should be raised is the Canadian flag,” she said. The decision to raise the Palestinian flag was condemned by Canadian Jewish groups.

Mattova, who has a Slovakian mother and Canadian father, said she has gone back and forth between Europe and Canada over the years, but decided to move back to Canada full-time in April 2023 — six months before October 7. Since then, she’s been promoting the message that “Israel has the right to defend itself.”

“Moments like (the Uber incident) remind me of my grandmother’s pre-war stories,” she said. “Stories of people staying quiet, dismissing small acts of hate until they become something far more dangerous.”

In October 2023, a rideshare driver in California was

charged with a federal hate crime for an antisemitic attack

on a passenger, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release. The driver allegedly assaulted the passenger “because he thought the rider was Jewish or Israeli.” The man was later acquitted by a federal jury, the Jewish News of Northern California

reported

.

In August, an Uber driver in Vienna was suspended by the company after Jewish passengers said they were assaulted, verbally harassed and kicked out of the vehicle,

the Times of Israel reported

. Uber said it launched an investigation into the incident.

• Two ejected, two others arrested at anti-Israel protest at Toronto debate on ‘two state solution’
• Caroline Bassoon-Zaltman: The hate I escaped in Iraq is rising again in Canada

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The federal Liberals are holding 43 per cent of support amongst decided Canadian voters, maintaining a lead over the Conservatives, who dropped two points last month to 36 per cent, according to a new Postmedia-Leger poll.

Support for the Liberals has not changed since a Nov. 3 poll. The Bloc Québécois, meanwhile, gained two points amongst decided voters to sit at nine per cent support, and the NDP was up one point with eight per cent support, according to the survey conducted Nov. 28 to 30.

“There is no clear advantage for any party when you look at these numbers to suggest that going into an election would be a really good idea,” Andrew Enns, Leger’s executive vice-president for Central Canada, said Thursday.

“I don’t see anything positive for any of the two frontrunners to suggest that they’ve got a really clear path to victory.”

Almost half of Canadians (49 per cent) indicated they are satisfied with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government, while 40 per cent are dissatisfied.

Approval of Carney’s performance remained unchanged at 51 per cent (down from 55 per cent in July); disapproval stands at 38 per cent.

According to Enns, the numbers suggest a recent Conservative resignation and a floor crossing, the passing of the 2025 budget, and a second round of major project announcements had little impact on the way Canadians see the government and federal political parties.

Voters “are still waiting for the new government to start to move forward on some of its promises and not really kicking the tires of any of the opposition parties right now, in any meaningful way,” Enns said.

“They’re sort of parked.”

Satisfaction with federal opposition leaders remains low, with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre at 31 per cent, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May at 26 per cent, the Bloc’s Yves-François Blanchet at 19 per cent, and Don Davies, interim leader of the NDP, at 17 per cent.

Carney leads as the preferred prime minister amongst 40 per cent of those polled, followed by Poilievre at 28 per cent.

Thirty-one per cent of women polled didn’t know which leader they would support, nearly double the rate of men (16 per cent).

“If you look under the hood a little bit, there is a significant number of voters who are pretty ambivalent about all of these individuals,” Enns said.

“From a political perspective, that always presents a bit of an opportunity to go out and try to convince them – make your case — so we’ll see how that goes in the New Year.”

Seventy-eight per cent of Conservative supporters said Poilievre should stay on as the party’s leader, while the majority of those who support the other parties believe he should step down.

“That sort of gives you a temperature check on how Conservative supporters feel about Poilievre,” Enns said.

“It’s not a slam dunk ringing endorsement. But it doesn’t necessarily indicate that there’s a real groundswell of dissatisfaction either.”

The online survey polled 1,579 people across Canada and the results were weighted according to age, gender, mother tongue, region, education and presence of children in the household. A margin of error cannot be applied. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size would yield a margin of error of plus or minus 2.47 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

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Two thirds of Canadians support sending our troops to countries such as Poland if Russia invades, according to a new Postmedia-Leger poll.

“You’d like to think that this is really kind of a super hypothetical pie-in-the-sky kind of question. But unfortunately, crazy things are happening all around the world,” Andrew Enns, Leger’s executive vice-president for Central Canada, said Thursday.

Support is lower among women, at 56 per cent, and higher among men, at 76 per cent of those polled. Only 16 per cent of Canadians would oppose the deployment.

“You see a real gender divide on this question; it’s quite stark,” Enns said.

“Women, historically, have always been on the more peace side versus war side. The maternal instincts kick in, and I think that probably plays a big role.”

Support for the deployment drops to 58 per cent among those between the ages of 35 and 54, a group that’s more likely to have children. Support is slightly higher (61 per cent) among Canadians of fighting age, between 18 and 34.

Of those polled, 57 per cent hold positive impressions of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), a view that was more prevalent among male respondents (62 per cent).

Fewer female respondents (53 per cent) held a positive view of the CAF.

“Women might just not see the military as a place for them,” Enns said.

“I know it’s certainly changed over the last number of decades, but traditionally there is still a view that it is male dominated,” he said, noting a history of sexual harassment complaints against male officers as a likely factor in the equation.

Thirty-seven per cent of those polled feel the Armed Forces place too much emphasis on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, while 26 per cent are unsure.

Conservative voters (62 per cent), men (45 per cent) and those who hold a negative opinion of the CAF (58 per cent) are the most likely to believe too much emphasis is placed on DEI, according to the survey.

Just over half (51 per cent) are confident in the government’s ability to reach new recruitment targets of adding 6,500 people to the regular force and 75,000 reservists.

“That one did surprise me,” Enns said.

“If you have a positive impression about the Forces, you are really confident (63 per cent) they’re going to meet these targets. So, there is a little bit of, maybe it’s rose-coloured glasses” on the public’s part.

Sixty-eight per cent of Liberal voters believe Canada will hit recruiting targets, as do 41 per cent of Conservatives.

Fifty-five per cent of Canadians see the idea of encouraging civil servants to serve as part-time reservists as a good idea, according to the poll. That’s especially true among men (61 per cent) and those with positive views of the CAF (66 per cent).

“I found this surprising as well,” Enns said. “I’ll be honest … my first reaction was, ‘Are you crazy?’ The civil servants I know — I don’t think they’d make it an hour.”

Military brass walked back the proposed scheme recently.

“I think they felt the public reaction was going to be fairly poor,” Enns said. “And, lo and behold, it’s actually not that bad.”

Only 27 per cent of Canadians support increasing the GST to pay for a stronger military. One quarter thought Canada should raise the age when people are eligible for old age security benefits from 65 to 68 to beef up the military, and 21 per cent opted for increasing income taxes by five per cent to accomplish the same.

“There’s not a lot of appetite to raise much new revenue,” Enns said.

“There’s general support for re-arming the military … but paying for it, well, that’s a little bit different.”

Twenty per cent of those polled said Canada should proceed with purchasing F-35 stealth strike fighters for the Royal Canadian Air Force — a move that’s now under review. Thirty per cent would prefer Canada switch to a non-American aircraft and 18 per cent would opt for a mixed fleet.

Conservative voters (32 per cent) are the strongest supporters for sticking with F-35s.

“This is the public opinion result you get when you’ve endlessly debated something for over a decade,” Enns said. “People are just all over the map.”

If Canada goes all-in on the F35s, “there will probably be a bit of blowback, but there’s so much diversity in response patterns, I think it would be short-lived and pretty muted,” he said.

The number of Canadians who think we should buy non-American equipment has “probably inflated” this year, he said, with President Donald Trump’s oft repeated harangues about turning Canada into the 51st state.

Half of Canadians polled believe the federal government should prioritize buying military equipment that can be produced or manufactured in Canada by Canadian workers, while 29 per cent prefer focusing on the best and most cost-effective equipment, regardless of where it is made.

“We have, for decades, married the idea of re-arming the military with … economic development,” Enns said.

“Now the government is trying to pivot away from that, just saying we’ve got to re-arm our military as fast as we can.”

The online survey of 1,579 people was conducted between Nov. 28 and 30 and the results were weighted according to age, gender, mother tongue, region, education and presence of children in the household. A margin of error cannot be applied. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size would yield a margin of error of plus or minus 2.47 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

• More Canadians trust the military than the federal government: poll
• Half of Canadians would volunteer to fight if war breaks out, and fewer young people, poll finds

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Former prime minister Justin Trudeau and pop star Katy Perry shared a meal with former Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida and his wife, Yuko, in Tokyo this week.

In

an Instagram post

Thursday night, Kishida shared a photo of the foursome smiling widely as they stood together in front of a Christmas tree.

“Former Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau came to Japan with his partner Katy Perry and had lunch with us,” Kishida wrote.

“During my time as Prime Minister, I met Prime Ministers many times, and during my visit to Canada, we worked together to strengthen our bilateral relations, including formulating the ‘Nikka Action Plan.’”

Also known as the

Canada-Japan Action Plan

, the 2022 initiative outlined how the countries would work together on issues such as security, trade, energy, and humanitarian response in the Indo-Pacific region.

He went on to mention Trudeau’s visit to the Atomic Bomb Archives during the G7 Hiroshima Summit and wrote that Canada remains “an extremely important partner to Japan in all areas of politics, security, economics, culture,” and more.

 

When it was over, Trudeau posted a message expressing gratitude to Kishida for the lunch meeting.

“Thank you, Fumio, for your friendship and your continued commitment to both the international rules-based order and to a better future for everyone,” he wrote on X.

It’s not immediately clear if the get-together was a planned one, but Perry was already in Tokyo this week to perform the last of the shows on her world tour.

Great to see you @kishida230. Katy and I were so glad to have the chance to sit down with you and Yuko. Thank you, Fumio, for your friendship and your continued commitment to both the international rules-based order and to a better future for everyone. https://t.co/zLEuppHNST

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 4, 2025

As reported by

Page Six

and other celebrity news outlets earlier this week, she and Trudeau were seen strolling through the Asakusa district, a popular tourist area in the Japanese capital, on Monday night.

They were later photographed holding hands as they left the Sumo Stable Annex, where they were treated to a live wrestling match as they dined on traditional Japanese cuisine, as reported by

The Daily Mail

.

The lunch with the Japanese dignitaries preceded the second of back-to-back shows Perry performed at the Saitama Super Arena this week.

The 91-show tour ends Sunday in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.

• Sophie Grégoire Trudeau opens up about coping with Justin’s public romance with Katy Perry
• What Katy Perry and Sophie Grégoire have said since new Justin Trudeau relationship revealed

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A resounding majority of Air Transat pilots said Wednesday they are ready to go on strike next week, just ahead of the holiday travel season, should airline management fail to table a “modern contract.”

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents about 700 Air Transat pilots — 98 per cent of whom cast a ballot — said 99 per cent have voted in favour of labour action.

While not a formal strike notice,

the union said

the “pilots are prepared for any outcome.”

“Nobody wants to strike,” Capt. Bradley Small, Air Transat Master Executive Council union chair, told National Post.

“The company doesn’t want that. The pilots don’t want that. But we also want a fair agreement.”

Small said that pilots want an agreement in line with what their peers at Air Canada and WestJet have signed in recent years, and reflective of the realities of 2025.

Such a deal, he said, would address working conditions around scheduling, improved insurance coverage, better retirement security, and compensation. They’re also hoping to bolster job security by limiting the number of outsourced pilots Air Transat can use as it expands operations.

Negotiations to replace the decade-old agreement began in January and continued past the April expiration date through the summer, during which time Small alleges the company was only present about one-fifth of the time, prompting the union to ask Ottawa to provide conciliators.

After roughly two months of talks proved fruitless, a 21-day cooling-off period was initiated and conciliation turned to ongoing mediation, Small explained. That ends at midnight on Sunday, after which Air Transat can force a lockout or the union can file the required 72-hour strike notice to hit the picket lines as early as Dec. 10, this coming Wednesday.

“Right now, between what the company is offering and where we say we have to be to be at industry standards, there’s quite a big spread,” Small said Thursday morning.

“They’re going to have to work pretty hard to get to a point where we would push that to a further date or come up with an agreement.”

In a statement sent to National Post, Air Transat vice president of operations Dave Bourdages said significant progress has been made with the help of the conciliators to reach a tentative agreement and avoid a work stoppage.

“The goal remains to negotiate a collective agreement that satisfies both parties, reflects market realities and those of the company, and recognizes the contribution of our pilots,” he stated.

John Gradek, an aviation management lecturer at McGill and a former Air Canada executive, said the pilots are justified in their desire for a modernized contract.

“All the major clauses in the agreement have remained static over 10 years,” he said, “and working conditions established both by regulation as well as by competitors have changed significantly in that period of time.”

Airline bracing for holiday travel disruptions

In

a notice to passengers

, the airline said those fearing a strike will interfere with upcoming travel plans can cancel or modify their existing reservation “according to the terms and conditions of their fare class.”

If a strike notice is filed, the airline said “certain flights” will be cancelled and it would “do everything possible to assist customers in returning to their point of origin.”

“This would include the offer of a new ticket on a next available flight if such an option exists within 48 hours of the original departure time, or the refund of any unused portion of the trip.”

Small said the union was understanding of passenger concerns at this time of year, but blamed the company for dragging its heels.

He remains hopeful that a deal can be reached so their plans won’t be delayed or cancelled.

Gradek, however, doesn’t think passengers have to worry about a strike as there are elements “playing in favour of a settlement.”

Firstly, he said, Air Transat pilots have never had a work stoppage, and he contends that they have little appetite to have one now.

The other factor is the airline’s current financial situation.

This summer, Air Transat reached a deal to

restructure the debt it incurred during the pandemic

, thereby forgiving hundreds of millions it owed. Gradek added that the airline simply can’t afford to lose Christmas revenues that account for 15 to 20 per cent of annual profit.

“It’s going to be cheaper for Air Transat to settle with its pilots than for them to suffer, a two- or three- or four-day work stoppage by the pilots,” he said.

National Post contacted WestJet, Porter and Air Canada to ask if they have plans to modify operations to accommodate Air Transat passengers impacted by a strike.

“We are aware of the contract talks and are monitoring the situation, while getting ready for the always busy holiday season, when our planes are usually quite full,” the latter noted in an email to National Post.

The potential strike is the latest of recent labour actions within Canada’s airline industry.

Last summer, WestJet’s Canada Day long weekend flights were disrupted when mechanics went on strike. The airline’s flight attendants, meanwhile, have a contract set to expire on Dec. 31, with negotiations underway,

according to CUPE 8125

.

This summer, Air Canada flight attendants were on strike for three days — during which time they ignored a federal return-to-work order — before resuming negotiations and reaching a deal.

Small was dubious Ottawa would step in this time, but said they’ll be ready to deal with it should it occur.

Gradek is even more sure that Minister of Transport Steve MacKinnon or Minister of Jobs Patt Hajdu won’t act.

“I don’t think they want to be pushed to a corner and have to go through the same embarrassment that happened with the Air Canada flight attendants,” he said.

“I think that they’re hoping against hope that negotiations will in fact reach an agreement prior to Dec. 10.”

That seemed to be the message from Hajdu on Wednesday when reporters asked if Ottawa would intervene.

“These are all hypothetical questions. What I know is, the best deals are the ones that the parties arrive at together,” she said, according to

The Canadian Press.

“Let’s hope that they continue to have those conversations in earnest, and protect their industry, their employees and, of course, the many passengers that are relying on them.”

• Air Transat pilots’ union warns of possible December strike
• Carry-on will cost extra on some of Air Transat’s lowest fares

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

OTTAWA

— The 

Bloc Québécois says the Liberals cancelled a scheduled meeting of the

parliamentary justice committee on Thursday, where they were expected to discuss an amendment to remove the religious defence for Canada’s hate speech laws, out of fear of “backlash” for supporting the move. 

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves Francois-Blanchet appeared before reporters Thursday morning, alongside

Rhéal Fortin, the party’s MP on the committee currently studying Bill C-9, the Liberals’ bill aimed at tackling hate. 

Fortin has been set to bring forward an amendment to the bill, which proposes scrubbing from the Criminal Code religious defences which are available for certain hate speech charges which, as National Post reported this week, the Liberals had struck a deal to support in exchange for the Quebec party helping pass the bill. 

However, that meeting, which was set for Thursday afternoon, was cancelled.

“We fear that because representatives, or would be representatives, of some groups, came to the committee and sat there, that the Liberals fear backlash against them within some communities, and that because of that, they have cancelled today’s meeting,” Blanchet told reporters.

He added that the party worries the Liberals could do the same for the two meetings scheduled for next week, putting the study of the bill off until 2026.

Losing potential Bloc support for the bill could jeopardize its passing, with the Opposition Conservatives stating they oppose it.

During Tuesday’s meeting, when the bill was last discussed, the Canadian Council of Imams came to watch, where they circulated a statement that they opposed the removal of the religious defences.

That meeting ultimately ended shortly after its scheduled time at the request of the Liberals, with support from the Bloc, despite an expectation that MPs were willing to stay late to complete the clause-by-clause study of the bill.

At the time, Liberal MPs on the committee explained that they had brought things to a close because they felt the meeting had been productive.

However, Fortin told reporters on Thursday he was told that it had to do with “pressure” that they received.

Blanchet said he had earlier informed Steven Guilbeault, the Liberal MP who had served as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Quebec lieutenant before he resigned from cabinet last week, that the Quebec party’s support for the government bill depended on amendments, with the main one being to remove the religious exemptions.

Afterwards, Blanchet said Justice Minister Sean Fraser told his MP on the committee that “we will do it.”

Blanchet is now calling on the Liberals to let the justice committee sit to deal with the bill and the amendment at hand.

“We invite them to go on with it next week. If not, there’s a huge political tag attached to this issue.”

The Opposition Conservatives have been vocally opposed to the removal of the religious defences from the Criminal Code, saying that doing so amounts to an attack on “religious freedom.”

Conservative MPs on social media on Thursday accused the Liberals of stalling the government’s justice agenda, following the Liberals’ accusation that the Opposition party had prevented debate on the bill.

With files from Christopher Nardi

National Post

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A Canadian man accused of heading a multi-billion-dollar global drug syndicate has been sentenced to 16 years in prison in Australia after three years of secret, closed court hearings.

Tse Chi Lop, formerly of Toronto, was accused of being one of world’s biggest drug kingpins and called “Asia’s El Chapo” when a deluge of meth was flowing across the Asia-Pacific region.

A global manhunt for the Chinese-born Canadian citizen ended when he was arrested at an airport in Amsterdam in 2021 as he tried to fly back to Canada. His extradition to face trial in Australia required a guarantee that he not face more than 25 years in prison. He arrived in Australia in December 2022.

On Thursday in court in Melbourne, when the doors were finally opened to the public and media, it seems the Dutch government did not need to worry about harsh Australian sentencing.

The world learned that last month he had pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic commercial quantities of border-controlled drugs.

Australian media reports say the 62-year-old showed little emotion in court where he sat with a Cantonese interpreter under police guard.

The judge, Peter Rozen, described his business as “pure evil.”

Tse became one of the world’s most-wanted organized crime figures before he was caught. His vast wealth and power kept his name out of the headlines for years, allowing him to live a jet-set life filled with private planes, high-rolling casinos, real estate and travel.

Authorities said Tse forged an alliance of five triad crime groups in Asia into an organization members called “The Company.” For police in many countries, the syndicate was called Sam Gor, Cantonese for “Brother Number Three,” one of Tse’s nicknames.

“It’s about time. But as the judge mentioned, he got off lightly, he’s lucky,” said Jeremy Douglas, deputy director of operations with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, known as UNODC. Douglas first

dubbed Tse “the Asian El Chapo,“ in reference to El Chapo Guzman, the notorious Mexican drug kingoin. 

“At 16 years, pardonable after ten years, minus time served and time in Amsterdam before his extradition, means he could be out in a few years and deported, on a plane back to Toronto,” said Douglas, himself a Canadian.

Tse immigrated to Canada with his fiancé in 1988, at the age of 25 and settled in Toronto. There he laid the foundation for his aspirations. They married in Canada a year later and had two children, a daughter and a son; his son had health issues since birth, he once told court in a plea for leniency. Both his parents and his in-laws followed him to Canada and they all lived together, according to court records.

Tse first hit police radar in Canada in the early 1990s when he was caught in an RCMP drug probe of Italian mafiosi living in the Toronto area who were dealing with Chinese-based crime groups.

Tse shuttled back and forth between Canada and Asia but in recent years primarily lived abroad.

Despite the vast empire alleged by officials around the world, the Melbourne trial focussed on the period 2012-2013 of plotting within Australia. Prosecutors had strong evidence of his involvement in a drug plot that led to a series of police raids and seizures.

At its peak, Australia Federal Police (AFP) said, the Sam Gor syndicate was the biggest trafficker of methamphetamine to Australia.

He will be eligible for parole after serving 10 years.

Krissy Barrett, commissioner of the AFP, said the sentencing ended one of the federal force’s most high-profile investigations, called Operation Volante.

“This result showcases what the AFP does best — identifying and targeting criminal syndicates that cause significant harm to our communities,’’ she said.

“Operation Volante is a culmination of 14 years of hard work and perseverance from our investigators and international network. This investigation highlights that the long arm of the AFP can reach criminals across the world.”

Douglas said the modest sentence from not prosecuting Tse on much larger allegations is “unfortunate, especially given I know what international partners and the AFP have on him. The estimates of the different Sam Gor shipments that were going out of the Golden Triangle towards Australia and around the region were in the tens of tons, not a tiny amount.”

Tse will be deported when released, likely back to Canada.

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | X: AD_Humphreys

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