From the Fraser Institute

By Mackenzie Moir

Despite a relatively high level of spending, Canada has significantly fewer doctors, hospital beds, MRI machines and CT scanners compared to other countries with universal health care, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

“There’s a clear imbalance between the high cost of Canada’s health-care system and the actual care Canadians receive in return,” said Mackenzie Moir, senior policy
analyst at the Fraser Institute and author of Comparing Performance of Universal Health-Care Countries, 2025.

In 2023, the latest year of available comparable data, Canada spent more on health care (as a percentage of the economy/GDP, after adjusting for population age) than
most other high-income countries with universal health care (ranking 3rd out of 31 countries, which include the United Kingdom, Australia and the Netherlands).
And yet, Canada ranked 27th (of 30 countries) for the availability of doctors and 25th (of 30) for the availability of hospital beds.

In 2022, the latest year of diagnostic technology data, Canada ranked 27th (of 31 countries) for the availability of MRI machines and 28th (of 31) for CT scanners.
And in 2023, among the nine countries with universal health-care systems included in the Commonwealth Fund’s International Health Policy Survey, Canada ranked last for the percentage of patients able to make same- or next-day appointments when sick (22 per cent) and had the highest percentage of patients (58 per cent) who waited two months or more for non-emergency surgery. For comparison, the Netherlands had much higher rates of same- or next-day appointments (47 per cent) and much lower waits of two months or more for non-emergency surgery (20 per cent).

“To improve health care for Canadians, our policymakers should learn from other countries around the world with higher-performing universal health-care systems,”
said Nadeem Esmail, director of health policy at the Fraser Institute.

Comparing Performance of Universal Health Care Countries, 2025

• Of the 31 high-income universal health-care countries, Canada ranks among the highest spenders, but ranks poorly on both the availability of most resources and access to services.
• After adjustments for differences in the age of the population of these 31 countries, Canada ranked third highest for spending as a percentage of GDP in 2023 (the most recent year of comparable data).
• Across 13 indictors measured, the availability of medical resources and timely access to medical services in Canada was generally below that of the average OECD country.
• In 2023, Canada ranked 27th (of 30) for the relative availability of doctors and 25th (of 30) for hospital beds dedicated to physical care. In 2022, Canada ranked 27th (of 31) for the relative availability of Magnetic Resonance Im-aging (MRI) machines, and 28th (of 31) for CT scanners.
• Canada ranked last (or close to last) on three of four indicators of timeliness of care.
• Notably, among the nine countries for which comparable wait times measures are available, Canada ranked last for the percentage of patients reporting they were able to make a same- or next-day appointment when sick (22%).
• Canada also ranked eighth worst for the percentage of patients who waited more than one month to see a specialist (65%), and reported the highest percentage of patients (58%) who waited two months or more for non-emergency surgery.
• Clearly, there is an imbalance between what Canadians get in exchange for the money they spend on their health-care system.

Sam Cooper

Case sprawls from Pakistan’s chemical-precursor labs to Vancouver’s cannabis fields and law offices.

A high-stakes North American legal battle—centering on a politically connected Sikh-Canadian businessman at the collision point of Canada’s regulated cannabis sector and what U.S. authorities call a “multiyear, multinational attack” on American markets—and two estranged Vancouver brothers, one a convicted heroin trafficker and the other a cannabis cultivator alleging he was cut out of a Health Canada–licensed venture—has taken a turn in B.C. Supreme Court.

In one action, Emerald Health Sciences and related parties—including former British Columbia physician Avtar Singh Dhillon—have denied allegations by Krishansarup “Kris” Kallu, an estranged relative who says the company was structured to enrich insiders later charged by the U.S. government and to conceal key investors with deep narcotics ties that extend to chemical-precursor labs in Pakistan’s northern mountains—including his brother, Yadvinder “Yad” Kallu.

Dhillon—a British Columbia–educated physician and Sikh community leader now based in California—has long displayed deep political proximity in Canada; among the images circulating online is a photo of his niece with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

As Emerald Health stepped back from Dr. Dhillon—later drawn into an SEC case describing his role, along with West Vancouver lawyer Fred Sharp, in a one-billion-dollar stock-fraud network as a “multiyear, multinational attack” on American markets—his former Emerald partners filed a civil indemnity claim in September 2025 to create legal distance from Yadvinder Kallu.

In plain terms, the former executives deny the allegations against Emerald and argue that, if anything improper occurred—which they do not admit—legal responsibility must rest with Yadvinder Kallu alone.

Kris Kallu’s suit centers on the claim that his cousin Avtar Dhillon, Emerald Health Sciences, and Fred Sharp sit at the core of the network targeted by the United States government. He alleges that Sharp and Avtar Dhillon “are the true, direct or indirect controllers of Emerald Health Sciences,” and that “Sharp and [Avtar Dhillon] have been close business associates for many years.”

Kallu’s filings allege that individuals facing fraud charges in United States proceedings were among Emerald Health’s early investors.

They also state that Emerald Health Sciences had more than 200 shareholders on a confidential register maintained in Vancouver by the Canadian law firm Bennett Jones. The Bureau has previously reported on the firm’s ties to Liberal Party figures, and that former British Columbia premier Christy Clark has served as a senior adviser in the firm’s Vancouver office.

The Bureau’s reporting also included reviewing thousands of North American court filings and mapping financial networks tied to that legal share register—networks that span the Western Hemisphere and, through Yad Kallu’s historic narcotics activity, intersect with politically consequential narco-trafficking corridors in northern India and Pakistan.

Kris Kallu’s allegations are blunt: they suggest Emerald Health grew from a poisoned root—an effort to work around his brother Yad’s transnational trafficking history—while a polished corporate vehicle, including the Bennett Jones confidential share register, was built. He alleges that register ultimately benefited suspects tied to the Fred Sharp network.

In a revealing September 2021 email to another Dhillon family member—referring to news of U.S. government charges against the Fred Sharp network—Kallu wrote, according to his affidavit: “I find it very alarming as the key players that are being charged with fraud, money laundering, etc. are also invested in Emerald Health Sciences. I am curious how these investors were provided the opportunity to invest, given this is a private cannabis company and all investors were handpicked.”

According to Dhillon’s testimony in Boston as a cooperating witness, Sharp’s group would merge private companies run by hidden Vancouver investors into publicly traded companies, hire writers to fraudulently tout the companies in order to pump up prices, then sell shares to everyday investors—who were left holding deflated assets. Afterward, the conspirators laundered their proceeds. Key players got cash payments, part of a sprawling stock-fraud scheme allegedly tied to cannabis and biotech firms, shell entities, and a network of shadowy Western Hemisphere control groups.

During his testimony, Dhillon described one Vancouver exchange: “Once those shares were sold, I was in communication with (one of the Fred Sharp actors) about receiving some of the funds, and (the actor) offered and said, ‘Would you like to receive them in cash?’ And I said, ‘Certainly.’” Elaborating further, he said, “(The actor) personally delivered cash to me—usually at a restaurant.” When asked why he preferred cash, Dhillon was candid: “To hide it.”

Tracking further back in the B.C. Supreme Court record, Kris Kallu’s filings reach to Health Canada’s medical-marijuana program to explain how the business took root.

“In 2010, I completed an application form to obtain a designated growing licence,” his affidavit states, describing an effort to gain expertise ahead of regulatory changes. Because his brother Yad carried a trafficking conviction, Kris says the family devised a workaround: “As part of the application process, you had to pass a criminal background check. Yad had a criminal record for drug trafficking, so it was agreed that I would formally apply to become a designated grower for a patient who had a license for 99 plants.”

By 2013, he says, both Yad and their mother held sizeable medical-marijuana licences. He alleges that when Emerald Health was formed, he was told to route share-purchase funds through his mother’s bank account and later learned that some shares were allocated to David Nair, a co-defendant in Yad’s earlier criminal case. The criminal history cited by Kris Kallu relates to Yad Kallu’s involvement in a late-1990s joint DEA–RCMP probe ending with United States federal sentences after a California heroin deal.

B.C. Supreme Court findings describe a DEA operation that implicated Yad Kallu and Vancouver underworld figure Ranjit Singh Cheema, who was extradited to the United States for allegedly planning to import 200 kilograms of heroin and 4,000 kilograms of hashish from Pakistan. Cheema’s Canadian faction reportedly negotiated with Colombian cartels, bartering heroin for 800 kilograms of cocaine. Central to the probe was Mohammed Yusuf Khan, a former Pakistani military officer turned DEA asset, who facilitated the heroin transactions for Cheema’s network while working with RCMP liaisons.

The sting had deep U.S. intelligence roots.

According to a March 20, 1997 debrief by DEA Islamabad personnel—cited in Canadian court records—Mohammed Yusuf Khan told agents he had been approached by Mohamed Shafiq, a retired Pakistani army major and owner of Karam Associates, a chemical importer in Lahore. Khan said Shafiq “routinely diverts acetic anhydride to traffickers” operating in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province—an essential precursor for heroin production—and that the pair were arranging a shipment of approximately 200 kilograms of Southwest Asia white heroin and up to four tons of hashish destined for North America.

Khan reported that Shafiq had already contacted a lab operator in northern Pakistan to stage the heroin for export. Initially, Shafiq “desired that the shipment be sent to Vancouver,” but Khan—who was also in contact with RCMP liaisons and aware of recent Canadian court decisions restricting controlled deliveries—refused to facilitate a Canadian entry. The plan shifted to Los Angeles, where Shafiq “had people in place who could take custody of the load and arrange its distribution.”

After U.S. visas were denied to both Shafiq and Khan, Khan offered to travel to Canada on his own—he held a multiple-entry Canadian visa—to meet “affiliated Canadians” and identify the U.S.-side recipients.

Meanwhile, in B.C. court filings, Emerald Health Sciences denies that Emerald was a conduit for undisclosed payments or a vehicle to hide criminal investors and asks the court to dismiss the Kris Kallu suit.

In a separate civil action dated September 11, 2025, five former Emerald Health Sciences figures closely linked to Avtar Dhillon seek protection from Yad Kallu.

Their claim cites the ongoing lawsuit brought by Kris Kallu and seeks indemnity from Yad, asserting that if any losses occurred, they were caused solely by Yad’s acts—not by the other Emerald parties.

But a narrow focus on Canadian court filings and B.C. hearings can distract from the underlying matter—and from the thematic link between Middle Eastern chemical labs and poppy fields and the fertile farmlands of Richmond, B.C., where narcotics have helped fuel a booming export market in Western Canada.

Industrial-scale grow-operation facilities linked to Emerald Health were the focus of Delta Police investigations in 2020, civil-forfeiture records show.

On October 28, 2020, police executed search warrants at multiple Richmond properties; they later described “Project Big Smoke” as the cannabis-production component and “Project Rolling Thunder” as a wider drug-trafficking probe launched in November 2020. Investigators concluded the output from these sites far exceeded the limits of Health Canada licences that Emerald promoted in 2018 through investor materials featuring Members of Parliament Carla Qualtrough and John Aldag, Richmond councillor Alexa Loo and Yad Kallu. Police estimated the facilities could produce roughly 18 million dollars’ worth of cannabis annually.

While cannabis was the primary focus, Delta Police’s “Rolling Thunder” raids—targeting a biker network linked to Emerald-branded marijuana—also uncovered hundreds of individually packaged doses of fentanyl, methamphetamine and crack cocaine, along with approximately one kilogram of powdered cocaine, according to filings in the B.C. Director of Civil Forfeiture’s ongoing case against Emerald-linked properties.

Meanwhile, in his 2023 appearance before a United States jury, Dhillon acknowledged that he agreed to testify against a number of his alleged conspirators, including Sharp, partly to mitigate his sentence. Dhillon testified that he personally earned between six and seven million dollars from these schemes, with proceeds funneled through various means—including offshore accounts in Singapore and Switzerland, cash deliveries, and payments routed through “designees.”

Dhillon’s testimony also illuminated Fred Sharp’s pivotal role in orchestrating these schemes, alleging Sharp established layers of offshore structures to hide beneficial ownership and exploited small-cap and emerging-market companies, including cannabis and biotech firms.