The Canadian Company Staffing ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Aug. 8, 2025

Carney’s government awarded GardaWorld millions in contracts and isn’t ruling out more.

A Canadian company is providing the muscle for a new Florida detention centre dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” — and the Canadian government isn’t ruling out working with the security giant in the future.

This wishy-washy stance when it comes to jaw-dropping cruelty tied to the United States is yet another stroke in an increasingly clear portrait: one of Prime Minister Mark Carney with his elbows firmly planted to his sides when it comes to big business.

Quebec-based GardaWorld, which has reportedly been awarded a US$8-million contract for work on the U.S. detention site, has also been awarded more than $100 million in Canadian government contracts since Carney won the Liberal leadership in March of this year.

Most of these contracts were for work relating to the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, valued together at more than $75 million.

The disclosures I found were listed under variations of the name “Garda,” including “Garda Canada Security Corporation” and “Garda Security Group GP.”

A search of all federally registered corporations in Canada shows the only corporations with “Garda” in their name that have been active during Carney’s tenure are registered at the addresses associated with the same GardaWorld corporation involved with Alligator Alcatraz.

With the start of operations at the Florida detention centre, experts have argued the United States has crossed a dangerous line when it comes to constitutional rights violations. Lawyers who have sought an injunction against Alligator Alcatraz have said detainees are being held without charges and some have been pressured “to sign deportation orders without the ability to speak to counsel.”

In an opinion piece for MSNBC, Andrea Pitzer, the author of a history of concentration camps in four countries, defined this type of imprisonment as “mass civilian detention without real trials targeting vulnerable groups for political gain based on ethnicity, race, religion or political affiliation rather than for crimes committed.”

Pitzer argued that Alligator Alcatraz fits this definition. And, she said, concentration camps are a “modern” invention: “The patenting and mass production of barbed wire and automatic weapons over a century ago made it possible to detain large groups with a small guard force for the first time.”

A whistleblower has already come forward to describe the horrors she saw while working at the detention facility.

Lindsey, who worked as a “corrections officer” at Alligator Alcatraz, told NBC News detainees were held in what appeared like “an oversized kennel.”

“They have no sunlight. There’s no clock in there. They don’t even know what time of the day it is. They have no access to showers. They shower every other day or every four days,” NBC reported in the piece, published Wednesday.

And, she added, “not everybody there is a criminal.”

Lindsey’s contract, according to NBC News, was with GardaWorld.

Public safety minister and the CBSA respond

I reached out to Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s office — which is responsible for the CBSA — to ask whether they intend to work with GardaWorld in the future.

They told me “our office will not be commenting on this matter.”

I emailed them again, wanting to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding things.

“I just want to confirm that you aren’t commenting, and therefore I can’t say you’re ruling out future contracts being awarded to GardaWorld?”

“Our office will not be commenting. Any questions related to future contracts would be for PSPC,” they told me, referring me to the department Public Services and Procurement Canada.

PSPC then referred me to the CBSA, who eventually sent a response confirming the existence of active contracts with GardaWorld.

“When awarding contracts, the CBSA systematically verifies the bidder’s compliance with security requirements and its ability to meet the contractual obligations,” a CBSA spokesperson said on Wednesday.

“As of July 2025, the CBSA holds two active contracts with the vendor GardaWorld pertaining to the Laval [immigration holding centre].”

The statement then detailed two active contracts specific to the Laval immigration holding centre, “to assist with the care and control of its low, medium and high-risk detained clients.” One was awarded on July 1, 2023, and another on March 21, 2025 — after Carney was sworn in.

GardaWorld did not respond to three requests for comment over a three-week period.

Outrage at GardaWorld’s role in Everglades facility

The detention facility located in the Florida Everglades got its nickname due to what U.S. government officials have suggested is a natural deterrent for detainees hoping to escape deportation.

“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter,” bragged Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in a post on X. “If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.”

The facility is supposed to turbocharge U.S. President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, a cruel and aggressive effort that has seen legal U.S. residents rounded up, activists targeted and detained for extended periods of time, and deportations without due process.

Reports have already started to emerge detailing horrific conditions at the so-called Alligator Alcatraz.

Lawmakers who were given access to the hastily constructed facility described detainees shouting for help as they endured suffocating heat, insect infestations and a lack of adequate food.

News of the Montreal-based company’s involvement in Trump’s one-stop shop for mass deportation first emerged in reporting from the Miami Herald and the Logic earlier this month.

Days later, the Montreal Gazette reported GardaWorld was “hiring armed guards for a facility in the same Florida community” as the deportation facility.

Outrage soon followed.

On social media, Canadians tagged Mark Carney in angry posts.

“Disgusting and disgraceful! GardaWorld is a CANADIAN company! CANADIAN!! They must NOT participate in the running of a concentration camp for cash,” wrote one Bluesky user.

Over on the forum-based social media site Reddit, angry Canadians were frustrated the situation wasn’t getting more attention.

“Why isn’t anyone making a bigger deal of this? It’s a literal concentration camp,” wrote one user, with more than 700 others indicating their agreement through “upvotes.”

“Let’s boycott them!!! They are complicit,” wrote another.

Others questioned the future repercussions: “In some years from now, when the trials happen in The Hague, will they claim they were just following orders?”

This isn’t the first time GardaWorld has been involved in controversy over conditions at an immigration detention facility it was hired to staff.

Immigration detainees went on several hunger strikes at a Montreal-area facility in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Detainees were protesting “what they [felt were] life-threatening conditions,” Human Rights Watch reported at the time. The watchdog organization cited detainees who said it was “impossible to stay safe from the virus in the detention facility.”

“Ventilation is inadequate because all the windows are shut, the sanitary conditions are poor, and guards sometimes remove their masks.... I felt it was inconceivable that they put us in these conditions where we were unable to protect ourselves from the virus,” one detainee is quoted as saying.

The Montreal-area facility in question, at the time, had at least 165 guards who were contracted to staff the facility through GardaWorld.

Elbows down when it comes to big business

During the last federal election, Mark Carney and the Liberals skyrocketed in the polls on a pledge to keep their elbows sky-high in the face of U.S. aggression.

Now, the decision to offer “no comment” when it comes to whether the Carney-led Canadian government would rule out working with GardaWorld seems awfully timid — particularly when contrasted with his response to other controversies.

Carney appeared to have no problem launching a dig at a large Chinese company after hearing the B.C. provincial government opted to buy four ferries from the foreign shipyard.

“I see a ferry,” Carney reportedly quipped as he looked through binoculars during a tour of a Canadian Forces facility on Vancouver Island on Monday.

“Not Chinese-made.”

During a committee meeting last week, Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland told MPs she was “dismayed” BC Ferries had chosen to use a federal loan to purchase the ships from the Chinese company. The Conservative transportation critic had previously raised concerns about outsourcing Canadian jobs and Chinese tariffs on Canada.

Clearly, this government is capable of speaking about spending decisions that don’t align with its priorities. So why is it clamming up in the face of big business behaving badly in the United States?

A small rap on the knuckles or a “We’re looking into it” might have satisfied horrified Canadians. At least it would be something.

Instead, they’ve opted not to touch the issue, avoiding the risk of offending the Americans.

Carney’s government also avoided the risk of offending Canada’s self-described largest security company, which GardaWorld management took over last year in a $13.5-billion buyout — Canada’s largest private deal.

It’s not the first time Carney has rolled over when faced with a combination of U.S. anger and the bulging wallets of big business.

Take, for example, the Carney administration’s capitulation to Trump on the digital services tax.

Corporations like Apple, Meta and Amazon were looking at a $2-billion bill. But after Trump’s tantrum, Carney gave these three massive companies a break, rescinding the tax. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom retained its tax on digital services amid similar trade negotiations with the United States.

It’s starting to look like the early outlines of a pattern.

Carney was elected on a campaign promise to keep his elbows up in the face of Trump.

Increasingly, it appears the weight of wealth might be all it takes to force them back down.

Rachel Gilmore is an award-winning journalist with extensive experience reporting on federal politics, human rights, disinformation and extremism.

[Top photo: Workers install a sign reading ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ at the entrance to a new migrant detention facility in Florida on July 3, 2025. Photo by Rebecca Blackwell, the Associated Press.]