Despite dozens of new extortion threats and eight extortion-related shootings this year, the B.C. RCMP says progress is being made to curb extortion violence and to hold those responsible accountable.
Nine individuals have been deported in connection with extortion-related files.
B.C. RCMP Assistant Commissioner John Brewer, head of the B.C. Extortion Task Force, told Global News Morning that he considers the results so far to be progress.
“These are very complex investigations that take a lot of time and effort by the police to bring them to conclusion,” Brewer said.
“So yes, while there’s still extortions coming in, my extortion task force, made up of police officers across jurisdictions, RCMP, provincially, municipally, municipal police officers, are all working diligently and we are making great progress working with our federal partners, primarily CBSA.”
On Tuesday, Brewer said that the extortion-related cases, most of them in Surrey, are not a crisis.
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On Wednesday, Brewer doubled down on that message.
“When I say, yes, is it important to people? Yes. Do people feel scared? Do individuals believe it’s a crisis? Absolutely. Are we taking it extremely seriously? Yes.
“Are we putting all the resources we can towards it? Absolutely are. But my point being, if we just call everything a crisis, right, I have to focus on those that are important. Extortions are a primary focus for us in policing right now, particularly in the Lower Mainland, but across the country.”
Surrey journalist Gurpreet Singh Sahota said that at first, he thought Brewer was going to say something else.
“If it’s not a crisis then what is the crisis?” he said. “People are getting shot in the shoulder, people get shot in the jaw and we don’t know even if the killings are related to these extortion-related things. Then what the crisis is? What we call the crisis if it’s not the crisis.”
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Sahota said he thought Brewer’s comments showed the mindset of the B.C. RCMP — that they don’t think this is a crisis situation.
“Honestly, we are here, Punjabis here from the last 125 years. And Canada is here for 159 years. We as a community build Canada and somehow, we feel today that we are not part of it, that we’re not part of mainstream,” he added. “Still, we’re immigrants.”
“And if the same thing happens to a non-Punjabi, maybe then it will be a crisis.”
B.C. Premier David Eby said on Wednesday that if Brewer did not think the situation was a “crisis,” then he needed to step aside.
However, on Wednesday afternoon, Brewer issued a statement saying he wanted to apologize for challenging the term “crisis” as it has now become the focus of the issue and has called into question the RCMP’s commitment to addressing extortions in the province.
He said that was not his intention.
“The opportunity to provide an update and reassure the public has instead impacted public confidence,” he said.
“The task force’s commitment to addressing the ongoing threats and violence has not wavered. Our efforts have never been limited because of a term. Extortions remain one of our highest priorities.”
Wade Deisman, a criminologist at the University of the Fraser Valley, told Global News that the situation is a crisis.
“There are objective indicators that a crisis is underway,” he said.
“It’s not about a subjective kind of sense of panic. People are losing confidence in the police, so there’s a crisis of credibility in terms of the police’s ability to solve the problem. It’s a crisis in terms of the efficacy of the measures that they’ve used so far.”
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke told Global News on Tuesday that people in the city do not feel safe.
“I absolutely think it’s a crisis,” she said.
Deisman said politicians are adhering to their duty of care to advocate for their communities and to call out law enforcement for sugarcoating or using euphemistic language to describe what’s going on.
“I would really commend Mayor Locke for the fierceness with which she’s advocating on behalf of the communities,” he added.
“I think it’s important and appropriate to hold the police forces’ feet to the fire around this and to not accept that diminutive way of framing the issues.”
Surrey radio host and former MLA Jinny Sims called the task force update on Tuesday “superficial.”
She said that what she sees in Surrey does not feel like Canada anymore.
“And what I can tell you, in this community, people are talking about relocating, going somewhere else, people have lost or are losing confidence in our police system and our elected officials to deliver public safety.”
Brewer said in addition to police and partner agencies working hard to address extortion cases, they need the community’s support.
He said every case should be reported to the police and is urging people not to pay money or try to take matters into their own hands.
“I am taking this seriously, personally,” Brewer added.
“All my police officers are taking this personally, and we are dealing with this. We work around the clock. We don’t take time off. We don’t take weekends off. We’re working on this. I worked on this all weekend with my team, getting briefings and making decisions on investigative steps forward.”
Brewer urges everyone with information to bring that forward to the policing agencies.
— with files from Global News’ Jordan Armstrong
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