There is growing frustration in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland as the number of extortion attempts continues to mount with little in the way of arrests or charges.
On Tuesday, Global News reported that the number of open extortion files with the Surrey Police Service this year had climbed to 26, up from 10 in early June.
But those numbers may far under-represent the situation, according to longtime Punjabi journalist Gurpreet Singh Sahota, who said there is mounting outrage that “nothing is happening” to bring the extortionists to justice.
Sahota said he has heard that the extortion demands could number in the hundreds, not all of them within the South Asian community, and that many of the targets aren’t going to police.
“Some people try to arrange their own way; they don’t want to go to police,” he said, adding that many people fear consequences if they speak publicly about the threats as well.
“Your name comes up and it’s hard to get life insurance, it’s hard to get a mortgage,” he said.
At the same time, Sahota said people see headlines from Ontario and Alberta where Peel Regional Police and Edmonton police have made multiple arrests resulting in charges.
BC RCMP have so far announced the arrest of two suspects on suspicion of firearms, extortion and arson offences, but no one has been charged.
“People are looking for results. People want to see the pictures of the people coming in a press release. People want to see the names, these guys are charged, and these guys are deported,” he said.
“So they want to see the real results, not the statements.”
The RCMP formed the National Coordination and Support Team (NCST) last year, with the goal of supporting extortion investigations across the country.
Supt. Adam MacIntosh, officer in charge of the NCST, acknowledged the public concerns, but said there is little police can do if people don’t come forward.
“There are still occurrences happening which, no doubt, is very scary for people when their house is shot at, their business is damaged, or they themselves are being threatened or their family,” he said.
“The only thing I can say to them is that we encourage you to contact the police of jurisdiction, report what’s occurred, allow them to work with you, build that trust, and they can work with a safety plan with you.”
McIntosh added that while every investigation is different, one factor that could play into the speed in bringing charges in Alberta and Ontario is that police are responsible for charge approval in those provinces, while in B.C. it is the Crown prosecution service.
University of Alberta assistant law professor Sanderine Ampleman-Tremblay told Global News that the standard for a case to see charges approved in B.C. is “quite high.”
“It’s a substantial likelihood of conviction. Whereas in other provinces, you usually have the reasonable likelihood of conviction,” she said.
“It’s just more difficult to get the evidence to have the threshold to prosecute.”
While it may be easier for police to lay charges in other provinces, however, Ampleman-Tremblay noted that those cases won’t necessarily make it to trial as prosecutors will still review the file and may choose to drop them if they don’t think they can win in court.
She added that the discrepancy between B.C. and Alberta and Ontario may simply be that investigators in other provinces had more success in gathering evidence to move the cases forward.
“Sometimes you don’t know what the investigation yields either, right?” she said.
“There is a lot of variability depending on the type of evidence that is found throughout a police investigation.”
In Edmonton, police have charged six people, one of whom has already pleaded guilty.
In Ontario, Peel Regional Police recnetly charged 18 people. They have also arrested three men from Delta who stand charged with first-degree murder in a fatal Brampton shooting.
The victim’s wife says he had received an extortion call before his killing.
MacIntosh said police are doing everything they can to advance the investigations, but acknowledged some of those involved in the actual extortions are likely low-level recruits, rather than the masterminds.
“Oftentimes, they may not know who they’re directly working for, which, of course, makes it more complicated for the police,” he sia.d
Sahota, meanwhile, said the longer the crimes go on without visible progress from police, the greater the fear grows in the community.
“They are worried when somebody’s house gets shot,” he said.
“They are firing 10 bullets at your house, so it could be anybody, your kid will be playing outside, or you will be sitting in the living room — bullets just hit, it can happen anywhere, when they fire the bullets, they don’t see if it’s hurting someone.