Harjeet Dhadda was shot dead on Wednesday outside his trucking business in Mississauga, Ont.
The 51-year-old’s family believes his murder is tied to an extortion call he got in 2023.
“They were cussing at him and when they were cussing at him they told him that they either want $500,000 or they will kill him,” Gurlin Dhadda, Harjeet’s daughter, told Global News.
“He said he won’t give them the money.”
Dhadda reported the incident to the police.
Dhadda’s killing is being felt in B.C., where South Asian business owners have been targeted with similar threats.
“It shocked me, like maybe next it’s me,” Abbotsford businessman Jas Arora said.
He told Global News he has faced more than 25 extortion attempts, including one last year.
Arora said at that time that he’d been receiving threats since last summer and that during one phone call, the extortionist told him that police wouldn’t do anything, knowing an officer was in the room with him.
He is now worried that the escalation from threats to killing someone will push more victims to pay up, which will only lead to more extortion attempts.
“I’m scared to say this openly but I fear it’s going to happen to me, or everyone again, and it’s going to happen to new people,” Arora said.
The RCMP launched a national task force last year to combat extortion, but community members say they are still waiting for results.
“We don’t know what they’re doing right now,” Satish Kumar, president of the Vedic Hindu Cultural Society said.
“They say they’re working on that, but there’s new things coming up again over here… they should take strong action. The laws should be changed.”
Meanwhile, in Ontario, no arrests have been made in Dhadda’s death or his extortion case.