2,400% rise in Surrey extortion cases is Carney’s fault: Poilievre

2,400% rise in Surrey extortion cases is Carney’s fault: Poilievre

Published 12:30 pm Friday, May 22, 2026

There has been a 2,400% rise in extortion cases in Surrey since Mark Carney became Prime Minister, said Pierre Poilievre, leader of the official opposition, in Surrey on Friday (May 22).

“Mark Carney, this is an extortion crisis, and your Liberal laws are responsible for it. It’s time for you to pull your head out of the sand, reverse your laws, and lock up the criminals, kick out the terrorist visitors, and restore safety to the streets of Surrey and the Lower Mainland,” Poilievre said.

Poilievre was in Surrey for a press conference outside Nirwan Flooring, a Cloverdale business that was hit by gunfire in March. The same business complex saw two shootings that month.

The first three months of 2026 saw 75 extortion reports in Surrey, compared to just three in the same time period in 2025.

This is according to the latest numbers posted on the Surrey Police Service website.

“But don’t worry, when he (Carney) came here, he went to White Rock and handed out bagels and doughnuts and promised to paint the pier during a nice walk on the beach. Well, behind me, Nirwan, this business behind me was actually shot,” Poilievre said Friday.

Carney visited White Rock in November 2025. The Prime Minister was also in Surrey in February to meet with senior law enforcement leaders of the B.C. extortion task force.

The meeting was held to discuss what is working, what needs to be done, and where improvements can be made in tackling the ongoing extortion crisis impacting cities across the Lower Mainland.

But Poilievre said urgent action is needed to make streets and homes safe again.

“After 11 years of Liberal soft-on-crime policies, violent repeat offenders have been released back onto Canada’s streets, and communities across our country are paying the price,” Poilievre said. “Mark Carney is trying to claim that his government is getting tough on crime. Yet his flagship crime legislation, C-16, contains a clause enabling judges to ignore almost any mandatory minimums the Liberals haven’t gotten around to repealing yet.”

The clause known as the “safety valve” would preserve judicial discretion to impose a different sentence in cases where a mandatory minimum would constitute “cruel and unusual punishment for the individual before the court,” reads a post on justice.canada. ca about the bill.

Poilievre said there was no foreign interference in Canada before the Liberals took power.

“The Liberals have made Canada a playground for foreign interference and international gangsterism,” he said. “So we need a government that will actually defend Canada against foreign interference, shut down these crime syndicates, kick out the criminals who are visiting, and lock up the ones who are citizens.”

Poilievre said he is calling on the federal government to “take immediate action” and ensure mandatory minimums are back in Bill C-16 and introduce a bill that would impose mandatory minimum sentences for extortion tied to organized crime.

There is a bill currently making its way through the Senate that, if passed, will “toughen bail and sentencing laws” for extortion and other crimes.

In October, the federal government introduced the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act, known as Bill C-14, in the House of Commons.

The bill, if approved, would include 80 changes to the Criminal Code that would make bail harder to obtain and toughen sentences for violent repeat offenders, said Sean Fraser, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada at the time.

The Conservatives also want to “find and deport and visiting criminals and extortionists,” Poilievre said.

He said Carney should call on the Immigration and Refugee Board to reverse new guidelines that are set to come into place on June 1, according to the Globe and Mail.

“I stand with Michelle Rempel Garner in her calls to Mark Carney’s Liberals that they should clearly direct government officials, including the IRB, to enforce consequences set out in law to deport non-citizens convicted of serious crimes in Canada, not keep them here longer,” Poilievre said. “If the IRB will not do it, then every member of the IRB should be fired.”

Lastly, Poilievre wants to see amendments to section 34 of the Criminal Code to incorporate the ‘stand on guard’ principle, “so that force is presumed to be justified if used against an illegal intruder.”

-With files from Tom Zytaruk