{"id":425454,"date":"2026-01-22T08:43:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T08:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/425454\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T08:43:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T08:43:18","slug":"rcmp-head-of-b-c-extortion-task-force-sorry-for-challenging-term-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/425454\/","title":{"rendered":"RCMP head of B.C. Extortion Task Force sorry for challenging term \u2018crisis\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite dozens of new extortion<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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Nine individuals have been deported in connection with extortion-related files.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are very complex investigations that take a lot of time and effort by the police to bring them to conclusion,\u201d Brewer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yes, while there\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On Tuesday, Brewer said that the extortion-related cases, most of them in Surrey, are not a crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a crisis,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening out there with drug overdoses \u2014 that\u2019s a crisis, people are dying. This [threat of extortion] is a threat to public safety, absolutely, and I take it very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On Wednesday, Brewer doubled down on that message.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say, yes, is it important to people? Yes. Do people feel scared? Do individuals believe it\u2019s a crisis? Absolutely. Are we taking it extremely seriously? Yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surrey journalist Gurpreet Singh Sahota said that at first, he thought Brewer was going to say something else.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf it\u2019s not a crisis then what is the crisis?\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are getting shot in the shoulder, people get shot in the jaw and we don\u2019t know even if the killings are related to these extortion-related things. Then what the crisis is? What we call the crisis if it\u2019s not the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sahota said he thought Brewer\u2019s comments showed the mindset of the B.C. RCMP \u2014 that they don\u2019t think this is a crisis situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, 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\u2019re not part of mainstream,\u201d he added. \u201cStill, we\u2019re immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if the same thing happens to a non-Punjabi, maybe then it will be a crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

B.C. Premier David Eby said on Wednesday that if Brewer<\/a> did not think the situation was a \u201ccrisis,\u201d then he needed to step aside.<\/p>\n

However, on Wednesday afternoon, Brewer issued a statement saying he wanted to apologize for challenging the term \u201ccrisis\u201d as it has now become the focus of the issue and has called into question the RCMP\u2019s commitment to addressing extortions in the province.<\/p>\n

He said that was not his intention.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe opportunity to provide an update and reassure the public has instead impacted public confidence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe task force\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wade Deisman, a criminologist at the University of the Fraser Valley, told Global News that the situation is a crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are objective indicators that a crisis is underway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about a subjective kind of sense of panic. People are losing confidence in the police, so there\u2019s a crisis of credibility in terms of the police\u2019s ability to solve the problem. It\u2019s a crisis in terms of the efficacy of the measures that they\u2019ve used so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:51
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tB.C. Extortion Task Force provides update\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke told Global News on Tuesday that people in the city do not feel safe.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI absolutely think it\u2019s a crisis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would really commend Mayor Locke for the fierceness with which she\u2019s advocating on behalf of the communities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important and appropriate to hold the police forces\u2019 feet to the fire around this and to not accept that diminutive way of framing the issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surrey radio host and former MLA Jinny Sims called the task force update on Tuesday \u201csuperficial.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that what she sees in Surrey does not feel like Canada anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brewer said in addition to police and partner agencies working hard to address extortion cases, they need the community\u2019s support.<\/p>\n

He said every case should be reported to the police and\u00a0is urging people not to pay money or try to take matters into their own hands.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am taking this seriously, personally,\u201d Brewer added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my police officers are taking this personally, and we are dealing with this. We work around the clock. We don\u2019t take time off. We don\u2019t take weekends off. We\u2019re working on this. I worked on this all weekend with my team, getting briefings and making decisions on investigative steps forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brewer urges everyone with information to bring that forward to the policing agencies.<\/p>\n

\u2014 with files from Global News\u2019 Jordan Armstrong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite dozens of new extortion threats and eight extortion-related shootings this year, the B.C. RCMP says progress is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,2169,68979,44,177823],"class_list":["post-425454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-crime","tag-extortion","tag-news","tag-surrey-extortion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}