Canada\u2019s Border Plan<\/a>, will bring together law enforcement resources from multiple agencies and jurisdictions in a centralized hub to share information and intelligence and increase law enforcement co-ordination to disrupt organized crime groups that control the illegal drug market and perpetuate extortion, according to Public Safety Canada.<\/p>\n\u201cIssues around extortion are intrinsically linked to criminal crime networks and, as a result, issues around drugs, around car thefts, around extortion are intertwined,\u201d Anandasangaree said.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State (Combatting Crime) and Brampton North\u2014Caledon MP Ruby Sahota said the $1 million in funding for Peel police will give the service \u201ca boost\u201d in responding to extortion crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s surge funding, really. It\u2019s not core funding or operational funding,\u201d she said in a Jan. 20 interview. \u201cThis is just a unique parcel of funding that is providing a top-up.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s really needed, Sahota said, is lawful access legislation, which she said was tabled by the Liberal government in June but failed to get support from opposition parties.<\/p>\n
She said lawful access would give police an expedited process, with judicial oversight, to get basic subscriber information, meaning they would more quickly be able to connect phone numbers and IP addresses to whom they belong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s incredibly important in almost any crime that we\u2019re facing today, especially extortions and child exploitation cases,\u201d Sahota said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout that, these cases are delayed for a very long time as they await judicial authorizations to connect these phone numbers that people are being extorted from, through tech companies, and then back to the investigating officer \u2026 and in the meantime, these criminals are on the loose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sahota suggested the federal government is also looking at ways to better co-ordinate Peel police\u2019s investigations with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) so there are no gaps in swiftly removing many involved in extortion crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who are without status who may be involved in these criminal organizations (and) people who have entered through a deception \u2014 those are things that we are seeing in these cases,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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An anti-extortion summit was held in Brampton Jan. 13.<\/p>\n
Andrew Palamarchuk\/Metroland<\/p>\n
The Jan. 13 anti-extortion summit, most of which was closed to the public and the media, brought together law enforcement agencies and representatives of all levels of government, including the Town of Caledon, which has also seen a rise in extortion-related incidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the summit, the connection between illegal land uses such as the large illegal truck parking lots \u2014 a huge issue in Caledon \u2014 was linked to the growing issue of extortion by organized crime, locally and internationally,\u201d Caledon Coun. Dave Sheen said in a Jan. 30 email, noting that \u201cI do know our local Caledon OPP detachment is aware of the growing issue in Canada and the fact that such criminal activity is not constrained by municipal, provincial or international borders.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to a Dec. 14 OPP news release, more than 45 extortion cases were identified in Caledon and Dufferin County since December 2023.<\/p>\n
Sahota noted she\u2019s not surprised extortion crime has spread to municipalities like Caledon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they feel they have a model that is profitable, why wouldn\u2019t it spread?\u201d she said of extorters.\u00a0\u201cBut that\u2019s why we\u2019ve got to nip this in the bud right now, so that it doesn\u2019t continue to spread into other communities and regions of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sahota said South Asian businesses are being targeted with initial demands ranging from $500,000 to $5 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople do not have the ability to pay this type of money,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of them are feeling that they want to leave and set up business somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sahota said many businesses are \u201cstepping back,\u201d not wanting to be in the limelight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t want to advertise, and that\u2019s detrimental to the growth of their business too,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to figure out a way to investigate these cases more efficiently and make more arrests \u2026 because we can\u2019t have this have an economic impact or the violence to end in the ultimate worst-case scenario where lives are lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Ruby Sahota is Secretary of State (Combatting Crime) and the MP for Brampton North\u2014Caledon.<\/p>\n
Ruby Sahota photo<\/p>\n
Sahota said extortionists are becoming more brazen by shooting first and then calling to demand cash, and by taking video of their crime and posting it online.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the early days, there were letters \u2026 dropped off at houses, but I\u2019m not hearing much of that anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brampton councillor and deputy mayor Harkirat Singh said he too is alarmed by the growing brazenness of extortion crimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re seeing calls being made to residents, saying, \u2018Go tell whoever you want.\u00a0We\u2019re not scared,\u2019\u201d Singh said. \u201cThe recordings go viral, gunshots being made in front of businesses so there\u2019s \u2026 a real fear that\u2019s being instilled in the community right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Extortion crime may be more prevalent than official statistics indicate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear from the community that not everyone is reporting these cases. I also hear anecdotally that some people are giving in and making payments,\u201d Sahota said. \u201cThe best way to prevent this from spreading is to not pay. \u2026 I also understand that that\u2019s easier said than done. At times, people are afraid and they feel they have no other way out.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Sahota added that \u201conce you pay an extortionist, there\u2019s no guarantee that they won\u2019t come back for more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harjeet Singh Dhadda was known for standing up for what\u2019s right and helping people in need. \u201cAs an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194339],"tags":[51759,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-480648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brampton","8":"tag-brampton","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480648","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=480648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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