The Prime Minister was in Surrey Thursday morning (Feb. 19) 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.
“A huge amount of resources and effort is now being put to bear on this. I’m confident that it is beginning to have an impact, and it will have an impact,” Carney said.
Thursday’s meeting at B.C. RCMP headquarters in Surrey was with police chiefs from Surrey, Abbotsford and Delta Police, the regional director general of Canada Border Services Agency, several senior leaders from the RCMP, and Delta and Surrey MPs.
Carney said the government is creating a financial crimes agency that will “follow the money in extortion.”
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), which already exists to track activities such as money laundering and terrorist financing, will help.
“It’s a bunch of people, very expert people, a bunch of algorithms with the right authorities can track the behaviours of people who do extortion,” Carney said. “These are often quite modest payments relative to the size of the financial system, but there is a pattern we need our financial institutions to recognize. The pattern of all the money provides law enforcement and prosecutors with the information.”
He reiterated the federal government’s commitment to tackling the ongoing extortion crisis. This included putting forward Bill C-14, which, if passed, will “toughen bail and sentencing laws.”
This bill has gone through Parliament and is in the Senate.
He also spoke about the work the government is doing to strengthen Canada’s immigration system.
“Basically ending the fraudulent use of asylum seeking by criminals to drag out processes and to avoid justice, a series of those measures are now in the Senate again,” Carney said.