Surrey council approved Mayor Brenda Locke’s motion to request the federal government to declare a state of emergency related to the extortion crisis plaguing South Asian businesses and residents.
Council threw its unanimous support behind this Monday night after Locke delivered her lengthy catalogue of requests given that the threats, related shootings and coordinated intimidation tactics “exceed the capacity of municipal government and conventional policing responses.”
“The City of Surrey recognizes that we are in a state of emergency due to the extortion and extortion-related violence which have plagued our city,” Locke said. “The City of Surrey formally urges the Government of Canada, given the national and transnational nature of these crimes, to declare a federal state of emergency or invoke equivalent extraordinary federal measures to address the organized extortion crisis.”
Locke wants an “extortion commissioner for violence against Canadians” appointed to lead a “profound” federal response to these extortions, overseeing immediate deployment of more RCMP organized crime units and “intelligence resources” to Surrey and fast-tracked “removal proceedings for non-citizens charged or convicted of extortion, firearm offences or participation in extortion criminal activity.”
She also calls for “expanding immediate detention and inadmissibility powers” under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for people linked to organized extortion violence and prevention of refugee claims subsequent to related investigations and development of strategies to permit release to the public “identifying information” to people charged or deported or wanted for extortion-related crimes to enhance awareness and deterrence.
Locke in her motion also called for determination of “failure points in the current legislative authorities that have given rise to this crisis” and to make urgent recommendations “to improve performance of police on arresting, charging and prosecuting offenders.”
Moreover, she wants the feds to report to Canadians, on a quarterly basis, the severity of extortion-related activities and progress in resolving the crisis.
She will write to senior levels of government to this end and instructed city staff to report to council within 30 days on how this is developing.
Councillors Harry Bains, Mandeep Nagra, Linda Annis and Pardeep Kooner lauded Locke’s motion.
Bains said this is an issue that “can only be solved by collaboration and by co-operation by all levels of government, not by finger-pointing.”
“Putting our political differences aside, I want to thank you for bringing this motion up, and I will fully support this,” Nagra told Locke.
Annis said council needs to “show solidarity in getting this moving forward, getting this problem solved.”
Kooner remarked that as a Surrey resident and Canadian she “kind-of” feels like “the federal laws have held us hostage in the city that we love and it’s kind-of hard to move through life always looking over your shoulder, so thank you so much for bringing this forward.”
Locke later told the Now-Leader she is not calling a Surrey State of Emergency as this situation is beyond municipal or provincial jurisdiction. “It is across Canada and transnational syndicates are involved,” she explained. “It requires a national solution for the expertise and leadership and coordination.”