CBC News Town Hall digs into community anxiety over extortion as panel questions police response

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Locke's call for more policing has been generally supported by provincial and federal authorities, but a criminologist has warned it would merely be a Band-Aid solution.

"There aren't 150 police officers available right now," he said, pointing out ongoing short-staffing issues within the RCMP.

Mayor Locke says she feels like her city is “on an island” when it comes to grappling with the extortion crisis.

“This is not a Surrey problem, this is an international problem and we need help from all orders of government,” she said.

Locke reiterates her calls for additional specialized officers in Surrey. Krieger, B.C.'s public safety minister, responds that “there is no greater priority than tackling” the extortion crime wave.

“You should be upset. This took too long. As often happens when we get waves of a crime come in, we were initially on the back foot. For sure we were. I’m here to tell you that’s the truth,” Brewer said of the RCMP.

“We’re not anymore. We have the right resources in the task force. We’re making great progress.”

After making an impassioned plea for community members to come forward to help solve extortion cases, B.C. RCMP Asst. Commissioner John Brewer fields a question from Braich on the “surge of resources” announced today to deal with the extortion crisis.

She asks why it took so long to deploy the resources, given how long extortion cases have been reported in the region.

In response, Brewer says resource deployment is led by the provincial task force, and that police are not using a scattershot approach.

“Surrey’s a big place. It does no good to have five police vehicles driving around aimlessly,” he said.

“Every police resource we put in, is put through the task force,” he adds.

Before tonight, Lipinski had said his municipal force is well resourced.

Lipinski said multiple agencies are engaged in a complex response to the crisis.

“It’s difficult to discern why Surrey and why now — but I can give you some context,” Lipinski said.

He points to a large number of incidents in Brampton, Ont., and Edmonton over the years — but says the number of cases shot up dramatically in Surrey this year.

“In 2024, we had 10 files. Now, in 2025, we’re up to 95-plus. We just got hit with this, and it was very difficult to very quickly react and start investigating,” he said.

Braich started the conversation by addressing some of those who have been most affected by extortion: those in the business community.

Sandhar, from the South Asian Business Association, said there have been many challenging emotions for the business community over the past few years — from anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic to fear now in the face of extortion.

“Unfortunately, it has moved [from] if it will be me, [and] now it is, ‘When will it be me?’”

She said she’s heartened to see some arrests related to extortions, but wants to see a more visible police response.

These are some of the people sitting in the front row, ready to take people’s questions on extortion:

We begin with a few notes and introductions from our hosts, Stephen Quinn and Baneet Braich, as well as a reminder from Lipinski for the public to use dedicated tiplines to report what they know about extortion.

“I always encourage people to come forward with information. You never know when there’s a small piece of data that will fit into the puzzle and … help hold people accountable for these crimes,” the police chief said.

There are a number of prominent officials on stage, along with a number in the front row to take questions after we begin at 6:30 p.m.

The guests on stage are:

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