Tuesday February 3, 2025 | SURREY, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
A Community Advisory Group to provide guidance around issues of extortion in Surrey was announced today by Premier David Eby. Appointments to the committee will be announced tomorrow.
Eby addressed media today in Surrey, flanked by concerned business and community members from “south of the Fraser” — a region that has been seeing a high level of extortion-related crime.
Local MLAs and Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger had met with the community members this morning to share some updates as to what the provincial government has been working on and what BC has been hearing from Ottawa and police leaderships. Eby and government representatives “heard from the community about what they’re seeing and hearing related to the issue of extortion”.
Last week ahead of the First Ministers Meeting in Ottawa he referred to the extortion crime in Surrey as ‘terrorism in slow motion’, a theme he repeated today. He said that “people are afraid to leave their homes, they’re afraid to attend their businesses, they’re afraid to do business, they’re afraid to celebrate”.
“We need to see more arrests like we have in the last 36 hours,” said Eby.
In the past few months, the federal government has introduced two bills (C12 and C14) that will help with the management of crime. Today Eby called those “a package of legal amendments that close loop holes that will direclty result in improved outcomes related to extortion”.
“We cannot wait any longer — these are essential tools that police need now,” the BC Premier said today. “We need those passed so the police have those tools right away.”
Eby says that Bill C12, specifically, would close a loophole around people accused of extortion or violent crimes still having access to refugee status in Canada. He is supporting the affected residents and communities in Surrey that feel it’s wrong to have people who’ve been involved in violent crimes be back on the streets, and also to have refugee status allowing them to stay after committing crimes.
Eby urges the federal government to “make C12 law without delay”. It’s currently being reviewed in the Senate.
Police vacancies will now be filled mutual agreement of the province and the mayor’s office.
Surrey’s Mayor Brenda Locke says the extortion-related crime should be declared as a national emergency, as she feels that it requires a full scale emergency response.
The transition of policing from the RCMP to a local Surrey Police Service could be part of the reason for communication insufficiencies and inconsistencies, Eby admitted today.
Meanwhile as for police response in Surrey, Eby says it is already seeing improvement as a result of this public discussion about extortion-related crime in the city.
Prompt response by fire or police is something that any community would expect. Eby said today that a recent shooting and house fire was dealt with promptly this week — a level of service example that he hopes will continue.
Eby hopes that increased confidence in police action will be helpful to the overall situation in the community.
Next steps:
“It’s crucial to have the federal government as a strong partner at the table around law reform. Most of the areas of law that are affected here are federal (e.g. Immigration Referee protection act and the Criminal Code),” said Eby today.
“The changes that are in process are both federal changes. Federal MPs of all parties pushing to get this through, senators of all backgrounds pushing to get these through so they are effective on the ground is absolutely essential. It’s probably the number one thing that needs to happen right now,” said Eby.
“The second piece is (that) the federal government needs to play and through the RCMP, a crucial convening role because this is happening in multiple provinces,” said Eby.
“There is a risk of responses being siloed, not sharing information, not sharing investigative techniques and other things — that why I think it’s very positive to have the federal RCMP pulling together police leadership for a police-only meeting to talk about those things, identify gaps, and then feed back to government about how we can be supportive,” he told media today.
“There may be pieces for the federal government to do, there may be pieces for the provincial government to do. So we do need the federal government at the table in this work,” Premier Eby said.
“I’m glad to know that the mayor of Surrey is out with other mayors pushing the federal line to stay in line and attentive on this file because it is crucially important,” said Eby today.
“The public needs to be confident that everything is being done that can be done, as do I,” said Eby today. “People don’t go all in if they don’t think anything will be done,” Eby said.
The premier wants to see the gap closed between the “frontline that gets a threat on their phone” and the most senior levels of leadership at the task force.
===== RELATED
- BC’s economic engine in Ottawa: Eby on pipeline, extortion, immigration (January 28, 2026)
- NEWS SECTIONS: BC & NATIONAL | CANADA-NATIONAL | 45th PARLIAMENT of CANADA
===== REPORT TYPO