E-Paper
Top official assures Indo-Canadian community on tackling gang violence
The Attorney General of British Columbia addressed a community forum in Surrey following a spate of incidents particularly those related to extortion attempts
Toronto: As gang-related violence in Indo-Canadian communities mushroom in Canada, the Attorney General of British Columbia Niki Sharma has given the assurance that local law enforcement will be given additional funding to tackle the problem and called upon members of the community to report extortion attempts to law enforcement and not to respond to the demands of criminals.
Sharma made these comments while addressing a community forum organised in the town of Surrey in British Columbia following a spate of incidents. The forum, which was attended by between 700 and 800 people, was organised by Satish Kumar, the president of the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir in Surrey . The residence of Kumar’s son was peppered with nearly 12 bullets in a shooting incident in the early hours of December 27 last year.
“This was to address our two main concerns – driveby shootings and extortion calls,” Kumar said. He said the community had presented a memorandum of their demands to the leaders who attended the forum, including Sharma, Federal MPs, provincial MLAs and local officials. “We asked people to cooperate fully with the police in their investigations,” Kumar said.
The memorandum, which is marked to BC’s premier David Eby, Sharma, Surrey mayor Brenda Locke and the head of the Surrey Detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), among others, has called for increased police patrols in areas considered high-risk or prone to criminal activities. “A visible law enforcement presence can act as a deterrent and provide reassurance to our residents,” the memorandum, under the letterhead of the Vedic Hindu Cultural Society of British Columbia said.
The twin threats of driveby shootings and extortions calls have been reported from the Metro Vancouver region, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, where extortion-linked incidents of arson have also occurred.
On Saturday, Peel Regional Police said it was “currently investigating a disturbing trend of extortion attempts” targeting Indo-Canadian businesses. While it has set up an Extortion Investigative Task Force, it also announced a hotline for those facing such threats to contact police. It said that 16 such incidents in the GTA were under investigation. There are 18 investigations in progress in Edmonton and several more in the Metro Vancouver region, including Surrey and Abbotsford.
The temple headed by Kumar has also been targeted multiple times by pro-Khalistan elements last year. The Surrey temple has come in the crosshairs of the Khalistani elements twice in recent times, with posters targeting India’s senior-most diplomats pasted to its gate and walls. One person, as yet unidentified, was arrested by the Surrey RCMP in August. However, temple members were unwilling to link that friction to the firing at this time.
The temple had hosted a consular camp organised by India’s consulate in Vancouver on November 26 and members had countered a protest called by the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).
SFJ’s protest was linked to the killing of its principal in the province Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 in Surrey. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had stated in the House of Commons on September 18 that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and Nijjar’s murder.
