Canadian immigration officials are investigating a whole lot of foreign residents identified by B.C.’s anti-extortion unit, in keeping with latest figures released to Global News.
The Canada Border Services Agency said it had launched probes into 296 individuals who were “delivered to our attention by B.C Extortion Task Force partner agencies as individuals of interest.”
The most recent statistics, that are as of Feb. 4, represent a sharp increase from only a month ago, when the duty force said that just over 100 CBSA investigations were underway.
Immigration enforcement officers are reviewing the files for “potential inadmissibility,” meaning the CBSA may attempt to remove the individuals from Canada for immigration violations.
“Consequently of those investigations, 32 people have been issued a removal order, including 10 individuals who have already been faraway from Canada,” the CBSA said in a press release.
One other nine are awaiting hearings on the Immigration and Refugee Board that would lead to deportation orders.
The statistics suggest the crackdown against the extortion gangs which have spread fear in Canadian cities with large South Asian populations is popping up an increasing variety of foreign nationals who mustn’t be within the country.
Together with Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba, B.C. is facing a wave of crimes by which India-based crime groups are demanding large sums of cash from victims, most of whom are Canadians of Sikh background.
Those targeted are first threatened over the phone. In the event that they don’t pay up, their homes and businesses are sometimes sprayed with bullets or set on fire. The gangs have also been blamed for killings.
The violence has typically been carried out by locally recruited Indian nationals who entered Canada on student and work permits which have since expired.
Behind the scheme are a handful of criminal organizations, notably the gang of Lawrence Bishnoi, who has been in a position to operate out of an Indian prison.
The fight against extortion, nonetheless, is complicated by the Bishnoi gang’s suspected ties to the Indian government, which Canada is currently courting for a trade deal.
Asked to elucidate the sudden increase in extortion-related cases, the CBSA didn’t provide a solution by deadline. The RCMP didn’t reply to requests for comment.
Last September, Ottawa placed the Bishnoi gang on its list of terrorist entities, blaming it for targeting South Asian community leaders, businesses and cultural figures.
The B.C. government, meanwhile, formed an extortion task force that’s led by the RCMP and includes immigration enforcement officers.
“In delivering on its public safety mandate, the CBSA works with law enforcement partners to rid Canada of foreign criminals who don’t have any right to be here,” the duty force said in a Jan. 20 update.
B.C. Premier David Eby and Mayor Brenda Locke of Surrey, town where most of the extortions have occurred, have been looking for more federal support.
Calling extortions a “slow-motion terror attack,” Eby has successfully lobbied for more cops and helicopters for communities impacted by the crisis.
He has also called for changes to deportations, saying it was “ludicrous” that some extortion suspects had claimed refugee status, likely delaying their removals.
The Bishnoi gang’s extortions and murders for hire are money-making ventures, however the crime group has also acted on behalf of India’s government, in keeping with the RCMP.
Canada believes India has used Lawrence Bishnoi to focus on Canadians lively within the Khalistan separatist movement, which advocates for independence for the Sikh-majority Punjab.
Evidence of the gang’s suspected work for the Indian government got here to light following the 2023 murder of Sikh temple leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C.
His assassination was allegedly carried out by 4 Indian nationals working for Bishnoi, who was acting on the direction of officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Arrested in 2024 in Alberta and Ontario, the accused gunmen, their alleged getaway driver and a fourth suspect are awaiting trial in B.C. Neither Bishnoi nor his Canadian lieutenant Goldy Brar have been charged.
As recently as October 2024, national security advisor Nathalie Drouin said “senior levels” of the Indian government worked with the Bishnoi gang to wage violence in Canada.
Testifying at a committee hearing, she said Indian diplomats and proxy agents collected information on Canadians and passed it on to officials in Latest Delhi.
“This information is shared with senior levels of the Indian government, who then direct the commission of significant criminal activities against Indo-Canadians through the kinetic use of Lawrence Bishnoi’s organized crime network,” she told the general public safety committee.
“Bishnoi is currently in jail in India, and he’s in a position to order these actions through his gang, which has extensive criminal networks in India and internationally.
“Serious crimes committed in Canada include homicides, assassination plots, perpetrated extortions and other extreme violence.”
She also accused the Indian government of spreading the “false narrative that Canada showed it no evidence and that we were ignoring its concerns about Khalistani violent extremism.”
Deepening national security ties
Despite India’s alleged links to the gang blamed for fueling the extortion problem, Prime Minister Mark Carney has been deepening national security ties with Latest Delhi.
On Feb. 6 and seven, India’s national security advisor, Ajit Doval, met in Ottawa and with Drouin and Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree.
The visit got here as Carney is pushing to extend Canadian exports to India amid a trade war initiated by the tariff-obsessed White House of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Following Doval’s visit, the Privy Council Office said Canada and India had agreed to exchange security and law enforcement liaison officers.
Doing so will help streamline bilateral communications and enable timely information sharing on problems with mutual concern to Canada and India, the PCO said.
The PCO didn’t answer questions from Global News about whether India had acknowledged its role in Nijjar’s murder or committed to refraining from further attacks.
Canadian Sikh organizations were outraged Doval was even allowed to enter Canada.
“The recent presence of Ajit Doval in Canada is a grotesque betrayal,” said Moninder Singh, who was amongst greater than a dozen Sikh activists warned by the RCMP that their lives were in peril.
“Doval, the person chargeable for many years of human rights atrocities in Punjab, is the first architect of this transnational repression and violent campaign in Canada,” said Singh, who’s the spokesperson for the Sikh Federation Canada.
He said India’s strategy was to “use criminal proxies to extort and terrorize the Sikh diaspora, then offer ‘security co-operation’ as a Trojan horse to further infiltrate our institutions.”
Anandasangaree defended his government’s push to strengthen ties with India’s national security agencies.
“It’s vital that we’ve constructive dialogue around safety and security,” the minister said when asked about his meeting with Doval.
The World Sikh Organization of Canada said it was upset the federal government had hosted Doval.
“Mr. Doval is widely considered the architect of India’s foreign espionage and transnational repression operations,” the organization said.
The federal government’s official read-out of the meeting, nonetheless, made no reference to India’s involvement in its attacks on Canadians, the WSO said.
“We have now been clear that any so-called re-engagement with India should be grounded in accountability,” spokesperson Balpreet Singh said.
“As a substitute, Mr. Doval’s visit to Canada once more signals that the federal government is ready to disregard ongoing criminal activity, extortion, and intimidation in Canada which have roots in India and links to the Government of India.
“This isn’t diplomacy, it’s appeasement.”
Plot to kill one other Canadian
India has also been accused of attempting to kill one other Canadian, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Latest York-based pro-Khalistan activist.
Authorities consider the plots were a part of the Modi government’s try and assassinate distinguished members of the Khalistan movement within the West.
On the time of the plots, each Nijjar and Pannun were organizing a symbolic referendum to gauge support for Khalistan. Neither faced any charges in Canada or the U.S.
On Friday, Nikhil Gupta pleaded guilty within the U.S. to his role within the conspiracy to kill Pannun. The FBI alleges an Indian intelligence official set the failed plot into motion.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca