Riley Murphy, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Caledon Citizen

Following an Anti-Extortion Summit held in Brampton on Tuesday, January 13, the Government of Canada is providing Peel Region with up to $1 million to combat extortion crime.

Ruby Sahota, MP for Brampton North-Caledon, has discussed hopeful changes in extortion-related cases in Peel.

At the Summit, Sahota says she was happy to see so many levels of support and representation from all areas coming together.

“It was also essential in order to really have this conversation and to find out from all of the different representatives of people that have become victims as to what they’re hearing and what suggestions they have in terms of how we could be more effective and how we can coordinate even better moving forward.”

The summit, she adds, is not the first time these anti-extortion-related conversations have been held, but, with everyone gathered at once, it was an important check-in where they could be had right away.

From the conversations, she notes, more creative solutions as well as how the Federal government, or one of their agencies at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), can be embedded into Peel Regional Police and possibly the OPP, to expedite removals of those who are criminally involved in extortion cases and don’t have status in this country.

Sahota says that issues of extortion in the community were first raised in late 2023, and they began to see more cases in 2024.

“At that point, a national coordination support team was struck by the RCMP in February of 2024 so that they could coordinate the cases that were happening, since these are transnational organized crime groups that are committing these crimes, along with various other crimes, in our country and abroad,” says Sahota. “It was important to have a national body that can link police agencies together and that could point out similarities in cases and point out cases where [police of one] jurisdiction should be communicating with another in order to better advance their investigation.”

Sahota adds that there is always more that can be done.

A lot of these crimes are being committed over the phone or the internet, and she explains that one longtime request that would help these cases is the ability of police agencies to connect phone numbers to names to aid in investigations.

A draft of the legislation for this had been done previously, as Sahota says, when they took government, one of the first bills they presented was C-2.

Bill C-2 is an act respecting certain measures relating to the security of the border between Canada and the United States and respecting other related security measures. In that, she shares there were provisions for lawful access measures.

Sahota adds that all of their Five Eyes Partners, referring to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance created after the Second World War between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, have these measures in place.

“If we give police those tools, I know, and they reassured me that they’d be able to investigate these cases quicker and make arrests and so it’s really, really important,” says Sahota.

Sahota adds “that was a measure that got left behind in Bill C-2 and hasn’t advanced through Parliament because there’s been no opposition support for it.”

She explains that currently to connect a person to a phone number is sometimes taking up to six months for law enforcement to obtain a judicial warrant.”

Something that used to be as simple as flipping through a phone book now takes much longer.

On October 23, 2025, the Government of Canada, following consultation, introduced legislation to make bail laws stricter and toughen sentencing laws, the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act.

“I’m very optimistic that within the next few weeks we’ll see some further progression on the bail and sentencing bill, but bail and sentencing comes after you’ve arrested somebody,” says Sahota.

“These extortionists are committing acts of violence where they’re shooting people’s homes, businesses, setting them on fire in order to create that environment of fear in which they would thrive and, and are starting to thrive,” says Sahota. “They do that so that they can intimidate people to pay up.”

“It’s caused a lot of fear in the community,” she says.

Sahota adds that people are receiving calls with personal information regarding their families, themselves, and their businesses.

“That’s really scary when you receive those types of persistent calls and then they’re followed up by violent acts. People are really, really, really scared.”

At the Anti-Extortion summit, it was announced that the Government of Canada is providing Peel Regional Police with up to $1 million to “bolster the Service’s work to combat extortion, support and provide services to victims, and build on efforts already underway through its extortion task force.”

It was also announced that the Government of Canada will establish a new Regional Integrated Drug Enforcement Team (RIDET) in partnership with the Government of Ontario and local authorities. 

Through a federal investment of $4 million over four years, provided through Canada’s Border Plan, the RIDET will bring together law enforcement resources from multiple agencies and jurisdictions in a centralized hub to “share information and intelligence and increase law enforcement coordination to disrupt organized crime groups that control the illegal drug market and perpetuate extortion.”

Sahota says that Peel is dealing with the “brunt” of many of these cases at this time, and this will help provide additional support, hopefully creating more prompt responses to victims, updating them on their cases and providing them services.

She says that conversations are continuing about the best resources to assist in solving these issues and what Peel needs most when it comes to these cases.

“We’re trying right now to have better communication with police jurisdiction. In the past, federal governments have not been directly involved with police jurisdictions; I’m trying to change that at least communications wise, because I think it is important that we understand what the boots on the ground are facing and what they’re going through so that if it’s policy that needs to be changed at the federal level, then we can do it,” says Sahota.

“It’s important that all levels work together and that we have a strong front at our borders, at our federal ports, and our national scope policing as well as on the ground.”

In the community, many are feeling frustrated when it comes to these extortion cases, says Sahota.

“They want to see results, and I want to see results too. I understand where that frustration comes from.”

Sahota has received numerous calls from those facing extortion in the community, whether it’s those worried about expanding their business, running their business where numerous employees are involved, or concerns from employees themselves about coming in to work.

“I’m very optimistic that through their advocacy and their calls that police and every level understands this to be a serious situation that obviously demands everyone’s attention and the coordinated effort towards so that people can feel free to operate their businesses and thrive in our communities,” says Sahota. “They don’t have to be scared of being successful or for expanding their businesses.”

On top of that, Sahota adds that arrests are extremely important.

“The more arrests that are made the more control we’ll get over the situation.”

When it comes to these cases, Sahota urges residents not to get discouraged about contacting the police.

“I think it is important for people not to get discouraged and through their frustration stop reporting these incidents to the police. It’s really important. Even if the incident is as minor as a phone call having been received, or if it’s as serious as violence having been used in the attempt to extort somebody, I think all incidences need to be reported because many of these incidences are interlinked with other incidences and the more information the police have the better equipped they will be to solve these cases.”

Learn more about our News Monitoring here.

---