“The public have lost all confidence in the NDP to keep our province safe and are feeling forced to take safety into their own hands. This is not the British Columbia I recognize. NDP soft-on-crime policies have turned BC into a low-trust society.”
- Steve Kooner, Critic for Attorney General & MLA for Richmond-Queensborough
Victoria, BC: At a major public safety forum on extortion, held June 15 in Surrey, community frustration with NDP inaction boiled over. Local business owners and residents gathered at Reflections Banquet Hall, itself the target of a recent violent extortion attempt, to voice concerns about the ongoing wave of organized criminal extortion targeting the South Asian community across the Lower Mainland.
While Conservative MLAs and Opposition Leader John Rustad attended to listen to community members and stand with victims, NDP Attorney General Niki Sharma and Premier David Eby refused invitations. Instead, Public Safety Minister Garry Begg attended, stunning the crowd by blaming the very people his government failed to protect, accusing victims of not approaching authorities with information.
MLA for Richmond-Queensborough and Attorney General Critic Steve Kooner summarized: “The forum showed the disconnect between the NDP and the communities dealing with daily threats of extortion. With multiple attacks under investigation as organized extortion and police confirming a surge of threats, the provincial government’s deliberate absence and dismissive finger-pointing sends a chilling message to BC businesses and residents: You’re on your own.”
MLA Kooner said the South Asian community are resorting to proposing vigilantism as they feel the NDP public safety system is incapable of delivering justice: “The public have lost all confidence in the NDP to keep our province safe and are feeling forced to take safety into their own hands. This is not the British Columbia I recognize. NDP soft-on-crime policies have turned BC into a low-trust society.”
Conservatives are calling for urgent action from the NDP government, including tougher penalties, deportations for foreign criminals, improved victim protections, and a multi-jurisdictional police task force to dismantle the transnational criminal networks targeting British Columbians.
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Media contact:
Robert Eales, Communications Officer
Robert.Eales@leg.bc.ca
+1 (778) 967-2818
