How organized crime groups are targeting Metro Vancouver students

0:00this is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Stephen Quinn and before we begin, I just want to start with something a little bit different and that is a thank you. More of you are listening to this is Vancouver than ever before and whether you tune in every week or just now and then your support means a lot. It also helps us improve the podcast and better cover the story, shaping lives across the lower mainland. So thank you again and with that said, let's get on with today's episode. For a lot of people in my generation that are now engaging civically, it's like this is our first impression of the police. This is our first first impression of civic governance is this crisis. And so that trust is going to take years to rebuild, especially when this is a first impression. That is UBC student, Malcolm Singh Malak, he says he's spoken with many students who have been approached by organized crime syndicates and those groups then attempt to recruit those students and use them for extortion related crimes.

1:03And so how is this being allowed to happen? What impact is it having on students and what's being done to prevent it? I'm Stephen Quinn. Welcome back to this is Vancouver. Well, after everything you've heard about what has been going on in Surrey, you might be surprised to hear that right now, Surrey is seeing a sharp drop in extortion related violence. After 10 extortion link shootings in January and one in February, there have been no incidents reported so far in March as of 844 AM on March 31st. And that's according to numbers from the Surrey police services, but while the numbers are improving communities in the lower mainland are still on edge. In a moment, we're going to hear about how international students are involved in that story. But first, we're going to hear from two young Surrey residents about what they're seeing.

2:03Dilbar Barri as a university student living in Surrey and Suhana Gill is a Surrey community leader. I talked to many young people and they've all said that they don't need to feel safe going down the street in the middle of the night because they don't know what's going to happen. Let alone go to school sometimes in the evening because I have an evening class at the KP University. And when I drive his school, I talk to classmates and sometimes they say that they don't feel safe driving home sometimes. And Dilbar, what about for you? I'm thinking of what's going on in Surrey regarding extortion related crimes. How safe are young people in Surrey feeling right now? I think extortion really hits homes for a lot of us. As someone working in the trades, I've seen how businesses are targeted and it creates an overwhelming sense of fear in the community. It's not just about violence. It's the constant feeling about being on safe, even if you're not directly affected. This fear just makes it hard for us to go out work or just enjoy our city in general. When businesses are forced to shut down or operate under threat, the limits of spaces where youth can connect, where is their work or even feel at home.

3:10What's worse is that despite surrey being one of the fastest-going cities, many of us can't see a future here. It feels like we're stuck in survival mode with no clear path forward. And it only deepens the disconnect we feel from our community and it's future here. Do you think, Dilbar, that that's different from young people in any other community, that they feel disconnected, that they maybe don't see a future where they are? I think it is different. Why is it different in Surrey, do you think? I think the problem here is a lot more exacerbated than other cities. For example, affordability, it's really hard to make a living wage here. A lot of my peers complain that the majority of their monthly income is going towards threat. And they don't have much breathing space to take part in the other community gathering activities or extra curriculars and really just enjoy what the city has to offer. And when you talk about young people in the trades and a sense of fear, what do you mean exactly?

4:10Well, when I go to work, I see on the news a lot of trades businesses, especially in construction being targeted through extortion. So when I go to work, I don't feel safe going a different job site around Surrey. I feel like I have to constantly look over my shoulder. Even my boss has said that he's afraid to post on social media because he doesn't want the company name out there too much. So that is Dilbar Bari, a university student living in Surrey. And the first voice you heard was Suhana Gil, the Surrey community leader. They were describing the impact of extortion on the ground in particular, the fear and the pressure that it's putting on everyday residents and businesses. But there's another part of this story that is getting less attention. And that pertains to just who is being pulled into these crimes and why. Mokam Singh Malik is a UBC student. He's also a member of Surrey's livability, social equity and public safety committee. And he says he's spoken to many students who say they have been directly approached by organized crime groups.

5:12For more on that, welcome joins us now. You have been speaking with international students about the issue. What have you been hearing from them? So I was a point to the committee in May and I also host my own web series more than a subgroup. So my face is pretty out there. And international students often feel it's easier to report to someone who's similar in age to you. Right? I am also a university student. So it's easier for them to break the ice, talk to me about some midterms and then really get into the fear that they're feeling. And what they are feeling is fear because when someone comes up to you and shows you a video of them shooting a stranger's house and says, Hey, if you do something similar, I'll offer you money. The first emotion you feel will be fear because you're like, well, I don't want to be associated with that person at all. Yeah. And how are those people then being brought into these crime syndicates? Well, oftentimes these are vulnerable socially isolated students. And someone will come up to you and they'll say, hey, can you do me a small action?

6:12And I'll give you a little bit of money and then they string you along, string you along. And then when they want you to eventually commit these extortion-related crimes, what students are telling me is they'll basically say to you, you can either take our money and commit this crime or something very bad could happen to either you or your family back in India. Because what we're seeing is that these extortion crimes are being perpetrated primarily by the Bishnoi gang, a registered terror organization in Canada. And their affiliates and the Bishnoi gang runs ramp in India as well. And so these people are being directed from India. And what do we know about the people who are approaching those students? So what we know about them, and this is from reporting by CSIS, is that these are what we would call professional gangsters. So I like to make the differentiation that there are some people who come under the guise of student visas, and these are professional gangsters from India, with the sole purpose to come to Canada to commit crimes. And the CBSA has been tampering down on that. And so we have seen that a lot of these people have been arrested and deported. And so what the gangs are trying to do now is to say, okay, well, we don't want to risk our professional gangsters.

7:13So let's go and let's try to track down international students to have them commit our crimes as well. And so we saw with the arrests that were taken place in January, that those extortionists that lit fire to that person's gate and shot at their house, immediately went and hopped into an Uber. So I would say that those people were not professional gangsters. Those were probably international students that were recruited. But we saw with the broad daylight shootings that were happening over the summer, those were most likely professional gangsters. Okay. And so the students again who are getting recruited into this, why would they say yes to even the initial ask that they're getting from these gangsters? Oftentimes it's coercion of vulnerable youth, right? So it's the same kind of gang prevention efforts that we see take place. And I went to what you would call an inner city school and you'll grow in your girl, great organization and Surrey, would come out and do gang prevention outreach for us.

8:13And so what I'm really encouraged by is that the police board is doing that same kind of outreach and advocacy to these international students because they're seeing that these people in particular are being targeted. Right. But we're talking people who are in college courses and it's both secondary, correct? And what makes them so vulnerable? Well, your support network is oftentimes thousands of miles away. You've come to a new country and oftentimes tuition is more expensive than you thought. We're facing an economic downturn right now. And so given all those factors when someone comes to you and says, hey, you're struggling. Let me offer you some money. Right. You just have to do a small thing for me. That's how it starts and then it snowballs from there. And we've heard stories of some international students getting here realizing everything is way more expensive than they thought it was going to be, you know, living in very difficult circumstances. In some cases, you know, standing in food bank lines to be able to eat. Yeah, oftentimes there is a, you know, bill of goods that is sold to you by an immigration consultant in India who says,

9:14hey, as soon as you're an international student, just like that, you can get PR, which we know isn't true, right? So you get here, you realize, oh, I can't really find a job or if I do, it's a, it's a dead end job. You know, my, my classes, I might be going to a diploma mill and I haven't realized. And I have no path to permanent residency. And I'm scared. I'm afraid my family has spent all this money. I don't want to let them down. Right. And how are the gangsters who are coming in under the guise of students? How are they getting, how are they getting in? I mean, are they actually registering for classes? Well, we saw that some of them will register for classes. Others will submit fake documents. Yeah. And I think there was a federal government report that just came out that said that, you know, immigration Canada wasn't actually following up with these people to check. Right. And they are now and the CBSA is now. So, but we still have a lot of those people that came here and under the guise a couple years ago of student visas. Yeah. And they're still here. And do we know how many people have overstayed their welcome? We don't. Right. And so that's the investigative work that they're doing now to ensure that, okay, can we catch and deport these people?

10:14Because we don't, we shouldn't have criminals lurking in our streets. Right. What has this done? I mean, this has been a major preoccupation in Surrey and elsewhere, you know, for a long time now, the whole crisis of these extortion threats and these extortion crimes taking place. What's been the impact? Well, I'll tell you, I'm 20. I've lived in Surrey my entire life. And so for a lot of people in my generation that are, you know, now engaging civically, it's like, this is our first impression of the police. This is our first, first impression of civic governance is this crisis. Yeah. And so that trust is going to take years to rebuild, especially when this is a first impression. And so that's why I've been going to the police board and others and saying, you know, it's not enough that the shootings have stopped. You have to demonstrate to the community that this will never happen again. That their voices will not fall silent on deaf ears because the community had been calling this out all the way from last year. And we only saw action on it in the past couple of months.

11:14Well, that's very much what we heard when we held the public forum in Surrey as well. What was the perceived lack of action? But is there also something to do with, you know, the police culture versus the culture in which it seems to be targeted by most of these extortion. Yeah. Surrey is a place full of a lot of immigrants and a lot of refugees. Right? We're one of the youngest cities in British Columbia. And so what we've seen is a lot of people come from backgrounds where the police are not your friend, right? Where when you report to the police something bad happens to you and your family, not something good, right? And so the police hadn't been taking that proactive effort to actually talk to people and meet them where they were. I'm glad that they're doing some of that stuff now, but a lot more could be done on that. And is that what you told the Surrey police board? Yeah. So one of the recommendations I gave to the police board is to establish a WhatsApp tip line, right? A lot of these threats are taking place. You get a message from a number you don't know on WhatsApp. Yeah. And it's a lot easier to screenshot that and, you know, send it off to a Surrey police WhatsApp channel.

12:17Especially if I'm a 56 year old South Asian business owner. I may not know how to upload that file to Gmail and send it off. Yeah. And when I feel my life's at risk, we want to remove as many barriers as possible. So police can have that action as soon as possible. And so to what do you attribute the reduction in the number of shootings and the downward trend in violence? I would say the project assurance has been doing a great job. And we've seen that since those arrests in January that extortion shootings and threats have gone down. But we also saw a very similar downturn in December. And then we saw an explosion in January. Because we can't control the flow, right? Seasons in the RCMP have said that this is the Bishnoi gang, a registered terror organization in Canada, that's committing these crimes. And so if we cannot control the flow, what we need to do is not take our foot off the gas, continue to be vigilant and ensure that we create systems so that this won't happen again. What are some of the other issues that police in the province need to be considering in this crisis if they want to, you know, bring the rate of shootings and the rates of crime down even further?

13:24Another one of the recommendations that I gave to the police board was potentially giving all business owners in Surrey in extortion kit or just a police reporting kit in general to say, you know, these are cards and it might be English, might be Punjabi, might be Urdu, might be Hindi, that I'm going to go out and I'm going to give to business owners. And there might be a report crime sticker as well where I can scan a QR code and I can send off a message if I feel unsafe. And that would do wonders just to show business owners, hey, we have your back. And we are going to be vigilant to make you feel safe. Because if you get a personalized package from the police board, it won't cost the police board that much money. But if I come from a place where, you know, the police are not my friend, that's a real step to show, hey, we have your back. We're listening and we want you to report to us. We want to meet you where you are. Welcome. Thank you so much for coming in. It's really a pleasure to talk with you this morning. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. That is Malcolm Singh Malik, a UBC student and member of Surrey's livability social equity and public safety committee.

14:24And that is it for this episode of This is Vancouver. As always, thank you for listening. Make sure to follow us so you never miss an episode. Click on the follow button on Spotify, Apple or whatever platform you get your podcasts. By following us, you'll get notified whenever we update a new episode. Remember we dropped three episodes a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I'm Stephen Quinn. Thanks again for listening. We'll talk tomorrow. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.