Surrey extortion town hall erupts as attendees confront CBC, police & politicians

A CBC-hosted event intended to address a growing extortion crisis descended into chaos with furious audience members yelling “shame on you” at police, politicians, and the public broadcaster.

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A CBC-hosted event intended to address a growing extortion crisis descended into chaos Thursday night, with furious audience members yelling “shame on you” at police, politicians, and the public broadcaster’s own representatives.

The event at the Surrey Arts Centre comes amid more than 90 extortion-related crimes — including shootings and several murders — reported in Surrey and nearby communities in recent months and years.

Community members, extortion victims, journalists and local politicians were invited to speak about the growing extortion wave, which, according to several town hall attendees, has significantly intensified since the June 2023 killing of Khalistani activist and Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara president Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Around the time of Nijjar’s killing, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had blamed the alleged assassination on the Indian government.

“Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau said months after the alleged assassination.

“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau continued.

CBC reporter Matt Galloway reiterated those claims weeks later in 2023: “It is an explosive allegation. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accusing the Indian government and the killing of a Sikh community leader on Canadian soil.”

During the town hall event on Thursday, Moninder Singh, a spokesperson for the Sikh Federation of Canada and a close friend of Nijjar before his alleged assassination, said he arrived early and would leave early to reduce the risk of collateral damage in the event of an “imminent assassination” he’d been warned about by Canada’s federal security agencies.

Those comments prompted at least one independent journalist, who was not in attendance, to question why Singh was allowed to attend the event if he is a known target of police and intelligence agencies.

“Unreal,” independent journalist Darshan Maharaj said on X in response to the presumed security risk to those in attendance. “The police knowingly exposed the other attendees to collateral damage?”

Local radio host Vijay Saini also questioned the RCMP, asking why the RCMP commissioner — like Trudeau — went from levelling accusations at Indian diplomats for transnational repression to saying Canada needs to improve diplomatic relations with India in less than one year.

Elenore Sturko, a now-independent MLA for a Surrey riding who also attended the event, posted similarly critical questions to the federal policing agency in an X post on Friday morning following the event.

“Neither the Government nor the RCMP would provide any numbers on the ‘surge’ of officers they announced and the Chief of police and the Solicitor General continuously sidestepped any questions on how they will ensure victims are safe,” Sturko wrote.

The CBC, which hosted the event, was also a lightning rod for criticism during the town hall.

Kuljeet Kaur, a local journalist with Media Waves, asked a question about CBC’s editorializing on the extortion issue—only for a CBC handler to wrestle the microphone away from her at the conclusion of her statements.

True North spoke with Kaur about her experience.

“He snatched it!” Kaur said during a phone interview, referring to the CBC reporter who grabbed the microphone after she asked why the public broadcaster had framed the issue as a “community issue” rather than “a public safety issue.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney, meanwhile, participated in a photo-op the same day at the nearby White Rock Pier—only a short drive from the arts centre—but neglected to attend the town hall altogether.

When asked whether she was disappointed by the prime minister’s absence, Kaur said she was “very disappointed.”