Bill C-381 (Historical)

Protection against Extortion Act

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (extortion)

This enactment amends the Criminal Code to:
(a) amend mandatory minimum penalties in relation to the offence of extortion, including when the offence is committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with, a criminal organization; and
(b) add arson as an aggravating factor for the purposes of sentencing when a person is convicted of extortion.

Public Safety

[Amanpreet S. Gill, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the very first call I received from a Calgarian was from a small business owner being extorted by criminals for $300,000. Extortions in Calgary, Brampton and Edmonton are on the rise and only getting worse. Under the Liberals, extortion cases are up 357%. The Liberals voted down Conservative Bill C-381 to tackle extortion. The bill set mandatory minimum penalties for extortion after the Liberals took away penalties in their soft-on-crime bill, Bill C-5.

Will the Prime Minister work with Conservatives to adopt Bill C-381 to crack down on violent extortions?

RCMP Allegations of Foreign Interference by the Government of India

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I wish I could say it was a pleasure to speak today, but it is certainly not the case tonight in the House. The news and the allegations from the RCMP are extremely concerning, and they must be taken seriously as opposed to what has taken place tonight in the House. This debate is primarily about the Prime Minister, who has the power to take them seriously and has not done so.

Any foreign interference from any country, that we have been hearing about in the House and outside of the House with the Liberal government for years, needs to be stopped. The government's first job is to keep citizens safe from foreign threats. The very fact that we are here in this place debating such a serious issue demonstrates that the government has failed. The government has failed in its obligation to keep this country safe and to secure the integrity of our nation. It is a natural consequence of nine years of incompetence, of chaos and of an attitude that puts the divisive nature of the Prime Minister over the security of the public. We have seen it time and time again and particularly in the last year.

Canada has become a playground for these activities. We hear it, the evidence is there and multiple people have said it out loud on record, and still it is ignored. While tonight's debate descends into unserious political distractions, Canadians need to know who knew what and when and why it took so long for the government to act.

While we are here to address the allegations about foreign interference in India, this is about much more than that. It is certainly about India, but it is also about Beijing. It is about the tyrannical regime in Iran. It is about all of the times that our Prime Minister made a mockery of our democratic processes and frankly, our values.

Every Canadian should be concerned, because it is putting our lives, our freedoms and our country at risk. The allegations that have been made are serious, incredibly so, and they should be investigated and pursued to the fullest extent of the law. As a country, we must stand resolutely against the attempts of other actors to interfere with the rights of our citizens and our democratic process. The idea that a foreign state would even attempt anything near these allegations certainly merits more than the anemic response provided by the Liberals at every turn over the last nine years.

Furthermore, any suggestion that individuals collaborated or colluded with these attempts, or in any other attempts, should be fully investigated, and again, pursued to the fullest extent of the law. That is really not up for debate.

Here is what these suggestions should not be. They should not be used as a means to score cheap political points that nobody is buying anymore to divide our nation into smaller and smaller groups, into smaller and smaller factions. What the Prime Minister did when he appeared in front of Justice Hogue last week is exactly that. He went there with one mission, which was to level unfounded, unproven and unfair allegations against members of this party and members of his own party, casting aspersions.

If we cannot name the parliamentarians, then it should be equally wrong to say anything about them, such as what we know or their party affiliations. Frankly, the Prime Minister cast aspersions on the entire House and then walked away from the podium. It is behaviour like this that is unbecoming of a prime minister and has made a mockery of this whole process. If we look outside of the House and listen to what people are saying, it has made a mockery of this entire issue, which is unfortunate because it is a serious one. He should be less focused on trying to make this a mockery and more focused on the serious implications that it has for our national interests. He is more than just the Liberal Party leader, although I do not know how long he is going to be the Liberal Party leader; he is the Prime Minister, and he should remember that. However, I suspect it might be difficult when his caucus is revolting against him and he needs to focus at least a bit of attention elsewhere for the first time.

My parents always told me growing up that if a person is going to make a serious allegation about Conservatives being part of something, they need some evidence to back it up, and that is what we are asking for. We are asking for the Prime Minister to release the names. If he has evidence about the claims he has made about MPs in the House, he should release the names. We all know that he can do that. We are asking the Prime Minister to release the names of the individuals who have been accused so we can deal with the actual problem and move forward constructively. That is what Canadians want to know on the matter at hand. However, the Prime Minister will not, because this is another crass and pathetic attempt by him to divide, distract and deflect from his mistakes.

Maybe they are not mistakes. Maybe it is an intentional hiding of facts the Prime Minister has known about for a very long time, rather than trying to fix the issue at hand or look serious while doing it. He is trying to cover up that his caucus is in open revolt of his leadership, and it is a convenient distraction. He is trying to cover up that he has destroyed our economy through higher taxes, higher inflation and higher government spending. He is trying to cover up for his own failures to protect this country and safeguard the rights of Canadians. While this behaviour is unbecoming, we really should not be surprised by it. It has probably even benefited his prospects electorally; otherwise, why hide anything at all?

The opposition parties have acquiesced to his tactics of swearing them into secrecy so they cannot do their jobs and cannot effectively prove their case. That has been proven tonight over and over again. Any opposition leader who has bothered to speak in the House to this motion could not hold the government to account. If they really knew there was something in the documents, then rather than sitting back, they would have asked the government what it has done, but it is exactly nothing.

The Liberals have muzzled their opposition so they can continue to turn a blind eye to the obvious wrongdoings, and they have brought the cabal along with them to acquiesce to all of it. They used to be members of an opposition that could hold the government to account, and now they have been silenced. We do not have to look very far to see that they have been completely ineffective at prosecuting the government's failure on foreign interference. After all, it is the Prime Minister who turned a blind eye when foreign interference was coming from Beijing, when a Communist dictatorship was spreading misinformation and even buying Liberal Party memberships to influence nomination races. To that I say release the names.

This is the Prime Minister who took six years to declare the IRGC the terrorist organization that we all know it is, and it still uses Canada as a safe haven to fundraise, to recruit, to intimidate our own citizens and to possibly play a role in our electoral process. To that I say release the names.

It is this Prime Minister who employed the Emergencies Act, trampling on the rights and freedoms of Canadians for purely political opinions when they did not agree with them. To that, Canadians say release the names.

This is the Prime Minister whose ministers mysteriously sat on a CSIS surveillance warrant for a Liberal power broker for 54 days. To that I say release the names.

This is the Prime Minister who appointed Liberal insiders and personal friends to investigate the misdeeds of his own government. These are the things that happened under the Prime Minister's watch, and his weak leadership is the reason they are happening more and more.

Our adversaries know that Canada is an easy target and that they can get away with almost anything here. The Prime Minister is actively in the process of proving them right at every single turn. We have a common-sense ask of the Prime Minister. It is to release the names. Canadians want to know. He should release the names of the individuals who have collaborated with Beijing against Canada, the individuals who have collaborated with India against Canada and all the people who knowingly and wittingly worked with hostile foreign states for personal gain.

It is an easy thing to do. The Prime Minister did it once in the House of Commons already, and he can do it again. However, he will not. The Prime Minister does not seem to want to do that. He seems to want to continue the sideshow and political theatre as long as possible; this allows him not to talk about the issues that he does not want to talk about. He has lost all semblance of control. He looks unhinged. The Prime Minister continues to insist on some nonsensical argument about secret briefings when he can walk over here, two sword lengths away. He is pretty tall, so it is probably fewer than 10 steps. He can walk over and tell the Leader of the Opposition exactly what the problem is, but he will not do that. Why is this? It is because he is using this for political gain.

If the member for Carleton takes the briefing, by the admission of the Prime Minister's own chief of staff, he will be unable to speak about the results or act upon them, just like the Prime Minister has failed to do. He cannot do that in any way. His own office says that. In fact, the former leader of the NDP says that too. He deserves the information and not the handcuffing. The CSIS Act actually allows for this. It allows for anybody to offer any information on anybody about risks of foreign interference without forcing them into sworn secrecy.

I want to repeat that. The CSIS Act actually allows the Prime Minister to walk over here and tell the Leader of the Opposition everything he needs to know. Why is he not doing that? It is because he does not want to deal with the problem in his own caucus. The government insists again and again on secrecy without ever telling us why. I will tell members why. It is because the Prime Minister is hiding things from Canadians once again. It is because he is scared and because he has benefited from it politically. What is the Prime Minister hiding? What is he so scared of?

We know there are individuals from all parties who are rumoured to be implicated, but Conservatives are not scared of anything. If the government acted, Canadians would not be asking questions about why it is keeping secrets. I think everybody would be better off, including every single member of Parliament, who has now had the Prime Minister cast aspersions on them. That is irresponsible behaviour from a Prime Minister. The sooner the names are released, the sooner we can take action to ensure that our institutions and our political parties are free from interference. Otherwise, it is going to get way worse from a variety of actors, from a variety of places. As I said, they know that Canada is an easy place to do their dirty deeds.

Tonight's debate is another example of how the Prime Minister has failed on foreign interference. At the Hogue commission, the Prime Minister admitted that our intelligence agencies have been gathering information for years and that India has been committing foreign interference on Canadian soil. However, it is clear that he did nothing to act on it, even after a real and present danger to Canadians was known. An act was carried out; people have lost their lives. Even when provided with the opportunity to protect Canadians against extortion, one of the violent actions that the RCMP has accused Indian officials of engaging in, the Liberals voted against the bill.

It was a bill by my co-deputy leader, the member for Edmonton Mill Woods, Bill C-381, the protection against extortion act. Every single one of them voted against it. Some did not show up, but the rest voted against it.

The United States managed to thwart an assassination attempt on American soil. Canada was unable to do so. When the issue of Chinese interference came up, the Prime Minister tried to claim that it did not exist, and then that had been exposed as an outright falsehood. His government stalled for years on the creation of a foreign influence registry. It was only ever introduced as a result of Conservative pressure.

The government also did everything it could to avoid a public inquiry into foreign interference. Do members remember the special rapporteur, the friend, the ski chalet neighbour? Conservative pressure made sure that this was a full and open public inquiry so that everybody could see.

It is clear that the Liberals have been ignoring the issue of interference. Just let us look at what is happening in our streets right now. Let us look at the international terrorist organizations parading their slogans through Canadian streets, the organizations designated as not-for-profits not so long ago. Let us take a look at the increasing violence and crime driven by multinational gangs and cross-border smuggling. Let us take a look at the country's reputation, lying in shambles on the floor of the international community.

It is only going to get worse, but the government continues to sit around and pretend nothing is wrong. The Liberals passed Bill C-5 and Bill C-75, making it easier for violent criminals to be released back onto the streets again and again, while only being punished with a slap on the wrist. The Liberals repealed mandatory minimums for crimes like extortion with a firearm. They voted against Bill C-381, which would bring back this mandatory minimum punishment for extortion and implement even more tools for prosecutors and police to go after ringleaders and multinational gangs.

Extortion is five times higher than it was 10 years ago, but the Liberals are voting against the very things that they could be doing to stop all of this while pretending to have a debate, to say the right things, to placate the Canadian public, leading them to believe that they have acted when they have not.

Is the government going to empower CSIS or the RCMP to be able to do their jobs, instead of interfering in the work of those security agencies? Are they going to do a better job at screening the individuals coming into our country? How about tracking down the one million people the government lost and still cannot find?

We need real, decisive action to fix this problem. We need to enforce laws that we have on the books. We need to stand strong against interference, not cover up allegations and hide the evidence. We need Canadians to trust that everybody here is doing the right thing. We need our rights and our integrity back.

A common-sense Conservative government will put those criminals in jail where they belong. We will take action whenever and wherever we are notified, despite the Prime Minister's inability to walk across the floor and tell the Leader of the Opposition what the problem is. We will work with the RCMP and CSIS, not against them, and we will uphold the integrity of this country by running a government for all Canadians.

It starts with releasing the names. For the good of our political system, for our values, for our country, for the good of accountability to the people, release the names, I say to the Prime Minister. Anything short of that tells everyone what they already know: The Liberals are hiding from accountability. Canadians simply deserve better.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, we keep hearing from the Liberals, over and over again, that they are angry, but the previous Conservative government spent less money with better results. Extortion was down, violent crime was down and auto thefts were down back then. They are angry that they are spending more money and hiring more people, yet all the numbers are up. Extortion is up more than 300% in this country and violent crime is up 34%.

The Liberals are bragging about their record, but they voted down a common-sense Conservative bill, Bill C-381, brought forward by our common-sense Conservative deputy leader, the member for Edmonton Mill Woods, and so did the NDP. Can the member please comment on how that makes any sense?

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton Mill Woods, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my colleague from Kildonan—St. Paul.

The revelations that the RCMP presented to Canadians last Monday were absolutely shocking. I talked to a number of people across the country who were shocked at the idea that agents of the Government of India were not only involved in foreign interference but also going further than that, and that foreign interference included murder; extortion; use of organized crime, with some international crime syndicates and some here in Canada; intimidation of Canadians; and coercion of Canadians. It got to the point at which the RCMP had to essentially warn Canadians. It specifically warned 13 Canadians that their lives were in danger because of foreign interference. There were concerns that their lives were at risk because of actions that agents of the Government of India may take. This is a clear affront to our sovereignty as a nation. This threatens our democracy and threatens us as a country.

We must take steps to protect Canadians. We have to protect our sovereignty. We must protect our democracy. As well, we need to get answers for Canadians as to why this is happening and how this continues to happen. We need to take steps to stop foreign interference from all countries and, in this case, directly from India.

It is important that we, as parliamentarians, as well as the government, take national security seriously. We must take the threat of foreign interference very seriously.

The idea of foreign interference from India is not new. When I was younger, we would hear of people who had spoken up on human rights issues or other issues that the government of the day might not have agreed with. There would be concerns that they may not receive a visa to go back to India. That was the type of threat that we commonly heard previously. However, what the RCMP has uncovered now and the evidence it has of murder, extortion, coercion and the use of organized crime goes way beyond what we used to hear about before. It is at the point that, in the United States, a plot to murder an American was thwarted by U.S. authorities. U.S. security agencies were able to thwart that plot. Soon after that, arrests were made in the U.S. Unfortunately, we do not have that here.

The Prime Minister, at the Hogue commission, admitted that Canadian security agencies have known about foreign interference from India and that it has been committing foreign interference for years. The government has not taken appropriate steps to protect Canadians, even after a Canadian was assassinated on Canadian soil. Canadians continue to be under threat.

The fact is that, for a number of years, we have been attempting to bring solutions forward on foreign interference. It was our party that pushed for a foreign interference registry so that foreign agents would be registered. The Liberals rejected this, and the NDP supported them. Finally, after pressure from the Conservatives, we now have what is starting to become a foreign interference registry of agents to be registered to stop foreign interference.

Extortion is one method the RCMP has said agents of the Indian government are using to target Canadians. They are using international gangs. They are using and paying gangs here in Canada. One solution that we put forward was my private member's bill, Bill C-381. It is important that, as opposition members, we put solutions forward. The fact is that, right now in Canada, there is no minimum penalty for extortion, but with Bill C-381, anybody committing extortion would have received three years as a mandatory minimum sentence. It would have been four years if they committed that extortion with a firearm and five years if it was in relation to organized crime. That is precisely what we are talking about here today.

This is exactly what the RCMP has said is happening in this case: Through organized crime, Canadians are being extorted. However, the Liberals and the NDP voted against that bill. When we put solutions forward, unfortunately, the Liberals rejected those solutions. The fact of the matter is that Canada is now much more dangerous than it was nine years ago in every respect and in every category. Crime is up. Murders are up. It is less safe to be in Canada, and as we are finding out, foreign interference from India has gotten to an extreme level in which Canadians' lives are threatened. We have already seen that a Canadian has been assassinated because of it.

It is important, and it should be, for the government to take more and better actions to protect Canadians.

Public Safety

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the Liberal-NDP soft-on-crime coalition, tax is up, cost is up, crime is up, extortion is up and time is up.

In Calgary, disturbing stories emerged of armed criminals committing extortion and kidnappings against families and businesses. The Liberal-NDP coalition voted against the Conservative deputy leader's bill, Bill C-381, to crack down on extortion. Instead, the coalition made it easier for criminals to get bail and to re-offend.

Why is the freedom of criminals more important to the government than protecting extortion victims?

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of this soft-on-crime coalition, costs are up, taxes are up, crime is up, extortion is up and time is up.

Extortion has skyrocketed by 357% across Canada. It is easy for criminals to commit crimes, get bail and go out and reoffend again because of the Liberal-NDP government's soft-on-crime policies. In Alberta, extortion is up by 409%. Recently, in Calgary, disturbing stories have emerged of armed criminals committing extortions and kidnappings against newcomers, children, families and businesses.

The leader of the NDP, the Prime Minister and both Liberal MPs from Alberta voted against a common-sense Conservative bill on extortion, Bill C-381, so they could keep the Liberal-NDP Prime Minister in power and protect the NDP leader's $2.2-million pension.

Common-sense Conservatives are the only party standing up and protecting victims; the Liberal-NDP government has become the party of protecting criminals.

Justice

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the Liberal-NDP government's soft-on-crime policies, extortions have more than tripled in Canada. They allow criminals to terrorize our communities and businesses, because when they get arrested, they are let out on bail the same day. The Liberals talk a very big game about fighting crime, but when it matters, they are missing in action.

Our common-sense Conservative bill would have put these criminals behind bars by strengthening our extortion laws. Why did the Liberals vote against Bill C-381 to fight extortion?

Department of Justice—Main Estimates, 2024-25

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Madam Chair, yesterday the House of Commons voted to defeat Bill C-381. There is obviously no evidence that mandatory minimums work as a deterrent. This was in the case of extortion in the Criminal Code. There is even evidence that they might hinder the work of a prosecutor to use plea bargaining to obtain evidence for the arrest of other members of a criminal organization. However, there are legitimate fears among the South Asian community regarding the increase in extortion from criminal organizations.

How the minister is dealing with this particularly sensitive issue? How will he be directing his department's resources to address these growing fears?