Mr. Speaker, let us say someone mortgaged their house and took risks. They stayed up late wondering how they would pay the bills. Finally, after all that, they have success: a wonderful business with 30 to 50 people that is growing every day. Then suddenly the phone rings, and on the other end of the line, someone is threatening that if they do not pay millions of dollars to a gang, their house will be burned down, their children's bedroom will be shot up in the middle of the night or their employees may be killed. That sounds like an extreme case, but it has now become the norm.
Radical open door and open border policies by the Liberals have allowed gangsters to visit this country and gain visitor visas, which are granted to them without any criminal background checks. Catch-and-release laws passed by the Liberal government under Bill C-5, which lowered the jail sentence for extortion with a gun, have caused an extortion crisis across this country. To put it in perspective, since the Liberal government took office, extortion is up 330%. In British Columbia, it is up 400%. In the Lower Mainland, it is up 500%. Countless families have received threatening phone calls.
Just the other day, I met with the sons of a lifelong successful businessman who was mercilessly killed by gangsters without any provocation. People are living in terror in places like Surrey, northeast Calgary, parts of Edmonton, Brampton, Windsor and elsewhere. Over the weekend, I attended events at numerous businesses where literally dozens of people told me they have personally received threatening phone calls. They lie awake at night wondering if a bullet will fly through their children's front window or if they will be gunned down when they walk out the door.
This crisis was entirely avoidable, but Liberal policies have provoked it. The Liberals have released extortionists onto the streets with lower prison sentences. They have brought foreign gangsters and criminals to our shores by granting visitor visas and opening up our country to terror. After much pressure from Conservatives, they finally agreed to ban the Bishnoi group, but it was too late. They let the Bishnoi gangsters into this country in the first place because they do not protect our borders, and their radical policies on immigration have endangered many of the very people who came here lawfully and legitimately.
If we look at these facts and look at the numbers, we have no choice but to conclude that we have a Liberal extortion emergency in this country. People are living in terror, and it is a shame that the Liberals have allowed this crisis to form and grow. It is a shame that the very communities that have vested support in the Liberal Party are now the ones paying the biggest price for the violence and carnage that Liberal policies have unleashed.
We as Conservatives will state clearly that extortion is a crisis after 10 years of the Liberals. We need an emergency debate to address this extortion crisis, and we must enact a serious plan to end extortion so Canadian small business owners can go back to living their lives, creating jobs, serving customers and making life affordable again for this country.
Our plan is very clear. We need mandatory jail time to lock extortionists up and throw away the key; stronger borders to keep and kick extortionists out of our country; and a clear self-defence law so that people can protect themselves in their homes when invaded by extortionists or other burglars.
This is an emergency. We have the answer. Let us restore safety, tranquility and peace to our streets.