QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Organized Crime
April 23, 2026
Yes, but when laws, Senator Moreau, aren’t working, we need to renew them. That’s a basic principle of making legislation. Canadians are now routinely confronted with headlines about extortion shootings in their communities, yet the scale of this crisis appears to be far worse than previously acknowledged.
According to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, FINTRAC, extortion cases in Canada have surged sixfold in just the last four months of 2026. These figures don’t even account for the accompanying wave of intimidation, violence and shootings tied to these criminal networks. Foreign criminal gangs are increasingly exploiting Canada’s broken immigration and enforcement systems to extort millions of dollars out of small businesses while terrorizing law-abiding communities with gun violence.
Leader, at what point does the government admit that this is not an isolated crime? It’s happening all over the country, including in our own city of Montreal — a systemic failure of immigration, justice and public safety.
The only part of your question I agree with is that when the laws need to be reviewed, it is the government’s responsibility to review them. That is exactly what we’re doing with Bill C-9, Bill C-14 and Bill C-16.
Concerning crime, the government is making an historic investment of $1.7 billion over four years in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, RCMP, which will hire 1,000 new RCMP personnel to protect our communities. The government is taking public security and public safety very seriously. Not only is it a commitment, but it is a serious and unprecedented investment.
As far as the law is concerned, we are requested to study many bills in this very chamber that will strengthen the justice system here in Canada, and that’s a commitment of the government.
Senator Moreau, you point to Bill C-14 and Bill C-16, but neither bill addresses statutory release.
Your government insists that a new financial crimes agency will address these growing threats. That’s another talking point we’ve heard, but Canada already has multiple agencies tasked with combatting financial crime, including FINTRAC, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and the Financial Crime Coordination Centre.
Why should Canadians believe that adding another layer of bureaucracy would make any difference in dealing with the crisis of extortion?
The government introduced over 80 changes to the Criminal Code to make bail laws stricter and sentencing laws tougher for repeat and violent offenders under the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act, Bill C-14. Serious and repeat offenders will receive detention as a default. Bail will no longer be the default.
Those are fundamental changes in our criminal justice system, and it’s a part of the commitment of the government to have more —
Thank you, Senator Moreau.
