Is B.C.’s “broken” justice system to blame for the surge of extortion

The number of police investigations into extortion-related cases has skyrocketed across the Lower Mainland this year — especially in Surrey, where not a single extortion charge has been laid in 2025.

Those results — or lack thereof — have the B.C. Conservatives demanding that the province tear down what they call the “highest-in-Canada” charge-approval threshold and let police lay charges directly.

The party says Premier David Eby’s “broken justice system” is failing to keep people safe, citing confirmed shootings are up 89 per cent in Surrey this year — 27 linked to 39 extortion attempts.

Conservative Leader John Rustard, along with MLAs Elenore Sturko and Steve Kooner, is calling for a dedicated task force of law enforcement and Crown Counsel to fast-track extortion files and speed up prosecutions.

But Vancouver-based criminal lawyer Brock Martland warns shifting charge-approval powers could further clog the courts and leave victims even more frustrated when cases collapse.

“We have prosecutors who’ve won and lost trials, who really assess the evidence and make the call,” Martland told 1130 NewsRadio.

“So it effectively screens out the sort of marginal and weak cases and in a bunch of situations the Crown says, ‘well, I’m not persuaded the evidence makes the grade yet, but if I send this back or require some further investigation’, and if there’s more evidence, then it will.”

B.C. is one of the few provinces where police can’t lay criminal charges on their own.

Instead, Crown Counsel decides whether charges proceed under a “substantial likelihood of conviction” test, a higher bar than the “reasonable prospect of conviction” used elsewhere.

Martland says that approach, reaffirmed by multiple public inquiries since the 1990s, helps avoid wrongful prosecutions and keeps courtroom “clutter” down.

He also argues that if more thin cases enter the system, serious cases could be delayed to the point of being thrown out on constitutional grounds for “unreasonable delay” — letting guilty offenders walk free.

Province should boost funding and staffing for Crown Counsel

“One of the perverse outcomes could be that if B.C., hypothetically, reduces the charge approval standard and or leaves it to the police, more cases come into the courts, more of those cases will get dropped eventually.”

“But perversely, what you could end up doing is setting the stage for other cases where there should be a conviction, where there’s strong cases because of the volume of cases.”

Rather than rewriting the law, Martland says the province should boost funding and staffing for Crown Counsel — which the Conservatives also propose — so extortion files are reviewed faster, and expand collaboration between prosecutors and police on complex gang cases.

“What should really matter is the results at the end of the day — the convictions — not how many people you bring in the fishing net.”

The province has not said whether it’s considering changes to its charge-approval system.