Crime

OTTAWA — Canada’s financial intelligence agency will report Thursday that extortion is soaring, with a growing number of those crimes committed against Canadians of Indian or south Asian descent by criminal organizations with direct ties to that region.

In a new report obtained by National Post, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) said extortion cases have increased more than sixfold over the first four months of 2026. The agency’s report said it has already logged more extortion cases so far this year than the previous two years combined, part of a dramatic increase in financial crimes in Canada over the last few years.

When Cameron moved his family to a suburb north of Toronto last year, neighbours told him it one of the safest streets in the area. The roads were lined with cream-brick houses and manicured lawns. In summer, kids played between driveways; in winter, they dug tunnels through snowbanks.

But any hope of a peaceful life on Allison Ann Way was shattered when a house across the street was shot at four times in five months. The most recent attack came in early February, as Cameron was leaving for work. Moments after his children had headed out for school, gunfire tore into the neighbour’s garage and a dark SUV sped off.

“Whoever was doing this was trying to send us a message, and they did,” Cameron said, peering out from his garage. “This street is now empty, like a ghost town.”

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Today I deliver a keynote speech at the annual training of the Washington State Narcotics Investigators Association. The talk is densely packed with cases and analysis — Vancouver casino ledgers, United Front banking cells, the Six Nations–Sinaloa grow-op corridor, the Canadian encryption shops that have become the nerve endings of a hemispheric cartel network. The presentation is complicated.

In a nutshell: hostile regimes in China and Iran are attacking North America in partnership with Latin American cartels that operate with state-like capacities in technology and intelligence, and they are using Canadian cities as a “center of gravity” for transnational operations.

A man who said voices told him to randomly shoot two men on the streets of downtown Toronto in 2022 acted in a “rational, methodical and organized” manner, a judge concluded Monday, convicting Richard Edwin of two counts of first-degree murder.

“These acts appear to have been thought out and planned over time,” Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly said in front of the families of victims Kartik Vasudev and Elijah Mahepath.

In contemporary criminal-justice debates, the term “second chances” seems to have lost much of its meaning. The U.S. dedicates the month of April to the idea that we systematically deny second chances to people who come into contact with the criminal-justice system. This is a strange claim, given that the typical state prisoner in America has approximately ten prior arrests and five prior convictions—meaning that he probably received far more than just a “second” chance.

Six suspended Toronto police officers charged in a bombshell investigation into corruption and organized crime are no longer receiving their pay.

Toronto police media relations officer Amy Davey confirmed to CP24 on Saturday that Const. Timothy Barnhardt, Sgt. Robert Black, Const. John Madeley Jr., Sgt. Carl Grellete, Const. Saurabjit Bedi and Const. Elias Mouawad are now suspended without pay as they await their trial.

A North Carolina homeless man accused of murdering Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in a brutal on-camera attack has been found ‘incapable to proceed’ to trial, his attorneys claim.

Attorneys for DeCarlos Brown Jr, 35, said in court filings Tuesday that his trial on state murder charges should be called off following an evaluation by a psychiatrist.

Under North Carolina state law, a defendant is only incapable to proceed to trial if they cannot understand the nature of their charges, cannot comprehend their role in court proceedings and cannot help their own defense.

Recent months have seen a wave of extortion attempts targeting business owners in British Columbia and Ontario, with some involving arson and even shootings. As a response, police task forces and the Canada Border Services Agency have stepped up efforts to crack down on organized crime, amid concerns that many extortion incidents are going unreported. These developments come as Canada faces rising violent crime and a growing public debate about safety. They raise a pressing question: how many crimes are actually being solved?

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