CP NewsAlert: Eby tells anti-extortion chief to demonstrate urgency or step down

By Canadian Press on January 21, 2026.

British Columbia Premier David Eby says the head of a police anti-extortion task force needs to step aside if he cannot demonstrate a sense of urgency in the fight.

Eby’s comments about RCMP Assistant Commissioner John Brewer come after Brewer repeatedly declined to characterize a wave of extortion-related shootings in the Lower Mainland as a crisis.

Brenda Locke, the mayor of Surrey, B.C., is meanwhile urging Ottawa to “take immediate action and implement a full-scale national initiative” against extortion violence in Canada amid the shootings linked to attempted blackmail in her city.

More coming.

The Canadian Press