Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown is joining a call for the federal government to declare the Lawrence Bishnoi gang a terrorist organization, saying the India-based gang has been linked to crime and violence in the Peel region.
Brown said Peel police suspect the notorious gang has been involved in cases of extortion and targeted shootings in the region.
“They terrorize communities, they terrorize individuals and, and you know, they’re a predatory organization,” Brown said in an interview with CBC Radio’s Metro Morning host David Common Thursday.
“They’re a transnational crime run out of a different country, it’s a threat that we haven’t had to deal with in a very long time.”
Earlier this week, B.C. Premier David Eby called on the federal government to list the gang as a terrorist group over concerns that the group has been involved in extortions and other crimes against the South Asian community.
Eby said Tuesday that he would write to Prime Minister Mark Carney to ask that the gang be given the terrorist designation “to enable police to be able to use the necessary tools to investigate.”
Brown said he believes the designation would help Peel police investigate similar crimes in the region.
Attempts to repair Canada-India relationship
The calls come the same week Canada and India agreed to reinstate their high commissioners and look at renewed visa services for each other’s citizens and businesses.
Carney announced the move after a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G7 summit in Alberta.
The two countries expelled each other’s high commissioners, senior diplomats who are similar to ambassadors, last fall after the RCMP accused the Indian government of playing a role in a network of violence in Canada, including homicides and extortions.
The RCMP also claimed that the Bishnoi gang was targeting members of the pro-Khalistan movement on Canadian soil, allegedly at the behest of the Indian government.
Labelling the Indian gang a terrorist group could complicate Carney’s attempts to rebuild the Canada-India relationship, given those past allegations, said Sanjay Ruparelia, Jarislowsky Democracy Chair at Toronto Metropolitan University and an expert on Indian politics.
“It’s complicated because the claim last year in October was that they were used as a proxy for these operations in Canada. That’s the allegation,” he said.
“Now … we’ve had what seems like the beginning of a reset, of a breakthrough.”
Calls are mounting for Canada to label India’s Bishnoi gang a terrorist group. But one associate professor with Toronto Metropolitan University says that would be complicated given the status of India and Canada’s diplomatic relations.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Wednesday that he was aware of Eby’s comments but hasn’t received an official request.
“This is an independent process that goes through our public security agencies and upon their recommendation, I will be able to take that decision to cabinet,” he told reporters on Parliament Hill.
