Investigation into Bishnoi Gang Activities

We wanna bring you details now from a CBC News investigation into the

Bishnoi gang. The group is listed in Canada as a terrorist

entity. CBC News has obtained a copy of a letter

the gang

sent to police in British Columbia last year.

The group is believed to be behind numerous acts of extortion,

shootings, arsons, and fraud. The letter was part of evidence

introduced at an immigration hearing for one of nearly 200 foreign

nationals who have been issued deportation orders for their links to

such cases. The CBC's Jason Proctor joins us live from

Vancouver

with more on what you've uncovered.

Jason, CBC reported on the existence of this

letter a few months ago, but

now we have a copy. What does it say?

Yeah, I mean, it's framed actually as a warning

and a challenge from an

entity called the Lawrence Gang. It's quite short.

Uh, it says they have 5,000 gang members in

Canada.

Um, and, uh, you know, they pay people $1,000, uh, uh,

to carry out a shooting, they say, and basically, uh, say, you know,

"We will take

over Canada soon." You know, they threaten that everybody will

have to pay a tax and, you know, with the sort of ready availability of

people, uh, willing to work for almost nothing,

you know, basically, "You can't

stop us," is what they say. Um, and as you say, news of this actually

arose, uh, earlier at this immigration hearing

that was connected to,

uh, uh, one of the people who's implicated in an

Edmonton-based

cell that's been linked to, uh, multiple shootings, arsons, extortion

events in Alberta, uh, in Ontario, and, uh, right here in British

Columbia. And the letter was delivered to Abbotsford, uh,

Police in August of 2025. They then forwarded it on

to, uh, other agencies, including the Edmonton Police,

and that's where it made

it in- into the files that, uh, we've ended up, uh, obtaining.

So how seriously do police investigating this group take this

letter?

Well, I, I mean, very seriously, to be honest.

Uh, you know, as I say, it's part of, uh, hundreds of pages of, uh, uh,

exhibits that, uh, have been released to us,

and specifically part of this large

Edmonton Police investigation known as Project Garter.

And what they say is that the wording of the letter basically

matches

WhatsApp messages that victims are getting, uh, from, you know,

the Lawrence gang or the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.

And you know, the police records are fascinating in

and of themselves because they

show the detailed work that police certainly in Edmonton and

other jurisdictions are doing as they try to tie these

individuals to these crimes, almost like an amorphous cell of

people with weapons, uh, you know, and cars and people moving

around the country. Ballistics, uh, reports that match, let's say,

a shooting in Surrey to one in Calgary to one in Edmonton.

Uh, video taken from suspects' phones that show, you know, people in

Edmonton, in Peel, uh, you know, carrying out, uh, uh, throwing

Molotov cocktails, ordering that kinda thing.

We've got videos of suspects in one case, uh, you know, have been released to me,

uh, where a man has taken a picture, you know, essentially a video of himself

standing in front of a burning building.

A- and so what's happening to all these

suspects?

Well, they're ending up in these Immigration

and Refugee Board

admissibility hearings, uh, which are leading to, you know,

v- a lot of deportations. The CBSA has said, uh, that,

uh, you know, they've issued

188, uh, uh, deportation removal orders

against, uh, you know, suspects linked to extortions.

I should say, many of the, the, the ones where I've attended, you know,

they've

claimed their innocence, but the, the, the evidence against them is often

overwhelming, and it's a lower level of proof than a

criminal trial.

Regardless, uh, the CBSA says 111 suspects as of the

beginning of this month have been removed. So it, it, it goes on.