A bombshell analysis published by The Hub exposes a quiet crisis in Canadian public safety. Nearly half of all violent crimes now go unsolved. Drawing on the latest Statistics Canada data from Table 35-10-0026-01, political scientist Dave Snow shows that the national weighted clearance rate for violent crime has fallen from roughly 63 percent in the 2014–2018 period to just 55 percent in 2024. Which means almost 45 percent of founded violent incidents — assaults, robberies, sexual assaults and homicides — end with no charges laid. Non-violent clearance rates have dropped to a record low of 25 percent. The decline affects every province and nearly every major city, with British Columbia now sitting below 40 percent for violent crimes.
The Hub attributes the collapse to a perfect storm of factors. Violent crime severity has climbed since 2015, pulling limited police resources toward the most serious cases. Court backlogs, bail issues and a 10-percent drop in officers per capita since 2012 have compounded the problem. Absolute officer numbers barely grew after 2012, even as Canada’s population swelled from roughly 35 million to 40 million, and that population surge was driven overwhelmingly by immigration — but one corridor stands out for both its sheer volume and the specific transnational crime patterns it enables — the daily air bridge between Canada and India.
Free-Flowing Air Traffic – Approximately 2,850 People Per Day Between Canada and India in 2024
Official Statistics Canada Frontier Counts data from the Indian Bureau of Immigration reveal the massive scale of this high-volume corridor in 2024, the last full year of detailed figures. In that year, 565,458 non-resident visitors arrived in Canada from India — an average of approximately 1,546 people per day. In the opposite direction, 476,273 Canadian-resident trips were made to India, averaging roughly 1,302 people per day.
Together, this amounts to about 2,850 people moving between the two countries by air on an average day. With virtually no land or sea options available, nearly all travel occurs on commercial flights. These movements consist primarily of visitors, students, family members and business travellers — separate from one-way permanent immigration landings, which are tracked independently by IRCC. India has been Canada’s top source country for permanent residents for years, representing approximately 27–29 percent of PR admissions in recent peak years, and it long dominated temporary study permit issuances until federal caps were imposed. The outcome is intense demographic pressure on policing, housing and public services — at the very same time that criminal networks are exploiting these open travel routes.
The Extortion Explosion – Canada’s Crisis Mirrors India’s and Shares the Same Networks
While overall crime severity eased slightly in 2024, one violent category tells a different story. Extortion incidents exploded from 8 per 100,000 population in 2014 to a peak of 35 per 100,000 in 2023 — more than a fourfold increase nationally, with even steeper spikes in British Columbia.
“A country with a documented extortion crisis sends and receives massive daily passenger volumes to and from Canada“
This surge is not random. Canadian law enforcement has repeatedly and explicitly linked it to transnational organized crime networks originating in Punjab, India — most notably the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which Canada formally designated a terrorist entity in September 2025. The Bishnoi group, directed from an Indian prison by its leader, specializes in extortion, targeted shootings, arson and intimidation. RCMP assessments describe it as operating with an active, continually expanding presence in Canada, exploiting diaspora ties, encrypted apps, and the same Canada–India travel flows that bring legitimate visitors. The gang’s tactics — phone threats demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars, followed by violence — mirror the extortion rackets long plaguing Punjab and northern India.
In short, a country with a documented extortion crisis sends and receives massive daily passenger volumes to and from Canada, and Canada suddenly develops a parallel extortion crisis concentrated in the same diaspora communities. The correlation is not abstract population growth — it is operational. High travel volumes, visa programs and family and economic links provide cover and logistics for a small but highly active criminal subset.
Violent Suspects Who Managed to Flee Our Open Borders
The clearance-rate collapse is made worse when suspects simply leave the country before arrest. Extradition from India is notoriously slow and complicated. Recent cases illustrate the pattern.
One prominent example is Amarbir Singh in Surrey, B.C. In March 2026, he was charged with second-degree murder in the 2024 death of Navdeep Kaur, 28, whose remains were found in the Fraser River. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team issued a Canada-wide warrant after determining that Singh had fled to India late in 2024 following an interview with police. Authorities are seeking an Interpol red notice, with officials acknowledging that extradition will not be quick.
Another case involves Vikram Sharma on Vancouver Island. Wanted in connection with a targeted shooting tied to the Bishnoi network in 2024–2025, the RCMP issued wanted posters after he allegedly fled to India before he could be arrested. His case is part of the broader extortion and gang violence wave affecting the region.
A third example is Bandhu Maan Singh Sekhon. Linked to violent extortion and multiple shooting attempts in the Lower Mainland, including incidents related to Kap’s Cafe in 2025, he fled Canada and was arrested in India in late 2025. Cases like these highlight how suspects routinely exploit travel routes to evade justice.
These incidents are not isolated. CBSA and RCMP task forces have ramped up deportations and investigations into dozens more linked to extortion networks in 2025–2026, yet many suspects manage to flee first.
Capacity Meets Transnational Reality – The Bottom Line
The Hub is right. Fewer officers per capita, plus more complex cases, equal fewer clearances. But the rapid, immigration-driven population growth — with India as the dominant source — has coincided with a specific crime import. Extortion rackets that originated in India now operate across Canadian cities. The daily air bridge of approximately 2,850 people is not the cause of every unsolved crime, but it is the logistical backbone enabling these networks to thrive while police struggle with stretched resources.
Canadians deserve a justice system that solves crimes, not one that watches suspects board flights home — the data is public—now the question is whether Ottawa will act on it.
Sources
Core Data and Analysis
- Snow, Dave. “Nearly 50% of all violent offences go unpunished in Canada—why police are solving fewer crimes.” The Hub, April 7, 2026. https://thehub.ca/2026/04/07/why-police-are-solving-fewer-crimes-in-canada-as-nearly-50-of-all-violent-offences-go-unpunished-deepdive/
Crime Statistics
- Statistics Canada. Table 35-10-0026-01: Crime severity index and weighted clearance rates, Canada, provinces, territories and census metropolitan areas, annual (1998–2024). https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510002601
- Statistics Canada. The Daily – Police-reported crime statistics, 2024. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/250722/dq250722a-cansim-eng.htm
Population, Immigration and Police Capacity
- Statistics Canada. Population estimates (annual). https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/250122/dq250122a-eng.htm (and related CANSIM tables)
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police and provincial police annual reports on sworn officer counts (2012–2023).
Canada–India Air Travel Data
- Statistics Canada. Table 24-10-0050-01 / 24-10-0050-02: Non-resident visitors entering Canada by country of residence, annual and monthly (Frontier Counts). https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=2410005001
- Indian Bureau of Immigration / Ministry of Tourism. Foreign Tourist Arrivals in India by Nationality, 2024.
Extortion Trends and Transnational Crime
- Statistics Canada. Uniform Crime Reporting Survey – Police-reported extortion incidents per 100,000 population, 2014–2024 (via Table 35-10-0026-01).
- Government of Canada. “Government of Canada lists the Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist entity.” Public Safety Canada, September 29, 2025. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2025/09/government-of-canada-lists-the-bishnoi-gang-as-a-terrorist-entity.html
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police threat assessments and BC Extortion Task Force updates (2024–2026).
Fugitive Cases
- Amarbir Singh case: Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) Canada-wide warrant and Global News reporting, March 2026. https://globalnews.ca/news/11728450/bringing-murder-suspect-back-india-slow-bc/
- Vikram Sharma case: RCMP wanted posters and Bishnoi-network updates, 2024–2025 (RCMP and local police media releases).
- Bandhu Maan Singh Sekhon case: Lower Mainland RCMP and CBSA enforcement updates, 2025 (RCMP public statements).