VANCOUVER - The Law Society of British Columbia says it has become aware of lawyers receiving extortion threats for "substantial sums of money."

The legal profession regulator sent out a notice to its members that says lawyers have been targeted with threats to their physical safety and it urges victims to contact police.

The memo was sent to Conservative member of the legislature Steve Kooner, the Opposition attorney general critic, who's a lawyer and a member of the society.

He released a statement Friday calling for extortion to be made a terrorism offence under the Criminal Code.

Kooner said that lawyers being threatened represent a "disturbing escalation" of what he calls the province's "extortion crisis."

B.C. has set up an Extortion Task Force to investigate dozens of extortion

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