"Very embarrassing day for the residents of Surrey": Trial for outgoing mayor begins
The trial for outgoing Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum is set to begin this week, following months of controversy over an incident that allegedly occurred in a Save on Foods parking lot last September.
McCallum has been charged with public mischief and the trial is slated to last a week.
The incident dates back to September 4, 2021, when the Surrey mayor claimed a woman, and supporter of the Keep the RCMP in Surrey group, ran over his foot in the parking lot.
At the event, McCallum alleged that he was “verbally assaulted” before he got struck by a grey Ford Mustang.
The driver of the vehicle was not charged.
Three months after the incident, BC Prosecution Service Special Prosecutor Richard Fowler QC approved a charge of public mischief against the mayor.
“For me, it’s a very embarrassing day for the residents of Surrey. No elected official should be up on criminal charges and still be in office. It’s completely wrong to me,” said incumbent councillor-elect Linda Annis.
Annis says at this time McCallum’s legal fees are still being covered by the City of Surrey, as is the standard practice, but she hopes the city’s legal team will be looking into that issue soon.
“To the best of my knowledge, I’ve heard nothing that says that the city is no longer paying his legal bills. It’s been out in the public that the city has been paying his legal bills and will continue to pay them whether he’s found guilty or not and to me that is wrong.”
“Now, Mayor-Elect [Brenda] Locke is saying that she would like to see him pay this back. Now that’s a matter that would be needed to be dealt with, I think by our legal department. It’s not something that we as politicians can make that call on,” she said.
Brenda Locke told Daily Hive she has instructed City staff to not make any further payments to McCallum’s invoices until the City receives an external legal opinion to understand how Surrey taxpayers will be impacted.
At this time, the financial cost has not been made public.
McCallum remains the mayor until November 7, when Locke will be sworn in.
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What is public mischief?
Public mischief is defined by the Criminal Code as someone with an intent to mislead, causes a peace officer to enter on or continue an investigation by making a false statement that accuses some other person of having committed an offence, or doing anything intended to cause some other person to be suspected of having committed an offence that the other person has not committed, or to divert suspicion from himself, or reporting that an offence has been committed when it has not been committed.
Someone guilty of public mischief could face up to five years in prison.
With files from Amir Ali