ALTHOUGH a desperate BC Leader Andrew Wilkinson tried to win support in Surrey by suddenly announcing that he would hold a referendum on the issue of replacing the RCMP with a Surrey municipal police force (although the Province has no authority to hold one and Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum won the civic election on this issue), Surrey voters delivered a tight slap to his face – and that of the RCMP by not only re-electing all six incumbent NDP MLAs – Jinny Sims (Surrey-Panorama), Rachna Singh (Surrey-Green Timbers), Jagrup Brar (Surrey-Fleetwood), Harry Bains (Surrey-Newton), Bruce Ralston (Surrey-Whalley) and Garry Begg (Surrey-Guildford) – but also booting out Marvin Hunt (Surrey-Cloverdale) and replacing him with the NDP’s Mike Starchuk (as the counting trend shows on Saturday night).
Premier John Horgan MUST now firmly tell the RCMP and their supporters to behave themselves.
The “Keep the RCMP in Surrey” emailed their supporters and media on October 14: “Endorsed candidates are: Marvin Hunt and Rebecca Smith in Surrey-Cloverdale; Garry Thind and Dean McGee in Surrey-Fleetwood; Dilraj Atwal in Surrey-Green Timbers; Dave Hans and Jodi Murphy in Surrey-Guildford; Paul Boparal and Asad Sayed in Surrey-Newton; Gulzar Cheema in Surrey-Panorama; Stephanie Cadieux and Tim Ibbottson in Surrey South; Shaukat Khan in Surrey-Whalley; Trevor Halford and Pixie Hobby in Surrey-White Rock.”
The group added: “We are discouraging votes for the following candidates: Mike Starchuk in Surrey-Cloverdale; Jagrup Brar in Surrey-Fleetwood; Rachna Singh in Surrey-Green Timbers; Garry Begg in Surrey-Guildford; Harry Bains in Surrey-Newton; Jinny Sims in Surrey-Panorama; Pauline Greaves in Surrey South; Bruce Ralston in Surrey-Walley [Surrey-Whalley]; and Bryn Smith in Surrey-White Rock.”
What a FARCE!
The VOICE has slammed the group for its shameless, rude tactics that have included crude, disrespectful emails to people in authority at every level and goon-like behaviour with many people, especially Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum. They have also made racist remarks against South Asians.
The RCMP in BC also leaked out personal information about all those who wanted to replace the RCMP in Surrey to try and embarrass them – a tactic they used against former solicitor general Kash Heed when he tried to replace the RCMP in BC. They were exposed at the time by this journalist.
Some biased white racist journalists in mainstream media have also been going out of their way to attack McCallum and the formation of the Surrey Police Service. These journalists are a disgrace … FAKE MEDIA. When The VOICE exposed the misuse of the RCMP logo by the Keep the Surrey in RCMP group, they all failed to report it. What does that show about their caliber and their integrity?
The VOICE has slammed the BC RCMP leadership as well RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki for their fascist attack on democracy. The RCMP officers’ union also launched its own attack on democracy, using slimy, scare tactics that used the pandemic as an excuse.
THE VOICE consistently highlighted these facts:
1. Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum and seven of his Safe Surrey Coalition members won the election fair and square on the pledge that they would form a Surrey police force to replace the RCMP. In fact, all the eight new Councillors, including the lone one from Surrey First, voted to ditch the RCMP at the very first Council meeting.
2. The Police Act says that any city with a population of more than 5,000 can decide what type of police force they want. So, when the City of Surrey approached the Provincial Government with its proposal, the latter had no option but to give the go-ahead. In spite of three Councillors ditching McCallum’s group, the mayor still controls the majority vote in Surrey Council.
3. Among the tactics that the pro-RCMP forces started resorting to was the call for a referendum on the change in policing. However, legally, only the City can authorize such a referendum – the Province or the federal government cannot. Yet despite this fact, the RCMP bosses have been apparently inciting their supporters to carry on with that demand.
The NDP slammed Wilkinson’s opportunism as he desperately tried to win support in Surrey in September. It noted: “BC’s Police Act lays out very clearly that a municipality with more than 5,000 people is responsible for decisions about how to provide law enforcement in their community. (Police Act section 3, sub 2)”
And the NDP pointed out: “BC Liberal MLAs have repeatedly shown they understand the fact that this decision is up to the municipality:
“MLA Rich Coleman said: “We all know that the city of Surrey unanimously decided, as a council, that they wanted to change their police force about a year and a half ago. We now know that the government has done the right thing here” (Feb 13, 2020 Hansard)
“MLAs Stephanie Cadieux and Tracy Redies said: “We don’t want to comment on the merits of a municipal force over the RCMP or vice versa. We do want to say thank you to the men and women in uniform that keep us safe and contribute so much to our community. We respect that this is by statute, a municipal decision to move forward.” (July 6, 2020 Facebook)”
THE VOICE also exposed the “Three Blind Mice” of Surrey Council last September.
We wrote: “Here we’ve had three screaming, screeching, squawking Surrey Councillors – Linda Annis (the most hysterical of the three), Jack Hundial and Brenda Locke – go after Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum day and night with every distortion and half-truth imaginable under the direction of the RCMP and its front “Keep the RCMP in Surrey’ as they waged a relentless war against a Surrey Police Service after having voted for it in the very first Council meeting after the municipal election.
“Yet, these self-righteous, judgmental politicians were so blind all this time to the ILLEGAL / UNETHICAL use of the sacred RCMP logo by the “Keep the RCMP in Surrey’ group – right under their noses!
“And mind you, Hundial is a FORMER RCMP OFFICER!
“Now you can imagine what his caliber must have been in the force – and what his caliber as a politician – albeit a petty one – is!
“As for Locke – a well-known political loser at all three levels of politics: municipal, provincial and federal – the less said, the better.
“Annis, of course, is the only candidate from Surrey First (the party of former mayors Dianne Watts and Linda Hepner) who won because she turned against her own party on the issue of the development proposal for Rosemary’s Heights just days before the election and harmed all her other party candidates.
“So what can you expect from her!
“And mind you she has been the Executive Director of Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers.
“The South Asian media – fed up with the blatant racism of the ‘Keep the RCMP in Surrey’ against South Asians – finally exposed the group and the RCMP for allowing the MISUSE of the RCMP logo on their twitter account and forced them to drop the logo last week.
“There has been NO COMMENT on this shocking scandal from the three blind mice of Surrey Council.
“What a bunch of hypocrites!
“As this newspaper wrote last week in a stinging rebuke (even as the white mainstream media has kept mum about this scandal):
““How can residents of Surrey expect Surrey RCMP Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards and his officers to protect them when they didn’t even notice that their sacred logo was being used illegally by the “Keep The RCMP In Surrey” group so blatantly all this time to lobby for the force?
““Was it deliberate bias – or was it a lack of intelligence? In either case, this has been a total disgrace that has sullied the name of the RCMP and its supporters. How can residents expect them to uphold the law in an unbiased manner?””
After The VOICE took up this issue, the RCMP’s top brass apparently ordered the group to remove the logo from their twitter account.
Then, after we pointed out: “However, the group is still using an RCMP cruiser with the RCMP logo on their twitter and Facebook accounts. Will the RCMP bosses do something about this?” the RCMP cruiser was removed from the logo.
Thank you for giving an honest account, unlike the lame stream corporate controlled media. The NDP got re-elected fair and square. The BC Liberals or should I say, neo conservatives made a huge mistake when they said they would start a referendum on policing. They certainly got the headline they were looking for, but they lost the election fair and square. Referendums are a huge waste of time and money. No matter how many signatures the Keep the RCMP ends up with, that will still be a very small amount compared to the entire population of 600,000 people living in Surrey. The RCMP’s days are numbered they’ll be gone within six months from now.
Totally confused on this uproar about booting the RCMP… does nobody remember all the gang shootings and perceived RCMP inaction over the last 5 years? All they could do was cleanup, rarely getting ahead of the problems. It is not a coincidence that drug gangs operate the most in urban RCMP jurisdictions, they know they don’t get run out of town. It’s just the nature of their rural style policing. I think most of this uproar is directed by all the federal job loss in Surrey, a whole new crew of police staffing will be hired. This is what all the fuss really is about. Nova Scotia and Burnaby should punt this organization next, they are simply out of touch.