Like a Rolling Stones final tour…I’m back once again

Posted on by Pete Cross

My last blog for the record was November 13th, 2024 and just like Jagger and the Rolling Stones “final” tour, I thought it would be the last. But as you can see now I was wrong and I’m back to post once again. Why? It is a legitimate question but one for which I do not have a clear answer. Maybe subconsciously I always knew I would, as I did continue to maintain the site structure throughout the last couple of years. I was somewhat surprised to see that there were still people visiting the dormant site. Or maybe the reason is that I am just like a Conservative crossing the floor to the Federal Liberals, maybe the motivation can be chalked up to be just plain self interest.

In any event, all that aside, I have decided to begin writing here once again, but maybe not on the pace of one every two weeks. I am slowing down a bit after all.

In reading and watching the news during the past couple of years, it seems unfortunate but predictable that the issues in 2024 and the issues in 2026 have for the most part not changed. Some of the players have changed, or they have changed hats, but there has been very little impact on the overall policies or in the direction in the many levels of government which govern us, nor on the larger issues that plague us every day.

In the last few months there have been some rather striking stories which have stood out. With little doubt some will become part of future blogs. One of the more dramatic recent shifts which cannot be ignored has been the increases in salary in the various policing worlds. The art or science of policing, whichever one chooses to see it as, has become a very lucrative field, far from the solidly middle class occupation it once was. Bonuses and other recruitment tactics are dangling very large carrots in front of the faces of both the fresh and old faces in policing, all in an effort to try to entice police officers to switch loyalties and their uniforms.

This is also occurring at the executive level. Who cannot be astonished by Adam Palmer retiring as the Chief of the Vancouver City Police and a mere two months later taking up with the RCMP as an Assistant Commissioner. I am told he is now in charge of “recruiting”and now trying to figure out how to steal recruits from the VPD and bring them over to the Mounties after just having spent the last few months of his Chief’s job trying to steal officers from the RCMP. His larger than life salary with the VPD in 2024 was $487,224.00 ,not including his $58,867 in expenses. Now his already formidable government pension is being supplanted by a new salary of roughly $230,000 as Assistant Commissioner. It kind of makes your eyes water.

Meanwhile in sunny Surrey the duel between the Surrey Police Service and what’s left of the RCMP’s largest detachment continues unabated. Unfortunately, the Mayor of Surrey remains the same, who although she lost the battle for control of the police force, still feels it necessary to try and poke the new police force in the eye as well as put up political roadblocks to the very agency which now polices her city. She recently hired and created a position for former Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards of the RCMP, who was head of the Surrey RCMP from 2020 to 2024 and one of the players actively duking it out with the leadership of the newly formed Surrey Police Service. He was someone who was clearly a fan of mayor Brenda Locke and her fight to keep the RCMP, so now, it seems he has been rewarded. He is now head of the brand new “Public Safety Department” for the City of Surrey; appointed by the same Brenda Locke where will provide “corporate oversight of the City’s role in the police transition plan” as part of his duties. Besides being another double dipping head shake, one cannot help but assume that future inter-government cooperation between the City and the Surrey Police Service will with little doubt be acrimonious and likely the fodder of future headlines.

At the Provincial political level, here in lotus land British Columbia, the most intriguing political battle is the one coming with the Indigenous. In a past blog I had written about the BC government’s adoption of the the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). It was what I believed at the time, nothing but fanciful “wokeness”. I believed it to be an ill thought out policy which I contended would have serious negative economic ramifications. That seems to have come true.

The passage of this bill and the various court processes has now resulted and led to a 700 page judgement by a Supreme Court Judge in 2025 (Cowichan Tribes versus Canada) who has stated that aboriginal title can “co-exist” with private “fee simple” property ownership. One interpretation being bandied about now, is that aboriginal title is now superior to fee simple titles. This of course is causing issues with land, financing and mortgage renewals. The ruling resulted in the usually silent majority erupting and now Premier Eby has been forced into putting a hold on the reflective statute called DRIPA (Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act) which was passed in 2019. The matter is now headed for the Supreme Court of Canada, eventually, but it will be a years long legal journey to the top court. The Indigenous leaders of course are very upset. But, make no mistake, this about money, more about what they now term as “economic reconciliation”.

And while we are on the subject of the Indigenous, in Kamloops there still has been no digging for graves at the residential school. In May 2022 there were promises of excavations “coming soon” but two years later in 2026, no such investigation has taken place; although the Kamloops band has taken in the $9 million that was handed over for this effort. The Kamloops chief now maintains that there is no consensus as to whether or not they should ever dig at the site. What I find equally disturbing, is that despite the allegations of possibly buried children and the initial narrative of it being a mass grave site, the RCMP feels no need to be involved or take the lead in the investigation. Politics dictating and overriding criminal investigation. I never thought I would see that day.

In Ontario ( the centre of the Canadian universe) in the next few months many of us will be drawn to the corruption story headlined “Project South” where a total of 7 officers of the Toronto Metro Police are facing 41 charges related to corruption. The alleged charges are serious, where they were caught passing on police classified information to the bad guys and as a result someone may have been actually killed. It also sounds like the evidence against them may be overwhelming. As more details come forward there is little doubt that it will warrant further examination and a blog on its own.

Before finishing up this blog, as an aside, some have asked me about what happened to the “other” writing projects. One of those projects was a book entitled “Ponytail”, the non-fiction story of Rapinder “Rob” Sidhu, the rogue Mountie who became a drug dealer and eventually got caught in the United States and sentenced to eight years. He had approached me to write his story. The book was in fact completed, but the final version of the book, without going into too many details, did not meet Rob’s satisfaction. After several drafts, he was still demanding changes even though the book had already been sent to Canadian publishers. Rob felt that the story should be more a story of a “redemption” and not so much an examination of the reasons for his fall from grace which he felt portrayed him in a too negative light. In the end we agreed to disagree and concluded our legal co-author agreement.

Since then, Rob has now, rather quickly, written and self-published his very own book. His version of what he terms “leadership, accountability and resilience”, where he expounds on his philosophy of the “will to power”. The book is entitled “The Betrayal by Saints, Syndicates and Self”. where Rob states that the “job didn’t break me, the betrayal did”. As to the book, I have not read it so I will hold back any comment until I see a full version, but I felt the need to make it clear that I am not in any way associated to this book nor am I in a position to recommend it.

As I have almost reached my self-imposed work limit of 1500 words, I will sum up by saying it is good to be back, and as it turns out there just may be enough stories to write about both in the policing world and in the daily life of us all to keep both the reader and the writer interested. Thanks for hanging around, and thanks to those that encouraged the comeback. Until next time.

Photo Courtesy of free pic.com/photos Some Rights Reserved

Regina vs. MaCallum

Posted on by Pete Cross

Even with the slapping of Chris Rock by the ridiculous Will Smith, the clap heard around the world, I find it difficult to shift my comedy seeking focus away from the Cirque de Surrey. I last wrote about the antics going on in this city in November of 2021, but I have been drawn back.

Now under the Big Tent is Mayor Doug MaCallum, ably representing the white geriatric set of South Surrey balancing as usual on the high wire of political intrigue. Below trying to dislodge the safety net are some other old white men and women from South Surrey–the Keep the Police in Surrey group. Admission to this circus is being put up by the taxpayers of this often troubled Metropolis.

Mr. MaCallum and this other group have been cajoling and sniping for sometime now over a separate police force for the citizens of Surrey.

The last altercation between the wearing thin placard carriers and the soon to be heading out of office Mayor took place, appropriately enough, in that rough and tumble South Point Save On Foods parking lot. Also known as “the hood” for retirees. These Jets and Sharks forming up for battle on 16th Avenue thankfully didn’t involve guns, knives, or broken bottles; the weapon of choice this time were Michelin radials.

It all started when Mr. MaCallum was shuffling into the grocery store and was then confronted by a car driven by a woman who is one of the spearheads of the Surrey Police Vote/Keep the Police in Surrey group. They were already at the grocery story collecting signatures for their petition, and no doubt saw the leader of the Safe Surrey Coalition fortuitously heading their way. She stopped the car and began a verbal argument with the crusty mayor who was none too pleased to see the group at his grocery story where he likes to buy his hamburger trying to get signatures to stop his crusade for a separate police force.

At some point the car turned and drove away, leaving MaCallum hollering that he had just been run over, or more specifically, claiming that she had hurriedly turned away and in so doing glanced her car’s bumper off his leg and then ran over his foot. In a t.v. interview he claims he went to the hospital and was checked out. On this video news coverage he also demonstrated for the camera, the now obvious limp in his walk. When the police officers attended they asked Mr. MaCallum if he wished to press charges and exhibiting his usual stubborn disposition said that he would, after all, he was a “victim” of a heinous crime.

Of course, this is where the file, or the investigation of this complaint, should have come to a grinding halt. The attending officers should have seen that the physical damage to the Mayor, if any, was minor if at all. They should have spoken with both parties, explained to the mayor that furthering this investigation was a waste of time, a waste of police resources, and a culmination of two childish acting individuals trying to further their cause. Nothing was to be gained by going further.

That of course didn’t happen, apparently common sense was not too common that day, either because of the insistence of the Mayor, or the intrepid police officers were bored and in order to get rid of it, escalated this “political file” to the plainclothes unit. In a city where there is rampant drug and gang problems, why not spend time and resources and go after the perpetrators of this parking lot mayhem.

So the usual process of investigation begins. The General Duty (uniform) members who attended wasted no time in ridding themselves of this “major” crime and duly took their Prime reports and put them in the pneumatic vacuum tubes directly into the office of Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards the head of Surrey Detachment. Further brain storming meetings undoubtedly ensued as little is done in the RCMP now with out a committee meeting.

Edwards of course has had his differences with Mr. McCallum and has spoken out previously against McCallum’s party, the Safe Coalition group. For those that have been ignoring the Surrey news, the new Surrey Police Services group is over two hundred officers now and the process of replacing the haggard Mounties is well underway. The Mounties are keeping a brave face and pretending that everything is normal.

So along comes Mr McCallum’s complaint. Clearly McCallum was exaggerating his victimhood, clearly this was a very childish matter on the part of both parties. Mr. Edwards must have recognized that this could be an opportunity to embarrass his civic enemy. But he was astute enough to also realize that because of his past history, there was a clear “conflict of interest” in having the soon to be exiting Mounties investigating the fellow who is opening the door for them.

So to whom did Edwards give the investigation?

“To ensure there was no potential for real or perceived conflict of interest or improper influence” Mr. Edwards announced he was turning it over to another RCMP group, the RCMP Major Crime Section, Special Projects Unit, based out of E Division HQ.

How Mr. Edwards could not see this as still a conflict of interest is indeed baffling. Did he think that the fact that they were working out of E Division HQ, in a different building, that no one would notice that they are also RCMP? However, this fact did not seem to draw much media attention, so the investigation went forward.

Lo and behold, a mere three weeks later, the RCMP Major Crimes unit served a Production Order (a type of warrant) on the offices of CTV News. The warrant sought the unedited footage of the interview with McCallum and the reporter Catherine Urqhuart. The investigation according to the warrant was under Section 140(1)(a) entitled Public Mischief. The Mounties had clearly and quickly switched from this being an occasion of “assault” where McCallum was victim, to one where the victim was now the suspect.

The CTV news group, in dramatic fashion announced the raid on their offices, and immediately intoned that the maximum sentence for such an offence was five years. The veiled and intentional implication was that McCallum was indeed headed to the slammer.

This seemingly horrendous crime of assault, lack of assault, or public mischief, now deserved only the best legal minds one can buy. A “Special Prosecutor” was demanded by these apparently complicated legal circumstances.

So Richard Fowler was appointed. Mr. Fowler QC has had a fairly long and established career and according to his firms biography specializes in “large, complex cases”. He had previously worked with his former mentor David Gibbons on the defence of one of those accused in the Air India case. He even defended Glen Clark, the former Premier of the Province on charges of breach of trust and fraud. Therefore, he was with little doubt suitable for this more than serious undertaking. At significant cost of course.

Mr. McCallum, not to be outdone, hired legal gun slinger Richard Peck QC . Mr. Peck has been in the news recently as the defender of Meng Wanzhou . The extremely able, high profile, and also costly Mr. Peck is usually facing the challenges of defending murderers, sex offenders, and other sundry violators. His defence in this high profile case may come down to being able to read tire impressions.

Mr.McCallum was charged with public mischief on December 10th, 2021, an offence whereby “everyone commits public mischief who, with intent to mislead, causes a police officer to enter or continue an investigation…”. His defence counsel said that Mr. McCallum would not enter a plea at this time as they were awaiting “outstanding information”. Four months had gone by since the execution of the production order. Quick with the warrant, not so quick with the full disclosure package.

So on March 8th 2022, the case was put over to the Friday March 11, 2022 just to set a date for a “pre-trial conference”. The pre-trial conference has now been set for April 11th, 2022.

The lawyers have indicated that if the matter goes by trial, they will require five court days for the trial. The date of that trial will be determined, if needed, after April 11th. So four months have gone by since the charges and the court case has yet to begin. In comparison, if one is interested in measuring legal speed, in the high profile highly-charged and very complicated George Floyd incident in the U.S., Derek Chauvin was charged with murder. Four months later the legal proceedings began.

So what is going to come of all this time, money and resources. Mr. Fowler has already stated in the case of Mr. McCallum that they will be proceeding “summarily”. This means that they are treating this as a “less than serious offence” and are therefore opening the resolution to a lesser punishment. Fines less than $5,000 with a maximum jail time of “two years less a day”.

So as we await Mr McCallum’s fate and find out whether it in fact goes to a five day trial, one can only hope that in the pre-trial conference saner heads will prevail. The way things go in Surrey, this may in fact turn into a long running three ring circus.

All over a file call that two officers just out of recruit field training should have ended in ten minutes– including the paperwork.

Photo courtesy of Waferboard at Flickr Commons — Some Rights Reserved