Julius Caesar was stabbed twenty-three times on the Ides of March in 44 BC, by a group of Roman Senators who felt that a pre-emptive strike was necessary in defence of the Roman Republic, asserting that Caesar’s lifelong political authority threatened their political authority. Flash forward to 2026 and replace the theatre of Pompey in Rome with the Police Board in Surrey and you have a broad analogy of the recent firing of police Chief Norm Lepinsky. The Caesar assassination was carried out by a group of Senators, such as Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Replace them with Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke playing Brutus, and maybe Councillor and former RCMP officer Rob Stutt as Longinus.

That being said, I will admit that it is a bit of stretch to compare the multi-pensioned Lepinski to Caesar, but it is quite clear that the “constructive dismissal” of him, where he was given two days to either resign or be fired was clearly a stab in the back orchestrated by a city council and the Police Board. Despite what the Mayor says, the orchestration of the firing seems to draw a straight line and point to Locke herself. It would also seem that the only plausible motive was clear political revenge and for the record no other explanation has been offered. It will be a costly move for the citizens of Surrey as one must remember that being terminated “without cause” means that by definition it was therefore unrelated to any serious misconduct. It is a requirement under those circumstances that the Board provide at least 3-12 months notice for this termination; which also was not done. The firing of course was conducted in a “special session” and therefore away from public eyes and also just happened when the Chair of the Board Harley Chappell was unable to attend. Chappell was clearly blind sided and was not happy. He went public with his feelings, then resigned, only to be followed by a second councillor James Carwana, who was also upset about the process that led to the firing.

This is indeed a depressing police story and it is both a reflection of the sad state of police management in this country, especially in the RCMP, as well as an exposure of the level of politicization that has become part of policing and has now firmly taken root. Before going further, I will apologize to those readers outside B.C. who may have not been following along with the political/police shenanigans that has been ongoing for years now in Surrey. To catch you up the Surrey Detachment was the largest RCMP Canadian detachment in Canada and it is in the process of being removed and replaced by a municipal police force, the Surrey Police Services. The bumpy and frustrated transition is in its third year now. ( I have written previous blogs of the ongoing tumult within Surrey and the events leading up to this latest development)

In short, it has become a political and logistical mess. The transition battle which has been heartily fought by the local RCMP Senior management and the current Mayor Brenda Locke as they teamed up to fight the removal of the RCMP. The RCMP officers who have been prominent in the fight I have been told by sources, included; now Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald who is the current Commander for E Division, the former head of Surrey Detachment Brian Edwards (more about him to follow), and the likes of former A/Commissioner Manny Mann and Chief Superintendent Sean Gill who was then also of Surrey detachment. I am told that from the beginning this group were the cheerleaders for Mayor Locke and her Surrey Connect Party in the last Surrey municipal election. In that campaign Locke ran on a promise to reverse the decision to switch to a municipal detachment. Keep these names in mind because if we stick to the analogy these individuals would be playing the Senators roles in the Roman times. During that election, Locke was running against Doug McCallum, which is also important to remember as we tell this story.

Locke was elected in October 2022 with 27% of the vote, 1% greater than Doug McCallum who remains her arch nemesis and is also running in the next election. A month later in November 2022, Surrey City Council voted 5-4 to stop the Municipal force in its tracks, even though the transition had already started in 2018 and the transition process had already cost over $100 million in “sunk” costs.

Enter the other player in this story; former RCMP officer Rob Stutt who ran for City Council under the Locke banner and joined her in the fight to retain the RCMP. In the 5-4 vote, he cast the deciding vote for the return of the RCMP. There was a problem though. Mr. Stutt’s wife and son worked for the RCMP in Surrey (his daughter at the time of this writing now also works for the Surrey RCMP). Clearly a conflict of interest, but one apparently that former officer Rob Stutt did not see. So a complaint was filed at the time by the Surrey Police union over Stutt’s clear conflict of interest; and in the end the Ethics Commissioner confirmed that he had in fact contravened Section 21 of the City’s code of conduct. The punishment was that in the future Mr. Stutt needed to be “mindful of conflict of interest” (by the way the Surrey Ethics Commissioner was selected by a Committee of Council which included Mayor Locke). Ironically, Rob Stutt in his election platform had listed as his “Key Projects” that he was involved with: “No. 1 retaining the RCMP”, No. 2 Ethics and Integrity and No. 3 Accountable Development”. (In terms of full disclosure, I worked with Rob in the Surrey Serious Crime Section for a number of years and I find it difficult to believe he did not understand the concept of a conflict of interest –then again I am having trouble recognizing this former cop now turned politician).

After this vote, the provincial government reassessed, but in the end once again sided with the formation of the Municipal force, and ordered the City to go along, promising them further monies to wash away the bad taste in the mouth of grumpy Brenda and her council. Over the next couple of years, Locke and her disciples felt that it would be better to continue the fight then give in, so there were constant eruptions between Ms. Locke and the SPS. There were police budget cuts, complaints of Lepinski not being overly concerned about asian extortion police shootings in the south east asian community (Locke calling for a national inquiry); complaints of how Lepinski was allocating police resources, and ordering Lepinski to move faster with the takeover of the Cloverdale area of Surrey. At the street operatoinal level the discontentment and bad feelings began to grow, often boiling over between the Mounties and the new SPS. On the other side of the fence, other sources tell me that some of the hires by the new agency, borne out of desperation to fill the numbers are lacking both in experience and professionalism. People are saying that a lot of their hires were based on connections and friendships driven by “double dipping”and less on investigative capability leaving widening gaps in operational abilities. For his part Lepinski, the politician seems to have over promised the speed and capabilities of the transition.

But the saga does not stop there. Ms. Locke seemed to remain fixated on the need for political control of the police department.

Mayor Locke then appointed the previously reported on Brian Edwards of the Surrey RCMP to a new position in the city of Surrey; one she created, to head the new Public Safety Department. This meant that the SPS and Chief Lepinski and the Fire Chief would now report to Edwards, a person who actively campaigned with the RCMP to get rid of the Surrey Police Service. The first shot in the planned coup seems to have begun.

Despite all this, on November 29, 2024, the SPS became the official police of jurisdiction for the City of Surrey.

Two years later in March 2026, a shake up of the Police Board occurs and the Provincial government in “consultation with the Mayor” Brenda Locke announces some board members being replaced with new members. Locke no longer would be the Chair of the police board, but one of the few members retained for the new Board was Rob Stutt.

A month and a half later, on May 11, 2026 the Mayor issues a statement that she was against Lepinski removing resources from the eight member gang unit to the Cloverdale area of Surrey, saying that disagreed strongly with her police Chief.

May 29, 2026 the Police Board now being chaired by Rob Stutt due to the temporary absence of Police Board Chair Chappell, calls for a “special meeting” to be held in camera, in other words behind closed doors and not to be observed by the public.

On June 1st Lepinski returns from vacation and is fired as a result of that meeting, or asked to resign within two days. Mayor Locke in a scene out of Goodfellas where an alibi is needed, says that she was “out of town” and stressed how the decision that was made was made by an “independent police board” that she “didn’t even know for sure” that he had been fired. Unfortunately for the Board the drama that unfolded drew the ire of the general public, became a topic on local radio, and various interests began to chime in, most of whom smelled something fishy about the whole process.

Mayor Locke by the way is headed to an election of October 2026. The afore mentioned Doug McCallum has once again entered the Mayoral race and on June 10th, in a press conference asserts the obvious– that “political pressure drove the decision” to remove Lepinski. He files a formal complaint with the Provincial government. He asserts that the Police Act was violated, and points the finger directly at Rob Stutt. Premier Eby and his government now say that they weren’t involved but that the “Board followed the legal procedures” and they didn’t really want to get involved anymore; despite being directly involved in all of it since the very beginning.

The city and the Police Board needed to do damage control.

On June 17th, 2026 the Board held a meeting that was open to the public and things predictably got heated. The police board aimed to try and stymie the backlash and passed a”Directive” which aimed to curtail any comments coming from the SPS and its executives. It directed from that point forward the SPS could not publicly criticize, have personal opinions, engage in speculative commentary or undermine the role of the Board. The directive passed, led by the new Board chair Perm Jawanda who when asked about the firing of Lepinski stated that he was replaced because of “where they were headed they needed a different leader”. Also in the meeting a former Board member stood up and accused Stutt and the new Board of improper behaviour and said that they should all resign. They called her out of order and adjourned the meeting.

The whole embarassment is captured on video.

I have reached out to Rob Stutt for comment, however his email is no longer valid. It is likely that he is unable to comment at this time, as I am sure the lawyers for the City are trying to get a Non-disclosure agreement in front of Lepinski and avoid the risk of being involved in a wrongful dismissal suit.

The new chair of the police board, Perm Jawanda for her part has said that “I don’t see the political influence”. Much like Rob Stutt not seeing the conflict of interest. All involved have to be assuming that most of us are stupid, and that the voters of Surrey will forget before October 2026.

As the saga plays out in the press the Board promises that a quick replacement will be found. One of the front runners, I am told, and believe it or not, now seems to be none other than Dwayne McDonald of the RCMP. So Mr. Edwards and Mr. McDonald could be reunited once again. If that happens, the coup would then be complete and Locke will have her faithful servants standing with her prior to the election. I am being told that the current group of Deputies in the SPS are not interested in the Chief’s job after watching all the political machinations with Locke and crew over the last couple of years. I was also told that Deputy Howard Chow of the Vancouver City Police was a candidate but is also not interested.

The fact that this lunacy was and continues to be demonstrated in what was the RCMP’s largest municipal detachment in Canada makes this historically sad. As a former long standing member of the RCMP I am embarrassed by the lack of ethics or principles on the part of the senior Mounties. However I was not a fan of the choice of Lepinski either. Admittedly, in the end I was in favour of the transition, because I thought the SPS were needed in that fast growing city, and they needed to get away from the Ottawa controlled bureaucracy of the RCMP. However, my confidence has been shaken by some of the personnel hired for the Surrey Police Service who were often political and friend choices, sometimes based on desperation and not based on a track record. Now with the firing of the Chief in this underhanded fashion and if Locke and her crew get their way, it seems that the Surrey Police Service, possibly led by the double dipping Mounties who once hated them, are now destined for a very rocky road in the coming years. Despite the directive to silence any discontent, the members on both sides are going to continue to talk, albeit under their breath. It could get very uncomfortable.

At the very least, even though there are central privacy issues in the firing, the citizens of Surrey have a right to know what happened, what and who promoted the firing of Lepinski, and how much it is going to cost in the end. And they should be told before the next municipal election. These problems are not the fault of the uniform officers on either side of the debate, the problem originates and has been exacerbated by short sighted regional politics, a lack of ethics and integrity and unprincipled senior police management. And, like a lot of coups, we can only hope that it may be short lived.