A “Special Meeting” or a “Coup d’etat”

Posted on by Pete Cross
Julius Caesar being stabbed by multiple Roman senators in a chaotic and violent scene

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.

Is the World spinning Faster?

Posted on by Pete Cross

Policing issues and the stories that surround it seem to be growing exponentially, always accompanied by surrounding commentary and self-proclaimed expertise flowing from every social platform. Instagram, Reddit, Facebook and Twitter abound with the examination of the police and a professed expertise. The armchair investigators of Netflix are in full voice. In trying to understand why, I have learned that In the last few years the earths rotation has in fact been speeding up (on a normal day the earth travels at the speed of 1000 miles per hour as measured at the equator). So as I find my eyes ricocheting from headline to commission to judicial decision, blaming the earth’s rotation as being responsible is as likely an answer as any other.

In the past week to ten days we have had the start up of the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa; we have learned that 469 foreign criminals are “missing” according to the CBSA; two officers were killed in answering a domestic dispute in Ontario, ambushed by a male with an AK-47; and an Ontario court Judge has ruled that if you are an Indigenous offender you are not allowed to be cross-examined as to any previous offences. So now not only do you have the Gladue decision, you know have it dictated that the Indigenous are not to be subjected to the same trial process.

Closer to home, in the Surrey civic election the old dodger with the sore foot, McCallum, has been replaced by an equally woefully inadequate Brenda Locke. In the first 48 hours, she has already painted herself into a corner, by saying she is giving the Mounties back their job in Surrey, regardless of reality and cost.

So having to choose one story over another is difficult this week. That being said, as much as I would rather ignore it, I guess we will have to go with the Public Order Emergency Commission as the lead story, which is being headed by the Honourable Judge Paul Rouleau. This Commission (we have sure had our share of them lately) has been tasked with understanding “the Government’s decision to declare a public emergency, the circumstances that led to that declaration, and the effectiveness of the measures selected by the Government to deal with the then-existing situation”. As in all Commissions of Inquiry, one needs to be reminded that none of this is to determine criminal fault or civil liability. This is all to determine the “effectiveness” of the implementation of this draconian piece of legislation.

And like all good government Commissions, this too is filled with lawyers of every stripe and denomination: there are two co-lead counsel, five senior counsel, three regional counsel, twelve just “counsel”, three senior policy advisors, seven research counsel, and two “staff”. So including the Judge, there are thirty-two counsel and that is just on the government side of the ledger. The audience at these hearings will be for the most part other lawyers and the media. With this many lawyers there is diminishing hope that the truth behind the declaration of the emergencies act will not be watered down through all these filtering lawyers.

Judge Rouleau is a native of the Ottawa area, went to the University of Ottawa and then went on to be associated with several central Canadian legal firms such as Heenan Blaikie and Cassels Brock and Blackwell. He has been a Judge since 2002 and a strong advocate for French language rights, and would have probably been a better candidate for the Supreme Court than the new Justice O’Bansawin–but let’s put that aside for now.

The good Judge will be overseeing the evidence of sixty five potential witnesses, however do not despair and give up on your regular life schedule, as it is likely that you only need to begin to pay serious attention to the last twenty or so witnesses– which include the politicians such as Trudeau and Freeland. After all, the police have already established that they did not ask for the Emergencies Act, it has also been established that there was no real intelligence indicating that there was a foreign inspired threat in the makeup of the convoy group, nor conspiracies to commit violence, which should leave the Commission with some rather obvious starting points. There is going to be a lot of dancing to be sure. Commissioner Lucki has already done the two step in public committee hearings, where she was forced to admit to not having asked for the implementation of the Emergencies Act. As a devotee to Blair and company, she needed to backtrack, and she did this by saying what a great thing it was, once they had been given these extra powers. Justin Trudeau who spoke publicly about “foreign money” was clearly lying as the intelligence community today said there was no such evidence.

One should also remember that the government is not holding this hearing because they wish to be frank and forthright to the Canadian public, it is because the law states that they have to have an inquiry within 60 days after the enactment of the Emergencies Act. This particular group of Liberals are not fans of focused scrutiny, whether it is in the House of Commons question period or in front of a Commission. They have released some Cabinet documents but have raised “confidence” issues on them; so the general public may never be shown them.

In checking out a Commission it is always helpful to find out who has been given “standing” and “funding” in terms of appearing before the Commission, which simply put, is based on who has a direct and vital interest in the proceedings. So in this case, groups such as the Criminal Lawyers Association, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Ottawa Coalition of Residents and Businesses line up for standing, and of course for the government to pay for it. These three groups were in fact granted both permission and funding.

However, there was some rather unusual decisions in this regard. Take the case of Mr. Eros who applied for “standing”. Mr. Eros is a CPA and dealt with financing and accounting matters related to the Convoy Group. He was also intricately involved in the administration of the crowd-funding campaign with this same Convoy group. He was however denied standing, as the Judge ruled that he was merely a “witness”. This may be fair.

However, incredibly, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs was granted “standing” and “funding” to participate in this matter. They argued that they had a substantial and “direct interest in the commission” based on its “role as an umbrella organization representing Indigenous governments” and that it plays a “critical role in governance in Canada in terms of its ensuring that other governments are held accountable for their actions”. Some of you may be surprised at their being Indigenous “governments” in Canada. However, to think that they are there to hold the other “governments” accountable is audacious to say the least, even under the current Federal Liberal love-in regime. So we now have a group who has supported its share of protests, such as the damaging of pipelines and the burning of rail lines which is now going to sit in judgement of the governments reaction to the Ottawa convoy.

The witness testimony has started and began with the bubble wrapped represented citizens of Ottawa talking about the nights of continuous air horns, the disruption of their businesses and the “occupation” of Ottawa. Terms are being bandied about such as a “siege” and a “horrific experience”. The lead plaintiff in the civil suit Zexi Li, is a data analyst, and the second witness. She was working for the government from home and her testimony was how it completely disrupted her life, a story which under cross-examination was by no means dramatic. Most of the city of Ottawa were at this time working from home.

In the last few days the Commission has now started to examine some of the government and police response, before, during and after this clearly “unprecedented” upheaval. What would you expect to find when you have three levels of government; the city, the Province of Ontario, and the Federal Government all weighing in on strategy and tactics with three different police forces, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Ottawa City Police, and the RCMP? Now consider the Ottawa mayor who liked to have confidential discussions with Trudeau, Blair, and Mendocino, but not share those discussions with the Ottawa Police Services Board who supposedly were the designated oversight to the operations. There were Provincial and Federal concerns with the OPSB itself. Then throw in the new Ottawa Police Chief who with the other police managers from the other jurisdictions could not even agree on a “command structure” for several days. Throw in a request for 1800 Ontario Provincial officers, while at the same time consider the initial lacklustre involvement of the RCMP, and then consider an inability to even develop a policing “operational plan” for over 10 days.

Needless to say it was all bureaucracy, miscalculation and the very definition of too many cooks in the kitchen. Bill Blair was suggesting to the Ottawa Chief that he consider more bylaw enforcement, even though by that time 2000 bylaw tickets had been issued. I am sure he thanked Mr. Blair profusely. Justin Trudeau was busting on Doug Ford not doing enough, while at the same time, the OPP seemed to be the best at getting extra officers to the scene. Chief Slolys then resigned. With little doubt he was about to become the scape goat in this massive cockup.

The enacting of the act seems quite clearly to have been a reaction to a discombobulated police management action brought created by a lack of foresight and intelligence gathering, combined with meddling by the usual political group which surfaces in any calamity. It was done for the singular purpose of gaining a political upper hand in the media, to show that they were doing something, and it was concocted by the Federal government and the Liberal ruling party.

The core or the fuel for this action seems to been an inherent inability on the part of the liberal left to relate to the protestors driving these big trucks. They were seen as the working class, the blue collars. This was more than a paper exercise to the protestors. They had lost jobs and the ability to feed their families, and now they were being ignored and pushed to the sidelines. They were at times crude and in your face, willing to physically push back, but their cause was the centre of their existence. This was not a philosophical theory dealing with “systemic” complaints, theirs was a cause that affected their mortgage and their ability to make a living. They were not bubble-wrapped, did not speak in plural pronouns, and did not understand or adhere to the niceties of government levels and protocols. They were not from Ottawa, they did not look like they belonged there, they were not Liberal constituents, and most troubling of all– they drove very big immovable trucks.

So when they got to Ottawa, no one would talk to them, no one even liked them, and they needed to go, at any cost. It was hurting the images of the politicians in power. And the media were willing to report it without question or due diligence.

The protestors prevailed as long as they did because they were met with an unprepared and ill-equipped police force, governed by layers and layers of Ottawa political mandarins concerned only with optics. The politicians found themselves facing, according to the Ottawa mayor’s chief of staff, a “crescendo of collapsing confidence”.

They were also scared. They did not understand and could not relate to the visceral outpourings of the protestors. Their problems were not their problems. So this “local emergency” demanded in their view, the full force of government, the suspension of their inherent rights, and the seizure of their personal financial assets– and now they will be lying to justify it.

Photo courtesy of Ross Dunn via Flickr Creative Commons – Some Rights Reserved