■ GILL WILL STILL RUN
Surrey Coun. Tom Gill says he’s undeterred from running for mayor, despite being the target of malicious flyers and potentially damaging rumours.
“It’s ironic that all these things are coming six weeks before our leadership nomination for Surrey First, so there’s some concern,” said Gill.
The flyers were distributed to people’s doorsteps and posted in some Surrey restaurants over the weekend. Then, rumours began to circulate on Thursday that Gill was being investigated by the RCMP.
Gill vehemently denies the rumours, calling them “problematic,” and the police have confirmed there is no investigation.
“I’m pretty confused as to what’s going on and why,” Gill said.
He said he’s not sure whether the motivation is political or personal, or whether it’s an individual or group responsible, though he has his suspicions.
Gill said that during his almost 13 years on council and four previous election campaigns, he’s seen some nasty behaviour — signs defaced by racially motivated vandals and inappropriate comments and innuendo spread — but he’s not had to weather the kind of attacks he is now facing.
“This is pretty much a first,” Gill said.
Gill said he spoke with Surrey RCMP Chief Supt. Dwayne McDonald by phone on Monday about the flyers and then again on Wednesday in person.
“He’s quite aware of what’s going on,” said Gill.
Surrey RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Elenore Sturko confirmed that Gill met with the detachment’s officer in charge to discuss the flyers.
“As far as that goes, it’s not criminal in nature and so we aren’t actually doing an investigation, but we will continue to monitor to ensure that everything doesn’t become criminal in any way,” said Sturko.
She said to be criminal, the flyers would have to contain material that would be considered a hate crime, threatening or harassment.
“I don’t want to get into specifics, but those would be the type of things we would seek to identify,” she said.
As for the latest incident, Sturko said Surrey RCMP aren’t aware of an investigation involving Gill. The Richmond RCMP and federal RCMP also said they had no such investigations underway.
Gill said he also sent a letter to Elections B.C. on Monday seeking clarification on its stance that the flyers did not violate rules under the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act because third-party advertising is only regulated during the campaign period, which runs Sept. 22 to Oct. 20.
Mayor Linda Hepner, president of Surrey First, said the flyers and rumours are “a very new low.”
“It’s so difficult to defend yourself on a whisper campaign and I cannot imagine how destructive it is,” Hepner said. “It’s so offensive in the extreme when you think about how hard it is for people to step up and serve and then you get to experience the constant defending of your reputation. How do you do that when it’s anonymous?”
She said such attempts at character assassination deter people from entering politics. One of the reasons she decided against running for a second term is because she couldn’t handle the negativity.
“It’s very difficult to get people willing to serve, and yet when you see things like this it’ll be even more difficult to find people willing to serve,” she said.
Gill agreed, saying there’s “absolutely no question” such personal attacks would keep people from going into politics.
However, he will not be swayed from seeking the mayoral nomination for Surrey First.
“I’m quite committed to looking into this opportunity. I do really think it’s an opportunity, it’s just unfortunate that I’m dealing with these issues,” he said.
Such tactics have come up in previous election campaigns.
In 2005, a mayoral candidate in Nanaimo was the subject of a fake press release that alleged she was part of an ongoing police investigation.
The same year, a mayoral candidate in Vancouver made unsubstantiated claims about Vision candidate Jim Green’s personal life and financial dealings.
In 2004, a Kelowna mayoral candidate was the victim of cyber identity theft, with the thief sending derogatory tweets about another candidate.