Surrey mayor apologizes to RCMP for party’s tweet
Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum has apologized to the RCMP after a post on his political party’s Twitter account accused Prince George Mounties of murdering a man.
Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Strachan, commanding officer of the RCMP’s B.C. division, sent an email to officers provincewide on Monday confirming the apology.
“What I do not appreciate is anyone who seeks to gain from making hateful, inappropriate and slanderous comments about our membership, which I know touches each of us, whether or not we are directly involved,” she wrote.
McCallum and his Safe Surrey Coalition were elected in October 2018 on a platform of replacing the Surrey RCMP with a municipal police force. The plan was approved by B.C. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth in February and the city force is expected to be operating by 2022.
On Friday, the party’s Twitter page retweeted a news story based on the Independent Investigations Office call for charges to be laid against five Prince George RCMP officers. No charges have been laid.
The comment, “Poorly trained RCMP murder a defenceless man and then delete video evidence to cover up their crime” was posted, but later removed. This came after a series of negative RCMP posts were made across the party’s social media platforms.
On Saturday morning, Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards, head of the Surrey RCMP, contacted McCallum to discuss the post.
“He advised me that he was unaware of the post and will look into the matter and get back to me,” Edwards wrote in an email to Surrey RCMP members. In an update, Edwards said McCallum had contacted him and said the post was made by an unauthorized person.
“He apologized for the post and assured me that this will not happen again,” Edwards wrote.
Strachan also contacted McCallum, saying the post was “unprofessional, divisive and defamatory.”
She wrote to McCallum that she appreciated the apology made to Edwards, adding, “I trust that we are both of the understanding that defamatory comments by the Safe Surrey Coalition are counter productive to a positive working relationship.”
Dale Culver died after being arrested by five police officers in downtown Prince George in July 2017. The IIO believed there are reasonable grounds that two officers committed use-of-force offences and three others may have committed offences regarding obstruction of justice.