Surrey mayor’s party accused RCMP of murder in deleted tweet

The official Twitter account belonging to the Safe Surrey Coalition party headed by Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum posted and then deleted a tweet that accused B.C. RCMP members of murdering a Prince George man.

A Safe Surrey Coalition tweet posted Friday linked to a news story regarding the Independent Investigations Office's probe into the 2017 death of Dale Culver, who died after a struggle with police.

“Poorly trained RCMP murder a defenceless man and then delete video evidence to cover up their crime,” read the tweet.

In fact, charges have yet to be laid against the RCMP officers involved.

The IIO, an independent police watchdog that investigates all officer-related incidents that result in serious harm or death, has forwarded its investigation to the B.C. Prosecution Service to consider use-of-force and obstruction charges against five RCMP officers.

“While attempting to take the man into custody, a struggle ensued between him and the officer and additional officers then arrived. OC (pepper) spray was used. The male appeared to be having trouble breathing and police requested medical assistance,” the IIO statement said.

“Officers reported that the male was removed from the police vehicle when Emergency Health Services (EHS) arrived, and collapsed. The male was pronounced deceased shortly thereafter.”

The tweet, which was among a series of recent Safe Surrey social media posts that linked to negative news stories involving the RCMP, was later deleted after the media requested comment from the party and mayor.

Safe Surrey Coun. Doug Elford said he requested the tweet be taken down.

“I felt the tweet was inappropriate and asked that it be retracted,” Elford said.

The tweet was replaced by a less accusatory one, but neither a retraction nor an apology was posted.

When asked who was responsible for the tweet, Elford referred all questions to the mayor.

McCallum has yet to respond to a request for comment. In February, the mayor's proposal to replace the Surrey RCMP with a municipal police force received approval from B.C. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth.

Setting up a Surrey police force was a key pillar of the Safe Surrey Coalition's municipal campaign platform, and council voted at its first meeting in November 2018 to proceed with the transition.

Surrey Coun. Jack Hundial, a former 25-year RCMP member who quit Safe Surrey last year over the mayor's police transition plan, called on council to apologize and for Farnworth to launch an investigation into the tweet.

“Regardless of what uniform you wear or position on police transition, we do not call our @bcrcmp police officers murderers,” Hundial tweeted.