Teacher alleges she was assaulted by wife of Delta’s police chief
Mounties are investigating an alleged assault by the wife of Delta’s police chief against a Richmond schoolteacher in Tsawwassen three weeks ago.
The incident allegedly occurred on June 6 and involved Lorraine Dubord, a teacher who lives in Surrey.
Part of the encounter was filmed and posted to a private Facebook group.
Dubord, wife of Chief Neil Dubord, allegedly hurled insults at Kiran Sidhu and sprayed her with a hose, according to Sidhu’s allegations, contained in a Delta Optimist report.
Surrey RCMP were asked to conduct an independent investigation into the alleged assault, Cpl. El Sturko said in an emailed statement.
“We will not be releasing details about the individuals involved or details of the allegations at this time,” Sturko said.
“We are committed to doing a thorough investigation and while we cannot predict an exact date for our investigative tasks to be complete, our officers will work diligently to complete their work in a timely manner.”
Sidhu told the Optimist that she had been at a socially distanced picnic at Centennial Beach that day. The tide came in as she was leaving, forcing her to climb onto some rocks to get to her car.
Those rocks were along the property line of the Dubord family’s home.
Sidhu alleged Dubord yelled at her to get off the rocks but she had nowhere to go.
Dubord then insulted her, returned with a garden hose and sprayed her, Sidhu told the Optimist.
“My face was wet, my hair was wet … it was just so shocking,” she said.
“She is an adult woman, I’m an adult woman. I was made to feel so unwelcome in these white spaces, which is something I’m aware of being a racialized woman in these white spaces as a teacher, as an active member of my union and I work on changing that.”
Sidhu said she filed a complaint with Delta police, which led to the RCMP investigation.
The Delta police and mayor did not return requests for comment.
On Thursday, Dubord provided an emailed statement to the Optimist in which she offered an apology for how she handled the situation.
“Everyone should feel welcomed and supported in our community,” Dubord wrote.
“I trust that all the facts and the complete story surrounding this regrettable incident will be gathered in due course through the ongoing and independent RCMP investigation.
“I would like to reaffirm my ongoing commitment to promoting diversity and fighting racism and hate in our community.
“I will continue to listen and learn from the discourse occurring in our community.”
A long-standing, wellfunded and well-regarded municipal program designed to help homeless people in Surrey is suddenly without direction following a decision by the city’s mayor to not elect a new board.
Mayor Doug McCallum’s move at the annual general meeting of the Surrey Homelessness and Housing Society on Thursday to leave the society without a board means $11 million in funds are now frozen, according to Surrey city councillor Brenda Locke.
Locke was the board’s chair. The board’s membership had been relatively stable since its founding in 2011 and counted lawyers, accountants, university administrators, and people who own small businesses and work in corporate real estate among its members.
“It’s worked very quietly under the radar helping people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness,” Locke said.
The society is an arm’s length body under the City of Surrey and at Thursday’s AGM, the mayor and his supporters voted not to appoint a new board for the coming year.
Locke and other board members are seeking legal advice, as having a board is required under the Societies Act.
She said the mayor had indicated to her he believes the society’s activities would be better managed directly by the city, which she called a bad idea.
“Especially right now, we’re in the middle of a pandemic. There’s no way to access those funds. Everyone is saying we don’t know what will happen. They’ve left everybody in a very precarious position,” Locke said. “If there’s a need it won’t be the society that can help with that.”
The society’s funds are held by the Vancity Community Foundation and only the board is authorized to make disbursements. With no board, that money is essentially frozen.
“I don’t know if he understood clearly that this board has fundraised. There’s a lot of donations, coming from small business, large businesses, private donors,” Locke said. “Without a board, I do not know how that will be managed.”
The society supports programs that work with people in Surrey who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. According to the 2017 homelessness count, there were at least 602 people who were homeless in Surrey.
The society has been in operation for nine years and was first set up by longtime former councillor Judy Villeneuve, with the support of then-Mayor Dianne Watts.
Villeneuve, who didn’t stand for re-election to council in 2018, said she’d worked to make the society a reality for at least 15 years before it was founded in 2011.
“The society has been incredibly effective,” Villeneuve said. “I don’t think there was any reason to disband it.”
After community consultations, the society was set up to be non-partisan and at arm’slength from city government.
“I would be pretty disheartened if that nationally recognized board was disbanded,” Villeneuve said, noting that the society’s work had been praised by many groups for its unique approach.
At its founding, the city put up $9 million in seed money, but nothing since, as the foundation has raised $7 million in donations in nine years.
Locke, who became chair just under two years ago, said since the society was founded, about $5 million had been disbursed to community groups.
“To me it’s been working exceptionally well, it’s nimble, it’s responsive,” she said. As an example of their work, she said a recovery house had recently developed a very bad leak in their roof and the society was able to send over funds to assist in immediate repairs.
Nineteen programs have received funds from the society this year.
“They’re all working on pretty slim margins,” she said. “It’s all about building capacity, being responsive to need. We do a grant program every year. This year it was all on COVID. A lot of societies lost their volunteers. We had already put a plan in place to spend up to $250,000 if there were a second wave.”