City of Surrey will cover mayor's legal costs following public mischief charge

The taxpayers of Surrey, B.C., will foot the bill for legal costs incurred by Mayor Doug McCallum after he was charged with one count of public mischief in relation to a police complaint he made earlier this year. 

In September,  McCallum claimed his foot had been run over in a grocery store parking lot in the south of the city. It happened during an altercation with a group gathering signatures to keep the RCMP in Surrey, a contentious issue while the city is in the process of creating a new municipal police force. 

A B.C. Prosecution Service spokesperson said special prosecutor Richard Fowler had approved the charge of public mischief, which relates to allegedly making false statements with the intention of misleading police officers.

According to a city bylaw, all municipal officials, including employees, officers and members of council will be compensated for costs relating to any incident that occurred while acting on behalf of the city.

John Alexander, a Victoria lawyer who has practiced municipal law for 30 years, says that although there have been charges, McCallum may not end up going to trial.

"There's inevitably discussions between Crown and defence as to whether or not the matter can be resolved by something other than a trial," he told The Early Edition host Stephen Quinn.  

"This is going to spin down the road for a number of months, depending on the decisions made on both sides."

Regardless of how the matter moves forward, Coun. Linda Annis said she believes McCallum should be paying his own legal fees.

"If you do something wrong on your own personal time, such as going to the grocery store, the residents of Surrey shouldn't be paying your legal bills," Annis said. 

"This could be a long lengthy process, and he's hired a very high-profile lawyer, you can expect these charges to be very significant, and residents should not be on the hook for it. He made a mistake on his personal time, he needs to pay the bill."

McCallum has hired high-profile defence lawyer Richard Peck to represent him. Peck was lead counsel for Ajaib Singh Bagri, who was acquitted in the Air India bombings, and was also on Meng Wanzhou's defence team.