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Bob Mackin 

Judge Reginald Harris said Nov. 9 that he would announce the verdict in ex-Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum’s public mischief trial sometime during the week of Nov. 21.

Harris originally said he could deliver the judgment in a week’s time after McCallum’s defence team and the special prosecutor finished closing arguments in the Surrey Provincial Court trial.

Doug McCallum on Sept. 4, 2021 (Provincial Court exhibit)

He agreed to the delay due to lawyers’ schedules and estimated he would need a two-hour session to recite his reasons. 

McCallum, who lost the mayoralty to Brenda Locke in the Oct. 15 civic election, pleaded not guilty when the trial began Oct. 31. He did not testify.

Special prosecutor Richard Fowler said Nov. 9 that if McCallum’s foot had been run over in a Save-On-Foods parking lot last year, then he exploited an obvious accident to seek revenge against a Keep the RCMP in Surrey [KTRIS] protester. 

“This is not a trial about whether or not Mr. McCallum’s foot was run over,” Fowler told Harris. “This is a trial about whether or not Mr. McCallum, with the intent to mislead, made false statements to the police, with the intention of causing Ms. [Debi] Johnstone to be suspected of having committed offences she had not committed.”

McCallum originally accused Johnstone of driving over his foot and speeding away in her Mustang convertible on Sept. 4, 2021. He was instead charged with public mischief. There were no eyewitnesses to the incident and video evidence was inconclusive, because a shrub obscured McCallum’s lower leg and Johnstone’s rear wheel. 

Fowler told Harris that he had proven the charges beyond reasonable doubt, because evidence disproved McCallum’s allegations that Johnstone drove towards him, pinned him to his vehicle, ran over his foot and sped away. 

McCallum called 9-1-1 more than two hours after the incident, after going grocery shopping and speaking to KTRIS leader Ivan Scott at a petition kiosk outside the store. He spent two hours at the Peace Arch Hospital emergency ward, where a doctor found no fracture or visible swelling, only a contusion on the top of his left foot. McCallum then attended a 45-minute interview with an RCMP officer.

“Mr. McCallum’s statement, or statements were not spontaneous utterances at the scene of an accident, the side of the road, they were not simply reckless hyperbole,” Fowler said. “They weren’t statements that were made in the heat of the moment, with no time to quietly reflect upon what had just happened, or what the statement maker had just experienced.”

Surrey Provincial Court (Mackin)

Instead, McCallum told an RCMP officer in a video recorded interview 11 times that Johnstone had pinned him to his vehicle. 

“He was pinned by no one and pinned by nothing,” Fowler said. 

Video evidence played in court showed that McCallum originally responded to Johnstone by walking 15 feet from his car to where Johnstone had stopped, swore at him and urged him to resign. Fowler said McCallum chose to stand beside Johnstone’s vehicle during their one-minute verbal exchange before she drove away slowly and carefully. 

“He walked to the car and nothing stopped him from walking away,” Fowler said. 

Earlier Nov. 9, one of McCallum’s four lawyers, Eric Gottardi, closed the defence case by saying that McCallum neither wasted police resources nor sought revenge against Johnstone. 

He said McCallum should be acquitted because he never veered from the main thrust of his complaint that Johnstone singled him out, yelled profanities at him, drove over his foot and got away. He said McCallum endured a frightening experience. If McCallum exaggerated any details, Gottardi argued that is irrelevant under case law.

“He’s not literally trying to communicate the idea that she burned rubber and left marks on the ground and nor is he trying to communicate the idea that he was literally and physically mechanically pinned between two vehicles,” Gottardi said. 

“The core complaint is she ran over his foot and drove away.”

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Bob Mackin  Judge Reginald Harris said Nov. 9

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Bob Mackin

Even though ex-Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum’s memory of a parking lot argument with an angry citizen wasn’t crystal clear, his lead defence lawyer said Nov. 8 that he was co-operative with police when he complained about the alleged hit and run.

Richard Peck (Peck and Co.)

In closing arguments at McCallum’s public mischief trial in Surrey Provincial Court, Richard Peck said his client urged police to obtain surveillance footage, volunteered to provide his medical records, allowed his foot to be photographed by a police officer and gave up his shoes on request.

“Is this how someone acts who is fabricating this? Get the video, I’ll help in any way I can, here’s my records — none of that supports that interpretation,” Peck told Judge Reginald Harris.

McCallum accused Keep the RCMP in Surrey’s Debi Johnstone of running over his foot in the Southpoint Save-On-Foods parking lot on Sept. 4, 2021 after she unleashed a barrage of profanity at him and told him to resign. RCMP instead investigated McCallum for lying about the incident. McCallum was eventually charged with public mischief and pleaded not guilty when his trial began Oct. 31. He did not testify.

“If we’re making all this up, it’s very well-scripted,” Peck quipped.

RCMP officer Sgt. Andre Johnny testified Nov. 1 that investigators could not determine whether McCallum’s foot was run over because vegetation obscured a surveillance camera’s view of his lower leg and Johnstone’s rear wheel. But the video evidence contradicted McCallum’s claims that Johnstone pinned him to the vehicle and then sped away. McCallum casually walked away from the scene and later went shopping at the grocery store. He eventually filing a police complaint and visited the Peace Arch Hospital emergency room where a doctor found he had a contusion on his left foot but no visible swelling.

Nonetheless, Peck said the defence’s expert medical and engineering witnesses told the court that it was possible McCallum was run over without suffering any broken bones after Johnstone “targeted and stalked” his client.

“This, for him, McCallum, was a frightening, disturbing event and there is no doubt that such events could lead to misperception,” Peck said.

Surrey Provincial Court (BC Gov)

Peck called McCallum a dedicated public servant who weathered his fair share of typical and expected criticism during his time in office, which ended Monday when Brenda Locke was sworn-in as Surrey’s new mayor. However, Peck said that during his last term, McCallum faced aggressive opposition from a group vehemently against his program to replace the RCMP with a new municipal police force. Keep the RCMP in Surrey members protested at council meetings, public events and even outside his home. Peck called it “toxic fanaticism.”

“What is not to be expected, and sadly seems to have taken a flow in North America, is that a small subset of the population can respond to government initiatives that they disagree with in an aggressive and, in my respectful submission, democratically negative way,” Peck said. 

Harris interrupted Peck near the end of his presentation with a pointed question about McCallum’s behaviour in the immediate aftermath of the incident. 

“In this case, it would strike me if someone is going to fabricate that they’ve been run over on the foot, and you’re approaching the very investigator, wouldn’t you expect a feigned limp?” Harris asked. “So the absence of a feigned limp, is that something I can consider? If I’m going to the police and I want them to believe ‘Hey, I was run over,’ wouldn’t it make sense that I would be pretending to be limping and injured?”

Replied Peck: “That’s a reasonable anticipation or expectation in my view. As a piece of evidence, I think it can go into the mix.” 

“The absence of it, to me, is somewhat striking,” Harris said.

Harris also asked whether the police were investigating harassment in addition to the driving incident. Peck said that Johnny was emphatic in his cross-examination that they didn’t investigate harassment. 

“That’s what I thought, as well,” Harris said. 

Closing arguments continue. 

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Bob Mackin Even though ex-Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum’s

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Bob Mackin

The emergency room doctor who treated ex-Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum found no visible swelling on the day he claimed a pro-RCMP activist drove over his left foot, Surrey Provincial Court heard on Nov. 8.

Doug McCallum in the Surrey courthouse parkade (Mackin)

McCallum alleged that Keep the RCMP in Surrey’s Debi Johnstone ran over his foot in the Southpoint Save-On-Foods parking lot on Sept. 4, 2021 after she unleashed a barrage of profanity at him. Police instead accused McCallum of lying about the incident and he was charged with public mischief. McCallum pleaded not guilty when the trial began Oct. 31, but did not testify.

Judge Reginald Harris heard that emergency room staff determined McCallum had a contusion on his left foot and that he complained of tingling and mild, dull pain on the top of his foot. McCallum underwent an X-ray but no fracture was found. A doctor told him to take Tylenol, ice his foot and follow up with his family doctor.

Orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Kevin Wing, an expert witness for the defence, said he saw nothing in McCallum’s file that was inconsistent with a mild, soft-tissue injury that could have been caused by a car running over a foot. He also suggested there could be a delayed reaction. 

One of McCallum’s four lawyers switched gears and suggested another cause for McCallum’s injury.

“Have you observed similar soft tissue injuries arise in situations where, you know, the person’s foot is not actually contacted, but they’re reacting to a sudden stimuli like a car driving by quickly?” asked Eric Gottardi.

“The answer is, yes,” said foot and ankle specialist Wing. “I see people all the time who, in some kind of jerky motion twisting and turning, have relatively minor soft tissue injuries. But nonetheless, those soft tissue injuries are demonstrable and real with respect to discomfort, swelling.”

Debi Johnstone of Keep the RCMP in Surrey (Mackin)

Sgt. Andre Johnny of the Surrey RCMP testified Nov. 1 that detectives could not determine whether the rear wheel on Johnstone’s Mustang convertible ever met McCallum’s foot, because a shrub blocked a surveillance camera’s view. The video evidence contradicted McCallum’s two other key claims that he had been pinned against a car and that Johnstone had sped away from the scene. McCallum casually walked away and later went shopping in the grocery store before complaining to the RCMP and visiting Peace Arch Hospital.

Wing admitted under cross-examination to Special Prosecutor Richard Fowler that he had not spoken with the physician who tended to McCallum. Wing confirmed that McCallum’s file said he had a history of high blood pressure and hypertension, which Fowler suggested could have contributed to swollen feet. 

Meanwhile, the final witness called by McCallum’s lawyers was former Coun. Laurie Guerra.

Keep the RCMP in Surrey campaigning with Surrey mayoral candidate Brenda Locke (Twitter)

Guerra, elected in 2018 with McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition, described how opposition to McCallum’s program to replace the RCMP with the Surrey Police Service escalated as the term progressed.

It began with emailed complaints from Keep the RCMP in Surrey founder Ivan Scott and progressed to activists speaking passionately at city council meetings, kiosks at community festivals and T-shirt wearing, placard-waving protesters. 

Guerra said she asked RCMP to remove shouting protesters from one community festival in Fleetwood, but they refused. Guerra also alleged that Johnstone and another activist showed up at her house. She did not say when the incident occurred, only that her husband and her daughter were home at the time. She called it a “very different ballgame” from hearing yelling and swearing at the city council chamber. 

“When they show up at your home, and you have to call the police and you ask the police ‘can I get a restraining order?’ and they say no, because they haven’t threatened your life and they haven’t done anything,” Guerra said. 

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Bob Mackin The emergency room doctor who treated

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Bob Mackin

During his career as a brakeman for Canada’s national bobsleigh team, Justin “Juice” Wilkinson trained to be ready for every twist and turn on the icy track.

Justin Wilkinson (IBSF)

But he wasn’t prepared for the abrupt end of Sarah Storey’s tenure as president and acting chief executive when the Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) annual general meeting resumed Nov. 5 at the Whistler Sliding Centre. 

In March, after BCS had a disappointing Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics campaign, Wilkinson was among dozens of current and former sliders who demanded Storey and high performance director Chris Le Bihan resign over a combination of toxic culture, inadequate safety, lack of transparency and poor governance. The BCS scandal was the first mass-uprising of athletes in a year of upheaval across the Canadian sport system. 

“We were pretty nervous, that she may end up having the right amount of votes to win,” Wilkinson admitted in an interview. 

The meeting originally began Sept. 29 in Calgary and more than 90 athletes were preparing to vote Storey out and sport physiologist Tara McNeil into office. Storey tabled the annual financial report, but refused to allow a vote on her leadership due to alleged concerns over membership eligibility. The meeting was postponed to the 2010 Winter Olympics track, just two days before a deadline under federal law. 

At Whistler, Storey read her president’s report. What Wilkinson said was traditionally around five minutes stretched to 20. Then Storey dropped the bombshell: after two terms, she would not put her name forward for a third.

“It ended up being very anticlimactic, that she would just choose [to not continue],” Wilkinson said. “This was probably really the only way that she could save face, to not be defeated in a vote, and not to admit blame by stepping down or giving in to what the athletes were asking for.”

Storey’s decision meant McNeil was elected by acclamation. McNeil was a guest coach at the Calgary Stampeders’ training camp last spring and has consulted for BCS, Canadian Luge Association, WinSport and the Canadian Sport Institute. 

BCS declined a reporter’s request to attend the meeting or observe it via web conference.

Wilkinson said there was an awkward moment in which Storey tried to downplay her dual role. She said she had never truly been the acting CEO. Instead, she volunteered her time to perform some of the duties of CEO. The Canadian Sport Governance Code stated that no board member should be chief executive during their term as a director.

“Why now is she disputing that and not having clarified that sooner? So it was very odd.”

New Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton president Tara McNeil (BCS/Twitter)

Frustration with Storey’s leadership had festered since her original 2014 election. As vice-president, she helped draft a new version of BCS bylaws in 2013 and was accused of using those new rules to win the presidency. 

Father Bob Storey is the former Olympic bobsledder and International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) president and her brother Max is an Olympic bid and organizing consultant.

Storey may have foreshadowed her decision when she announced Oct. 28 that BCS had signed-on to the independent Abuse Free Sport program, which means BCS would finally come under the jurisdiction of the new Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner. The office had rejected an initial complaint on Aug. 1 because BCS had not joined the program.

The transition is to be complete by Jan. 17. In the meantime, Toronto’s Lattal Law continues to receive any complaints from BCS members who have experienced or witnessed abuse.

“It’s too bad that can’t happen faster. But that is something that’s finally going to happen,” Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson said athletes hope new leadership means they can resume their focus on the sport. The 2022-2023 BMW IBSF World Cup tour opens Nov. 24-26 at the Whistler track.

“The last eight years, to me, has felt very adversarial, from the leadership of BCS from the president down to the management staff,” he said. “The athletes were definitely looked at as adversaries, not as partners.”

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Bob Mackin During his career as a brakeman

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Bob Mackin 

Embattled Richmond immigration and real estate lawyer Hong Guo avoided jail again for civil contempt of court, after she came to B.C. Supreme Court Nov. 7 with a high-profile lawyer.

Justice Gordon Weatherill had threatened Oct. 14 to keep Guo in custody for 40 days after she failed to provide financial documents to a civil case in which she is a defendant.

Special prosecutor David Butcher (Mackin)

Guo retained David Butcher on Oct. 28, the week after her previous appearance before Weatherill. Weatherill agreed to adjourn the case to Dec. 8 to give Butcher more time.

“Mr. Butcher you are a breath of fresh air in an otherwise disastrous situation involving your client,” said Weatherill, who took a break so that Butcher could confer with Guo about the length of his retainer. 

“I intend to get to the bottom of this and, with you involved, there’s some hope.”

After the break, Butcher said he would remain Guo’s lawyer, but revealed that she had begun counselling. 

“It is very apparent that she has some issues that have not been explored at any point to date, so I’m prepared to stay till the end of that,” Butcher told the court. “My willingness to do that does depend on Ms. Guo’s cooperation in every way that clients are supposed to cooperate with counsel.”

In May 2018, immigrant investors Qing Yan and his wife Kai Ming Yu sued Guo, Zhong Ping Xu, Xiao Hong Liu, 1032821 B.C. Ltd., Vancouver Soho Holding Ltd and Canada Sparkle Long Holdings Inc. for fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract relating to a collapsed $40 million real estate deal. 

Yu and Yan hired Guo in 2013 to assist their immigration application. Guo introduced them to Xu and Liu, the principals behind Canada Sparkle, and they entered a joint venture for the Vancouver Soho high-density commercial and residential project on Minoru and Lansdowne in Richmond. 

The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that Guo acted as lawyer for both Vancouver Soho and Canada Sparkle and took advantage of the plaintiffs’ poor English skills.

Pro-Beijing lawyer Hong Guo unsuccessfully ran to be Richmond’s mayor in 2018.

Butcher told Weatherill that he agreed with Glen Forrester, the lawyer for Yan and Yu, that Guo’s office records are “a complete mess.” She attributed that to the alleged 2016 theft of $7.5 million from her firm’s trust account by her accountant. 

“He did make the comment that Ms. Guo is of little practical assistance in helping herself: In her affidavit, she says, at times she feels paralyzed, and she’s her own worst enemy, and is not really capable of assisting herself and that’s why I suggested others get involved,” Butcher said.

Weatherill warned Guo to not mislead Butcher like she had done to him. 

“I expect you to cooperate with Mr. Butcher, you understand?” Weatherill asked. “If you do not cooperate with Mr. Butcher, then I’m not going to be happy. Do you understand that?”

Guo replied: “Yes.”

Earlier this year, Butcher was one of two special prosecutors in the trial of disgraced former B.C. Legislature clerk Craig James, who was found guilty of breach of public trust. 

Butcher represented Brad Desmarais, the B.C. Lottery Corporation’s former chief operating officer, during the Cullen Commission public inquiry on money laundering in B.C.

Guo was not called to testify at the inquiry, but her name was mentioned because she had represented Paul King Jin, the Richmond man banned from B.C. casinos for alleged money laundering and loan sharking. 

Guo finished fourth in the 2018 Richmond mayoral election after denying that China had any human rights problems. Her firm has offices in Richmond and Beijing, where she once worked as a lawyer in the Chinese Communist Party government’s state council. 

The Law Society of B.C. issued nine disciplinary citations against Guo from September 2018 to July 2021 and is seeking her disbarment.

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Bob Mackin  Embattled Richmond immigration and real estate

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The weak tornado that touched down at University Golf Club a year ago on Nov. 6, 2021 came as a blessing to Prof. Roland Stull.

Nov. 6, 2021 tornado that formed off YVR (UBC/EOAS)

He teaches a meteorology of storms course at University of B.C.’s Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Department and the extreme weather event became an easy addition to the curriculum. 

“The tornado came from a supercell thunderstorm, where the whole thunderstorm was rotating as a mesocyclone,” Stull said. “These storms are very rare for Vancouver.”

Indeed, the previous Vancouver tornado had been in 1976. 

Eyewitness video emerged quickly from the driving range of swirling winds and broken branches. A few large trees fell across University Boulevard, temporarily snarling trolley bus service in Point Grey. Environment Canada assigned it an EF-0 rating and estimated winds blew at 90 km-h to 100 km-h when it touched down at 5:10 p.m.

Campus surveillance video released from UBC under freedom of information shows what happened 2 kilometres west of the golf course: wind, heavy rain and hail. 

Graupel, to be precise, according to Stull.

Radar imaging of the Nov. 6, 2021 tornado (NTP)

“The atmospheric ingredients were there for this kind of rotation to develop,” said Dave Sills, a former Environment Canada severe weather scientist who is co-leader of the Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) at University of Western Ontario. 

“It was just a little bit of enhanced rainfall among a large area of rainfall and then it really started spinning up just west of the airport,” Sills said. “Then we could see the reflectivity, which is the radar echoes that show you how intense the rainfall is. It really took off once it approached University Hill, and that’s indicative of hail, so I’m glad to see that there’s evidence of hail there.”

Indeed, the images show graupel blanketing sidewalks, streets and grass around the campus while trees and bushes swayed in the wind, sometimes violently reacting to gusts. To the east, there are moments of black clouds briefly darkening the skies.

The tornado started west of Vancouver International Airport, over the Strait of Georgia.

Nov. 6, 2021 tornado hit the UBC golf course and caused damage at the nearby campus (UBC/EOAS)

NTP found reports of damage around Southwest Marine Drive, West 16th Avenue, West 10th Avenue, Chancellor Boulevard and Northwest Marine Drive. 

“That ended up being track length of 3.9 or so kilometres with a maximum path width of 310 meters, and that was pretty much coming straight up from the south,” Sills said. “It’s 190 degrees, so it’s a little bit west of south but almost straight from the south with the supercell thunderstorm that developed over the water. It just kept going north.”

The storm was detected around University Hill at 5:08 p.m. A secondary area of rotation occurred to the northwest late in the hour. 

The storm system continued traveling across to the North Shore, but Sills said the only hint of damage there was a power outage due to a downed line on Cypress Bowl Road. He doesn’t know for certain that the storm was to blame. 

It dissipated but then the rotation redeveloped just north of Grouse Woods in North Vancouver. 

“This is a bit of a unicorn. It was late in the season and just tornadoes in general in Vancouver are pretty rare,” Sills said.

NTP and its new companion, the National Hail Project, are based at UWO in London, Ont., with a mission to detect, document and assess data about the respective weather phenomena across Canada. 

No repeat in Vancouver this year, but Sills said there were reports of a dust devil in Prince George and a vortex on the Sumas Prairie near Abbotsford. “Pretty quiet as far as downbursts and tornadoes in B.C. in 2022.”

The Nov. 6, 2021 tornado was part of the wildest weather year in memory for B.C., that included the late-June heat dome in which 619 people succumbed and mid-November parade of atmospheric rivers that flooded Fraser Valley farms and destroyed stretches of the Coquihalla Highway.

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Bob Mackin The weak tornado that touched down

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For the week of Nov. 6, 2022:

The biggest story in Canadian soccer last week was not the men’s national team preparing for the World Cup in Qatar. It was the 16-month jail sentence in North Vancouver Provincial Court to former women’s national junior team coach Bob Birarda. 

Birarda, who also coached the Whitecaps women’s team, pleaded guilty last February to sexually assaulting four players between 1988 and 2008.

Birarda was charged nearly two years after former Whitecap Ciara McCormack blew the whistle in a February 2019 blog post about his return to coaching girls soccer. 

“The positive is that the truth came out, and that he suffered consequences,” thePodcast guest McCormack told host Bob Mackin. “At the end of the day, 16 months for all the carnage he caused? I don’t think there’s ever going to be a sentence that’ll truly give justice and be proper punishment for what was taken away from people.”

The sentence comes amid a watershed year in Canadian sport activism, as athletes across winter and summer sports are demanding an end to abuse and corruption. McCormack got the ball rolling almost four years ago. 

“It was a massive, collective effort to just shift the narrative that it’s not okay to stay silent, it’s not okay to put success in sports ahead of taking care of people and doing the right thing,” she said.

On this edition, hear the full interview with McCormack. Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest news headlines and a commentary on the end of John Horgan’s premiership. 

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn or Apple Podcasts.

Now on Google Podcasts!

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

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For the week of Nov. 6, 2022:

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Bob Mackin

The key provincial bureaucrat overseeing the Surrey police transition has quit, just over two weeks since Brenda Locke beat Doug McCallum for the Surrey mayoralty on a promise to keep the RCMP.

Wayne Rideout (LinkedIn)

Wayne Rideout joined the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General in 2016 as deputy director of police services after a 34-year career in the RCMP. In 2021, he replaced former B.C. RCMP commanding officer Brenda Butterworth-Carr as the assistant deputy minister in charge of the Policing and Security Branch. 

A prepared statement attributed to Solicitor General Mike Farnworth thanked Rideout for his time in the job, but did not shed light on why he departed. 

“Since joining the Policing and Security Branch in January 2021, he has supported the government’s pandemic response, the police response to natural disasters, and new measures to combat organized crime. He has also played a critical role in laying the foundation of modernizing policing in British Columbia,” said the Farnworth statement. “I am proud of what he has accomplished in extraordinary, demanding times and we will miss him greatly. I am confident that the Branch will continue its high standard of support for policing and public safety in British Columbia.”

Locke ran on a platform to end the Surrey Police Service, McCallum’s municipal police force that was created to replace the RCMP detachment. She won by fewer than 1,000 votes in the Oct. 15 civic election. 

Mike Farnworth announces $2,000 fines on April 19 (BC Gov)

In addition to managing the province’s RCMP contracts, Rideout also played a role in reversing a Vancouver Police Department budget freeze in early 2022 after an appeal from the police board. Rideout’s decision restored $5.7 million in funding after the December 2020 city council decision amid the “defund the police” movement. 

Rideout joined the Mounties as a general duty officer in 1982 and climbed the ranks from detachments to provincial headquarters. He was officer in charge of the fledgling Integrated Homicide Investigation Unit from 2003 to 2008. 

In 2007, after the Vancouver International Airport taser death of Robert Dziekanski, Rideout refused to let the public information officer correct the record when an eyewitness video emerged of the incident. A coroner’s court heard in 2018 that the decision sent Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre into a tailspin and he eventually died in 2013 of suicide. 

Rideout was assistant commissioner in charge of criminal operations, investigative services and organized crime during the Canada Day 2013 Legislature pressure cooker bomb plot. What originally looked like an Islamist terror scheme turned out to be an RCMP “Mr. Big” sting operation involving two drug addicts. 

Three years later, a judge stayed the charges against John Nuttall and Amanda Korody due to entrapment. The couple filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court last August, accusing the federal and B.C. governments and Crown prosecutors of violating their constitutional rights. 

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Bob Mackin The key provincial bureaucrat overseeing the

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Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum could have escaped a broken foot if he was run over in a Save-On-Foods parking lot, a Provincial Court judge heard Nov. 2.

Doug McCallum on Sept. 4, 2021 (Provincial Court exhibit)

McCallum’s defence team called expert witnesses who analyzed aspects of the Sept. 4, 2021 incident. McCallum complained to police that Keep the RCMP in Surrey activist Debi Johnstone drove over his left foot in her Mustang, but Mounties instead investigated McCallum for making false statements. 

The Peace Arch Hospital expert who analyzed McCallum’s x-ray said there was a “moderate degree of soft tissue swelling” of his left foot, toward his small toe. But Dr. Hamed Basseri said there was no evidence of fractures or malalignment of bones or joints. 

Under cross-examination, Basseri said he did not conduct a physical exam.

“You’re not able to say what degree of soft tissue swelling may have been present, the day before or the week before, anything like that, correct?” asked Special Prosecutor Richard Fowler.

“That’s correct,” Basseri replied.

“And, of course, you didn’t examine the right foot so you can’t tell us whether there was any moderate soft tissue swelling of the right foot, for example,” said Fowler, who also suggested McCallum may have had pre-existing fluid buildup in his feet.

Basseri replied: “That’s correct.”

Biomechanical engineer Dennis Chimich of Vancouver consultancy MEA Forensic estimated that if McCallum had been run over, his foot would have felt the weight of 413 kilograms from the rear of Johnstone’s slow-moving car. 

“Data do support, however, that feet can be run over by vehicle tires, with the expectation of an absence of fractures,” Chimich said.

Chimich based his report on images of McCallum’s shoes (Adidas size 10 with a padded tongue), the vehicle and the parking lot.

Surrey Provincial Court (Mackin)

“The contact between the right rear tire of the Mustang and that outer aspect of Mr. McCallum’s left forefoot provides an injury mechanism for that objective swelling that was identified by the radiologist,” Chimich said.

Collision reconstruction engineer Bradley Heinrichs of MEA Forensic testified that he conducted a site visit and produced a 3-D imaging analysis. 

Heinrichs detected McCallum’s head move down and arms move back as the vehicle turned. He also noted rear tires generally don’t follow the same radius as the front tires during a tight turn, but could not precisely pinpoint McCallum’s position. Shrubs in a traffic island obscure McCallum below his thighs, as captured by the Save-On-Foods outward-looking camera. 

“Did you come to a conclusion then about the rear wheel tire of the Mustang and whether it was possible that it could have contacted Mr. McCallum’s foot?” asked McCallum’s lawyer Eric Gottardi.

Heinrichs replied: “If you’re standing close enough, the rear tire would have tracked to the Mustang’s right but towards Mr. McCallum, compared to the side of the Mustang. So if you’d be standing close enough, yes, it could have.”

Crown witness Sgt. Andre Johnny of the RCMP testified Tuesday that police could not determine whether McCallum was run over. McCallum, he said, was not pinned by Johnstone’s vehicle, as he claimed to police. Video evidence also debunked McCallum’s claim that Johnstone sped away from the scene. The surveillance video shows him casually walk into the store where he shopped for more than half an hour. He later called police and went to hospital.

The trial is in recess until Nov. 8, due to scheduling of two more expert defence witnesses. It was not scheduled to sit Nov. 4 or 7.

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Bob Mackin Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum could have

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Bob Mackin

Outgoing Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum complained three times to the Surrey RCMP about protesters outside his house, including one dressed as a skeleton on Halloween 2021. 

Eight McCallum-related files since 2019 were summarized for investigators and submitted to McCallum’s Provincial Court public mischief trial, where McCallum’s lawyers have alleged he is a victim of criminal harassment.

Keep the RCMP in Surrey protester outside Doug McCallum’s house on Halloween 2021

The summary provides further details about friction with the grassroots group opposed to Safe Surrey Coalition leader McCallum’s drive to replace the Mounties with a municipal force. Brenda Locke, who defeated McCallum in the Oct. 15 civic election, has vowed to cancel the transition.

At 6:09 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2021, McCallum called 9-1-1 to report the costumed woman walking up and down in front of his Crescent Beach house with a Keep the RCMP in Surrey (KTRIS) sign. He also said there was a vehicle he could not describe with a Keep the RCMP in Surrey sign and people yelling “go home,” “retire” and “Keep the RCMP in Surrey.” 

No threats had been made, but it was not the first such occurrence. “McCallum stated he was tired of it,” said the summary and he asked police to identify the woman and ask her to move along.

“Police explained the female was not committing an offence, so they could not compel her to identify herself or move along, but they would ask,” said the police summary.

Police found the costumed woman carrying a sign which read “McCallum death of democracy.” She was cooperative, but said that she was aware of her right to protest under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

“Protester advised she would be leaving within the hour. McCallum was told to call back if there were further problems. No additional call was made,” said the report.

McCallum made similar calls to police about protesters outside his house on April 23, 2021 and July 24, 2021, but there was no wrongdoing and police made no arrests. 

The summary mentions allegations of two sinister, anonymous threats made to city hall.

Police were informed Jan. 4, 2021 that a supervisor in the engineering department received a photocopied letter that contained a swastika, picture of Adolf Hitler and various comments, including “It’s time for you to go”, “You are history” and “There is a bomb in your house ready for you.”

The employee and McCallum gave statements. McCallum mentioned KTRIS, but “stated his experience with this group had never been threatening before, only harassing in nature.” Police found no links to KTRIS and reviewed surveillance footage, “but the person who delivered the letter could not be found. Investigational avenues were exhausted and the file was concluded.”

A separate anonymous phone message through the main switchboard to McCallum’s office indicated his “life might be on the line.” 

“Despite inquiries with the city and Telus, the origin of the call could not be tracked,” said the summary of the June 18, 2021 incident report. “Safety plan discussed and victim services was offered but declined. Investigational avenues were exhausted and the file was concluded.”

The summary also mentioned a letter received by McCallum’s closest ally on city council and personal companion, Allison Patton.

Coun. Allison Patton (left) and Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum.

On June 8, 2021, Patton reported an unknown correspondent told her to resign and made reference to personal matters.

“Patton described ongoing investigations she had been involved with at her place of work. There was nothing overtly threatening, or efforts to threaten or extort Patton in the letters.  Patton felt she was being targeted by the Keep the RCMP in Surrey group, strictly because of their opposing political agenda.”

Police followed-up with KTRIS founder Ivan Scott and members of the group, “who advised they had sent emails in the past, but had never sent actual letters. File was fully investigated, no suspect was identified and the file was concluded.”

Scott complained to Surrey RCMP Oct. 19, 2020 after McCallum cut his microphone during a public hearing and asked for a security guard to eject him from the chamber. Scott refused to leave. He complained to police that a security guard touched his arm and wanted the guard and city manager Vince Lalonde charged. 

Investigators closed the file when they determined it would not meet Crown counsel charge approval standards.

Debi Johnstone complained to Surrey RCMP on Sept. 17, 2019 against McCallum, after she said he came close to her face and made a comment similar to “I advise you to watch what you say.” Johnstone admitted to saying “SUC, SUC, SUC” in reference to “Surrey Unsafe Coalition.”

“No offence committed, file concluded.”

McCallum alleged that Johnstone ran over his foot in a Save-On-Foods parking lot on Sept. 4, 2021. Police instead accused McCallum of lying about the incident and he was charged with public mischief. McCallum pleaded not guilty on Monday. 

Johnstone and Scott are among seven KTRIS activists banned from attending city council meetings in September 2021. McCallum’s majority also hired a law firm to seek an injunction against the seven, but they hired a lawyer to contest the application on constitutional grounds. McCallum eventually rescinded the motion in December 2021. 

The same seven also challenged the city’s sign bylaw. While B.C. Supreme Court Justice Nigel Kent dismissed their application, he ruled last July that city hall needed to rewrite the bylaw. Kent said that limiting political signage on private property to election periods would infringe on the right to political expression. 

“These particular petitioners have been directly targeted by certain members of Surrey city council for special treatment; they were the subject matter of a (quickly and appropriately rescinded) bylaw prohibiting their attendance at council meetings and an injunction lawsuit seeking to enforce that bylaw,” said Kent’s ruling. “Their organization (KTRIS) has even been accused, wrongly it appears, of inflicting physical injury on the Mayor.”

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Bob Mackin Outgoing Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum complained

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