Anyone planning to play soccer in a Surrey park this weekend might want to make sure they have the proper paperwork handy.
That’s the warning from a family who claim they were booted off the field at Brookside Elementary School last weekend because they didn’t have a permit.
Satnam Singh Pawer said he and his cousin were having a small game with their kids when a bylaw officer asked them to beat it – then called in two Mounties for backup.
In a city plagued by gangs and gun violence, Pawer said he was stunned.
“They say spend time with the kids, make them a better citizen,” he said. “So how can you make them a better citizen if you can’t play in parks without a permit?”
A small argument ensued on the field, part of which was caught on camera.
Eventually, one sympathetic officer put her foot down and urged the family to take their concerns to the city.
“Today, you will pick up your cones, you will go home, you will make a complaint to the City of Surrey,” she tells them in footage of the kerfuffle.
“It’s frustrating, I get it, but that’s the rule.”
Surrey does have a bylaw requiring permits for organized soccer games, but Pawer said their little match, which included his 10-year-old son Jorwar, was anything but.
Owen Croy, manager of parks for the city, said they’ve had reports recently of rowdy behaviour at Brookside Elementary, but that the family probably should have been left alone.
“Surrey welcomes families to recreate in our parks, that’s what they’re there for,” Croy said. “The bylaw officer followed the letter of the law. Perhaps a bit more discretion might have been used.”
For its part, the RCMP said it’s routine policy for officers to respond when requested by a bylaw officer.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Tom Popyk
Since when do we need a permit to take our kids to a park in Surrey? A Surrey resident sent this to me:My cousins and I took our kids to play at Brookside Elementary School around 7pm on June 28, 2015. While we were playing pass with our kids a bylaw officer named Hemu Narayan I.D (204350) came and told us that we had to leave the park because we did not have a permit to play there. We refused and explained how we are just playing pass with our kids and kicking a soccer ball around. We told her that we were not a team or a club of any sort we are just dads spending time with our kids. There were 6 of us adults and 6 kids just playing around. She called the police on us and had forcibly kicked off of the field. So my questions to city officials are that since when do we need permission from the city to play with our kids? If not our local parks then where do we take our kids to spend time with them? Why are we paying tax dollars to build parks that we do not have access to? The file number of the incident is 15-91-1427 and the RCMP officers name is V. Churchille.
Posted by Gurpreet Singh Sahota on Friday, July 3, 2015
