Outgoing Surrey, B.C., mayor pleads not guilty as public mischief trial begins

SURREY, B.C. -

The embattled outgoing mayor of Surrey, B.C., pleaded not guilty Monday at the outset of his public mischief trial.

Doug McCallum was charged last December, four months after he complained to the RCMP that Deborah Johnstone, an opponent of his transition to a municipal police force, had run over his foot in a grocery store parking lot.

The incident was investigated, but the driver was never charged.

Johnstone was called to testify on the first day of McCallum's trial, and described being involved in a verbal altercation with the mayor while collecting signatures on a petition to keep the city's RCMP detachment on Sept. 4, 2021.

She testified that the two became engaged in a "heated debate" after she spotted McCallum and yelled that he should resign.

"I told him he was the worst mayor that Surrey ever had. I told him that he was mean-spirited. I told him he was a liar," Johnstone told the court.

McCallum then told her she was a "big mouth" who needed "to learn to be quiet," or something to that effect, Johnston testified.

In their opening statement, prosecutors said the confrontation ended with McCallum walking off to do his grocery shopping and Johnstone driving out of the parking lot.

Later that day, the mayor reported he had been run over. He provided a 60-minute video statement to Surrey RCMP, which the Crown said would be played during his trial – along with surveillance video of the parking lot altercation.

The surveillance video shows Johnstone driving into the parking lot and circling around when she sees McCallum. After she drives off, the mayor can be seen walking away. He does not appear to be injured.

The defence tried to poke holes in Johnstone’s account of what happened, painting her as someone who is mean-spirited, confrontational, and had previous run-ins with the mayor – including an incident in which she showed up outside his home. Johnstone said she was not on his property, and that McCallum called police.

Prosecutors said they will be working to prove McCallum made false statements to police with the intention of casting undue suspicion on Johnstone.

With McCallum having worked towards replacing the Surrey RCMP with the new Surrey Police Service, authorities decided the investigation would be handled by the RCMP's Major Crimes Unit, rather than the Surrey detachment, in order to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.

WHO WILL PAY MCCALLUM'S LEGAL FEES?

McCallum hired high-profile lawyer Richard Peck – who previously represented Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou – to defend him on his public mischief charge, and has been billing the city for his legal fees.

But McCallum was defeated in the municipal election two weeks ago, and his successor has vowed to make him foot his own legal bills.

Mayor-elect Brenda Locke, who defeated McCallum by about 1,000 votes, has also said that she's asked outside counsel to investigate how to recoup fees already paid.

“I have already instructed staff to cease paying any further legal bills for Mr. McCallum's criminal charges. So that has already stopped. We have paid some bills to date, but I've asked any further bills just to not be paid,” said Locke over the weekend.

The total amount paid by the city so far remains unclear.

“I do know the number. I can't disclose it, but I can tell you it's significant and I am very concerned about it,” said Locke.

Whether the city can recoup McCallum’s legal fees may depend on the outcome in court. Taxpayers are only supposed to foot the bill if the municipal official was performing their duties when the incident that led to charges took place.

“One could easily draw the connection between a finding of guilty, which means you were falsely reporting something to police, and a determination that that action could never have been part of a performance of mayor,” said John Alexander, a lawyer specializing in municipal litigation.

Locke is not alone in her stance that the city should stop paying McCallum’s legal fees.

“The mayor by his own admission said he was out grocery shopping, minding his own business. If you’re on personal time, to me that should not be at the expense of taxpayers,” said Linda Annis, an incumbent councillor-elect.

An online petition calling for McCallum to pay his own legal fees has received thousands of signatures.

“He hired one of the most expensive lawyers in Canada, I would venture to guess, and if he was paying for it out of his own pocket, would he have done that? I doubt it and I think that's just wrong. It’s a misuse of taxpayers money,” said Annis.

McCallum's trial in Surrey provincial court is expected to last seven days.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Regan Hasegawa and Shannon Patterson