Surrey council votes to suspend ethics investigations until after fall election

Surrey's city council voted in favour Monday night of a controversial motion to suspend new ethics investigations until after the municipal election this fall.

The vote passed 5-3 during a council meeting Monday. Under the new amendments, the moratorium on investigations stops new complaints from being received and processed as of Tuesday until after the October election.

By comparison, Edmonton and Toronto only pause their ethics investigations three months prior to an election, not six months.

The bylaw was initially supposed to be discussed at a council meeting back in January, but Mayor Doug McCallum recommended removing the item from the agenda just hours before the meeting was scheduled to start.

A small group of protesters gathered outside Surrey City Hall ahead of the meeting, opposing the amendment and calling on McCallum to resign. 

McCallum is currently the subject of an ethics complaint himself, for staying on as chair of the Surrey Police Service while also facing a public mischief charge. The changes to the bylaw aren't expected to impact that investigation as it's already underway.

The mayor's criminal public mischief charge stems from an allegation that an opponent to the transition from the RCMP to a municipal police service ran over his foot in a grocery store parking lot back in September.

The allegations have not been proven in court.