The Surrey RCMP had a seven-member team investigating Doug McCallum’s complaint alleging his foot had been run over by a car, in the parking lot of a South Surrey grocery store on Sept. 4, 2021, a Surrey provincial court judge heard Tuesday during the second day of the outgoing mayor’s public mischief trial.
Defence lawyer Richard Peck, K.C., noted this was for “for what I would describe as a minor hit-and-run.”
“Pretty extraordinary isn’t it?” Peck asked Crown witness Sgt. Andre Johnny, the prime investigator, to which the officer replied, “No.”
Johnny noted McCallum had gone to hospital.
“No, not necessarily minor,” he said.
“To this day you cannot say conclusively whether the foot was run over?” Peck asked.
“No I cannot,” Johnny replied.
Peck noted a police document indicates a police officer saying they “cannot say conclusively whether that foot was run over or not.”
Judge Reginald Harris is presiding over Doug McCallum’s public mischief trial in courtroom 101, Surrey provincial court’s largest courtroom. The former Surrey mayor is charged with one count of public mischief contrary to Section 140(2) of the Criminal Code, stemming from an encounter on Sept. 4, 2021 between himself and a group of volunteers that was gathering petition signatures outside the South Point Save-On-Foods store in South Surrey South for a referendum on the city’s policing transition.
Peck noted senior officers were “advising, admonishing impartiality” from the investigators to which Johnny replied, “We need to look at both sides of the story” to determine if any deception is present.
Peck noted the idea of putting a surveillance team on McCallum was brought up at a police briefing.
“He’s a 77-year-old man going about his business,” the lawyer noted.
Johnny said the purpose would have been to see how McCallum was walking, to see if he was injured.
“You need a surveillance team to determine how a man’s walking?” Peck asked.
Johnny said the idea was brought up during a “brainstorming session” but was ultimately shut down.
“It was someone from the management team who said, ‘no surveillance,’” Johnny said.
Peck said McCallum told police “he felt he was being targeted this day for harassment,” referring to Sept. 4, 2021. In response to this, Johnny said “people speak to each other in that manner all the time,” in terms of “screaming” at each other.
“Harassment was never the issue,” he said, but rather, the MVA.
The trial continues.
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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