Former Surrey mayor's public trial to shine light on toxic police debate
CBC
Doug McCallum's lawyers will likely point to the toxic debate over a municipal police force this week as they argue that the former Surrey mayor was justified in accusing a political opponent of harassment.
The 78-year-old's public mischief trial resumes Tuesday morning with arguments intended to convince a provincial court judge McCallum had good reason to make a criminal complaint against Debi Johnstone in September 2021.
His lawyers have promised medical evidence to show McCallum's foot could have been run over in a Save-On-Foods parking lot, as he claimed.
Crown and defence have also submitted a history of complaints between the former mayor and a group called Keep The RCMP in Surrey — culminating in what Johnstone called a "heated debate" minutes before she either did or did not run over McCallum's foot.
The former mayor was charged with public mischief last December after an investigation that came under scrutiny in the first week of the trial.
Prosecutor Richard Fowler told Judge Reginald Harris the ultimate question before him would be deciding whether McCallum misled police by giving false statements about his interaction with Johnstone in a bid to see her charged with an offence she didn't commit.
The exhibits filed in the case include statements from both Johnstone and McCallum, as well as CCTV footage of the parking lot encounter.
A small shrub obscures both the former mayor's left foot and the rear right wheel of Johnstone's convertible Mustang —leaving police, Crown, defence and now the judge, to interpret events in the hours after the two clashed, to draw their own conclusions.
Police became suspicious of the fact that McCallum didn't appear to limp after his foot was supposed to have been run over.
But the defence presented experts who claimed that being run over by a car wouldn't necessarily break any bones.
Beyond the question of guilt or innocence, the trial has highlighted the vitriol behind an issue that consumed much of McCallum's term in office and the often childish, sometimes strangely personal relationship, between the former mayor and his detractors.
Johnstone walked to the stand on the first day of the trial and fixed McCallum with her eyes. She continued to glare at him whenever Fowler wasn't blocking her line of sight.
Johnstone admitted to calling McCallum an "evil ... scaly-faced motherf--ker" — an apparent reference to what defence lawyer Richard Peck suggested was a skin condition.
On cross-examination, Peck asked Johnstone if it was her "habit" to demean someone because of a disability.
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Police and Public Trust, a project of the CBC News Atlantic investigative unit, scrutinizes the largely off-limits police complaint and discipline systems across the region. Journalists are using access to information laws and, in some cases, court challenges to obtain discipline records and data.
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