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5-day trial to be set in Surrey mayor’s public mischief case

Mayor Doug McCallum has not yet entered a plea. His next court date is Friday to schedule a pre-trial conference
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Surrey provincial courthouse. (File photo: Tom Zytaruk)

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum is expected to go to trial on his public mischief charge but has not yet entered a plea.

His next date in Surrey provincial court is Friday, March 11 to fix a date for a pretrial conference. A five-day trial is to be scheduled.

McCallum’s third court date on the charge was Tuesday morning. Defence lawyer Lee Vandergust appeared on behalf of McCallum and his counsel Richard Peck, QC.

Special prosecutor Richard Fowler appeared for the Crown during the two-minute hearing.

“Your honour, my friend and I have been having some discussions and we are in agreement that we will ultimately be requesting five days’ trial so the plan this morning is to be adjourned to the case managers to schedule a pre-trial conference so that we are in a position to schedule five days in trial,” Fowler told the judge.

Asked if McCallum wished to enter a plea, Vandergust replied no. “We are still awaiting some outstanding information from my friend (Fowler),” she told the judge.

McCallum is charged with one count of public mischief contrary to Section 140(2) of the Criminal Code, stemming from an encounter last September between himself and a group that was gathering petition signatures outside the South Point Save-On-Foods store in South Surrey for a referendum on the policing transition. The mayor claimed a car ran over his foot.

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum. (File photo)

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The Crown is proceeding summarily.

Criminal cases are prosecuted either by indictment, summarily or a hybrid of the two. Summary offences are the least serious of the three.

A person charged with an indictable offence is required to appear in court whereas someone accused of a summary offence does not, unless a judge says otherwise. A summary offence in B.C. is considered to be in the realm of petty crime and under the Criminal Code of Canada is the least serious type of offence.



tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com

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About the Author: Tom Zytaruk

I write unvarnished opinion columns and unbiased news reports for the Surrey Now-Leader.
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