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OUR VIEW: Whale of a story for Surrey council, KTRIS

Safe Surrey Coalition majority refused to apologize to seven KTRIS members for barring them from participating in council meetings last year
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Surrey council chambers in city hall. (File photo)

Those who’ve read their Melville will recall Captain Ahab hollering “From hell’s heart I stab at thee” at the great white whale in Moby Dick.

Ahab had a thing for this whale that clearly went beyond your run-of-the-mill dislike.

An epic war continues to roll out on Surrey’s choppy political seas, between the Keep the RCMP in Surrey campaign and the Safe Surrey Coalition majority on council. Just who is the captain and who is the whale depends on your perspective.

This war has played out in battles at city events, in council chambers, outside city hall, in grocery store parking lots, in court, in the media and definitely on social media. It is undoubtedly the most intense conflict between a community group and a group of civic politicians that this city has so far seen.

READ ALSO: Surrey council refuses to apologize to 7 residents who were barred from meetings

More dark clouds arrived in this storm-ridden relationship Monday, with the SSC’s five members on council refusing to apologize to seven KTRIS members for barring them from participating in council meetings last year.

In literature, the stages you typically see involve exposition, an inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and denouement. KTRIS versus SSC is currently in the rising action stage, leading up to the Oct. 15 civic election, which date may well mark the climax depending on who gets retired from council and who gets elected in.

But whatever plays out on election day, the matter of the city’s unprecedented policing transition will nevertheless still be a whale of an issue well after the votes are cast.

Quite the page-turner, for sure.

Now-Leader



edit@surreynowleader.com

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