RCMP Shoot and Kill a Man on April 1, 2022

Surrey RCMP shot and killed a man in the morning of April 1, 2022. Reports on the killing by police are sketchy and rather conflictual. 

The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) reports that RCMP received several calls about a man alleged to be involved in various incidents, including a carjacking. They reportedly spotted someone near the intersection of 142A Street and 87A Avenue who, for some reason, they believed to be the person involved in an earlier incident. Around 7 AM, RCMP claim officers took part in a foot pursuit of a man they believed matched the description of the person seen near 142A Street and 87A Avenue.

At some point there was unspecified “altercation,” and police shot the man. He was transported to hospital where he was pronounced dead. None of the police claims have been confirmed. There have been reports of a carjacking but no confirmation that there was a carjacking or that the person killed was involved in one.

RCMP in Surrey have history of presenting false statements immediately after they kill someone. When they killed Nona McEwan and Randy Crosson in 2019, they made statements suggesting Crosson killed McEwan, when they knew both victims had been shot and only RCMP had guns at the scene. When they killed Hudson Brooks in 2015, they suggested there had been a shootout, when they knew that only police had weapons and an RCMP officer had shot themself in panic.

There have been at least four police-involved deaths in Surrey in less than a year.

RCMP Let Off After Brutalizing Alex Fisher in Mistaken Identity Case

Alex Fisher (27) was badly injured when Surrey RCMP pulled him from his bike, slamming his face on the ground, on February 8, 2021, in a case of mistaken identity. On December 1, the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) announced that they would not be referring charges to Crown.

Fisher said he was riding his bike in the Guildford area, when an officer “pulled over beside him in his vehicle with his police lights on.” The officer then got out of his vehicle and “yelled something” at Fisher who slowed down “but continued biking away from the officer.”

The victim told the IIO that he was then “hit several times" before being placed in handcuffs, when another officer arrived during the arrest. Shortly afterwards the officers received a photo of the suspect and “discovered (the man) was not who police were looking for.”

Fisher reportedly said he was "not sure if his injuries occurred when the officer hit him, or whether he was struck by a pole when being removed from his bike.” He also added that could not remember all of the “details of the use of force clearly because he believed that he had blacked out for a second.”

The IIO seems to have used this against Fisher.  IIO director Ronald MacDonald reported that it is “quite possible” that the man’s face was injured in the “tumble” from his bike, as if the "tumble" was not the result of police violence. MacDonald added that there is “no evidence” the injury was a “result of the unlawful application of force during the arrest, but that is more an effect of the law allowing police to do whatever they want to do. Surely pulling someone from their bike as a result of mistaken identity would not be considered lawful in other contexts. It is straightforwardly assault.

MacDonald adds insult to injury, claiming that Fisher was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is a purely copaganda excuse. He was not in the wrong place at all.

According to MacDonald: “It is extremely unfortunate that (he) ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time, resulting in him being injured in this incident. However, the officers’ actions were reasonable considering the information that was known to them, and the danger that an armed suspect posed.” 

MacDonald even said the cop was was “left with no option.”

Fisher had every right to be on his bike there. That is not what resulted in his being injured. His injuries were the direct result of a police decision to inflict violence.

Most of the "evidence the IIO relied on came from police: statements from three witness police officers, CCTV footage, 911 recordings, police radio-to-radio transmissions, and medical records.

The RCMP officer who brutalized Fisher did not cooperate with the IIO.

TMX Starts Cutting Trees in Fraser Heights for Trans Mountain Pipeline

This week TMX started cutting multiple trees in the Fraser Heights area of Surrey (unceded Kwantlen, Katzie territory), to make way for its Trans Mountain oil pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby. The pipeline is being routed alongside the South Fraser Perimeter Road in Fraser Heights, before crossing under the Fraser River north to Coquitlam. The path is east of the Port Mann Bridge. The Surrey section of the pipeline will be 11.5 kilometers in length.

Former pipeline owner Kinder Morgan decided on the Fraser Heights route in 2013 to avoid neighborhoods in North Surrey, where the existing pipeline runs, over concerns of organized opposition. In a press statement at the time the company said:

“While the route choice allows Trans Mountain pipeline planners to dodge possible conflict with hundreds of homeowners who live near the current line, it’s likely to mean sharper focus on the environmental risk of a rupture that could send heavy crude oil into the river.”

The new route is closer to the Fraser River and increases the likelihood of harms to the river, and more substantial harms, in the event of a rupture.

Environmentalists have said that the TMX development will cut hundreds of trees from the forest and protected parkland in Fraser Heights. This includes a circle of seven old cedars and numerous other mature trees. The company started by cutting around 50 trees without notice on November 5. Direct action by Hummingbird Land Defenders stopped cutting that day.

Woman Hospitalized in Serious Condition While in Surrey RCMP Custody (Nov. 7, 2021)

A woman was taken to hospital in serious condition while in Surrey RCMP custody. The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) is investigating. They report that the woman was arrested on November 5 at 10:44 PM for an outstanding warrant and taken to the Surrey RCMP detachment, “after being cleared by medical personnel at the hospital for incarceration.” From there she “was processed, lodged in cells and subsequently remanded.”

On November 7, shortly before 1:30 AM, a guard allegedly noticed the woman had fallen from her bunk to the floor and was “unresponsive and not breathing.” She was then taken to hospital.

No other details have been provided by the IIO or Surrey RCMP.

Say No to a Surrey Police Foundation

Jeff Shantz

New Surrey Police Service Chief Constable Norm Lipinski’s announcement that a Surrey Police Foundation should be established and operated “full on” by early next year should be raising some eyebrows. Police associations in Canada have received relatively little attention, but as a developing controversy in Vancouver over a $1 million donation to the Vancouver Police Foundation for targeted policing projects shows there are reasons for residents to ask questions.

Police foundations in Canada receive donations from “corporate partners,” including LNG Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Enbridge, Cenovus, and numerous real estate companies. Critics suggest this raises prospects of conflicts of interest that could prioritize business needs over community needs.

In Vancouver, the police foundation has paid for a patrol boat, night-vision binoculars, a drone program, an armoured vehicle and a $500,000 SWAT mobile command truck. Do Surrey residents really want this militarized policing in our city? Do we really want private businesses driving it?

In Vancouver, critics have suggested that the donation, by property developer Peter Wall could amount to a “pay to play” arrangement, especially given that Wall wants to see the money go to policing drug use in the downtown eastside.

Many Surrey residents are already cynical about perceived developer influence on city councils, over years. Right now, the city is dealing with a controversy, and lawsuit, over just this issue. Does a corporate partnership foundation funding police really help this perception, especially with the concerns being raised about transparency and the police transition?

White Rock Gives More Money to Cops

Jeff Shantz

It is unfortunate to see that White Rock council has found even more money for police in a year with declining crime rates and as communities across Canada have been calling for a rethinking of police funding and the need to provide more financial supports for community resources in health care, youth programs, and anti-racism work.

Council has now approved $110,000 for the police server room and $25,000 for RCMP interior renovations. This while the city has to cover revenue shortfalls estimated at $1.8 million as outlined in the 2020 financial plan.

The city’s 2019 to 2023 financial plan showed that nine percent of city expenses already go to policing. That is more than recreation and culture, three times more than parks, and more than fire services.

While $135,000 may seem like a relatively small amount, we know how much that amount could do for community groups, for youth groups and programs, for harm reduction. Many of these groups do not even have access to office space, let alone a server room. So, while these groups have to run bake sales or online auctions or start a gofundme page to survive, the city can find hundreds of thousands of dollars more for the RCMP. That is not justice.

Surrey Police Add More RCMP Leadership in Bid to Replace…the RCMP

The new Surrey Police Service has announced that they have made three additional leadership hires as they build the force that will replace the RCMP in Surrey. All three are from…the RCMP. They are Lav Mangat, Allison Good, and Michael Procyk.

Superintendent Mangat currently serves as RCMP inspector and officer in charge of the Financial Integrity Program and with Federal Serious and Organized Crime. Mangat will work in the Support Services Bureau with Deputy Chief Constable Jennifer Hyland, also of the RCMP.

Superintendent Good is currently inspector and officer in charge of operations from the Ridge Meadows RCMP. Good will work in the Community Policing Bureau with Deputy Chief Mike LeSage, also of the RCMP.

Superintendent Procyk is currently an RCMP senior investigations officer and inspector with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU). Procyk will serve in the Investigative Services Bureau.

New Chief Constable Norm Lipinski, who also has an RCMP background, said about these hires: “The culmination of this team makes a dynamic and diverse leadership team who will set the tone, pace and culture of the organization.”

All of these Surrey police leaders come from the RCMP. That sure does sound “dynamic and diverse.”