Migrant Detainee Dies at CBSA Prison in Surrey on Christmas Day

A person being detained in a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) holding center in Surrey, has died. The victim was found unresponsive on Christmas Day, 2022.

CBSA says in a statement that first responders were called to the center, but "all efforts to revive the detainee were unsuccessful," and the person was pronounced dead at the scene.

There is no oversight agency for CBSA officers. CBSA will be allowed to conduct its own "review of the incident." RCMP and BC Coroners Service are also conducting their own investigations.

Surrey Police Officer Arrested for Breach of Trust

 A Surrey Police Service (SPS) officer has been arrested by the Surrey RCMP and faces possible breach of trust charges. The Criminal Code of Canada defines breach of trust as involving an act, or failure to act, not authorized by law or the trust placed in the trustee. It includes an intent to defraud.

The Surrey Police Service claimed in a news release that it was announcing the arrest “in the interest of transparency.” However, they have not named the officer and provided no details about what acts were involved—so not exactly transparent. They have said that the officer was hired in May 2022 and had a little more than a year of previous policing experience. The officer has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the criminal investigation, which is being carried out by the Surrey RCMP.

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner has confirmed that it has been notified of the arrest. Deputy police complaint commissioner Andrea Spindler said in a statement:

“Upon request from the Surrey Police Service, the OPCC will be initiating a Police Act investigation into the conduct of the member in relation to this matter. The Commissioner has also determined that it is in the public interest that an external police force investigate the matter and the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) has been assigned as the investigating agency.”

Spindler added that the Police Act investigation will be suspended pending the outcome of the criminal investigation and any prosecution that might ensue.

Surrey Police Service officers only signed their first contract in March and are already among the highest paid in Canada, despite the force not even being fully operational. Starting salary is $70,000, increasing to $89,000 after the first year, while after three years an SPS constable can take a salary of approximately $122,000.

Surrey Police Service and its backers, including Mayor Doug McCallum, have touted the SPS as a new form of policing. Yet early returns point to it showing a lot of the undesirable features of the old policing. Earlier this summer it was announced that SPS officer(s) were under investigation for misconduct related to a training session that allegedly included acts of sexual violence.

Woman Shot by Surrey RCMP on May 24, 2022

Surrey RCMP shot a woman near the intersection of King George Boulevard and 104A Avenue on May 24, 2022. The Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) is investigating. They report that RCMP were called to the 10500-block of King George Boulevard “for a report of a woman with a weapon.” Officers identified a woman in the 10400-block of King George Boulevard and shot her. The woman was taken to hospital “with what are believed to be serious injuries.”

RCMP killed three people in Surrey in April, shooting two of them.

Sex Worker Assaulted in Whalley

A sex worker was assaulted in the early morning of May 5 in Whalley. There were reports of a woman screaming and a fire alarm ringing in the 13500 block of Old Yale Road at 2:24 AM, and a woman who had been physically beaten by a man was later located in the staircase of an underground parking lot. 

Person Found Dead After Fire at Homeless Encampment in Surrey

A person was found dead after a fire at an encampment of unhoused people in Surrey on the morning of April 25, 2022. Surrey Fire Service report that fire occurred on 120 Street (Scott Road) near 88 Avenue. The BC Coroners Service and fire crews are undertaking an investigation.

The person has not been identified and no report had been made on the cause of death. It has not been reported if anyone else was injured or how the fire was started.

Unhoused people have long been targeted by police and bylaw enforcement officers in Surrey. This includes the closing of the longstanding encampment on the Strip (135A Street) in the Whalley neighborhood which displaced and dispersed people. Many residents of the Strip warned at the time that this would make people more vulnerable.  

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.