Brenda Locke’s pants are on fire. Let’s put it out this Saturday.

By Mike Starchuk

I spent my working life in the fire service. You learn early that when the story changes every time you ask, something is still burning.

Brenda Locke’s story about the firing of Surrey’s police chief has changed three times. In one hour.

Start in June. The Surrey Police Board fired Chief Norm Lipinski without cause, months into a new contract, and never told the public why. The board’s own chair, Semiahmoo First Nation Chief Harley Chappell, quit in protest. The mayor’s answer back then left no wiggle room. “We do not make those decisions at city hall,” she said. “I only know what I get from the police board.”

Then came Friday’s CKNW debate. Asked directly whether she knew before the chief was fired, she said no. Minutes later, after I raised what one of the newest board members was overheard saying before that meeting, that something big was about to happen, she said this: “Yes, I knew they had an important meeting. Did I know what was in it? Not really.”

Pressed again, she went back to no.

I’ve seen a lot of fires. I’ve never seen a pair of pants catch this fast.

“Not really” isn’t no. In my old job, “not really” is how people get hurt. You checked the room or you didn’t. If I asked whether the fire was out, the only answer I would ever accept was “Yes, it’s out.”

Here’s why it matters. The meeting where the chief was fired had no public notice. The board’s chair was told nothing substantive would be decided. Yet the mayor, who insists she has no say over the board, knew it was important. Her own Surrey Connect councillor, Rob Stutt, sat in the chair that day. And the mayor confirmed on air that her side gave the Province names for the board. “Some they picked, some they didn’t.”

The chief’s court petition alleges far worse, including that the mayor told a police officer “we need to get rid of Chief Lipinski.” Those allegations haven’t been tested in court. I’m not a judge, and I won’t pretend to be one. But you don’t need a judge to ask the person seeking your vote a simple question.

I’ll be straight about where I stand. I would have kept the RCMP. That decision is made, and the job now is to finish this transition and make it work. You don’t do that by pushing out the chief who built the service, behind closed doors, while South Asian business owners across this city are dealing with extortion and gunfire. And you don’t do it by leaving taxpayers to cover a severance cheque nobody will put a number on.

So here are three questions, Mayor Locke. What did you know? Who told you? When?

She owes Surrey those answers before election day.

And if she won’t give them, Surrey doesn’t have to wait for her. As Mayor, I will get to the bottom of this and put the policing transition behind us once and for all.

Mike Starchuk is Imagine Surrey’s candidate for mayor of Surrey. Election day is Saturday, October 17.