Second Surrey Police Board director resigns<\/p>\n
Published 2:51 pm Thursday, June 4, 2026<\/p>\n
A second Surrey Police Board director has resigned in as many days in the wake of former Chief Constable Norm Lipinski\u2019s ouster on Monday.<\/p>\n
James Carwana, an original board member, could not be immediately reached for comment. Harley Chappell, former chairman of the board, resigned on June 2.<\/p>\n
Former mayor Doug McCallum, who is running for the office again under his Safe Surrey Coalition, is slamming Mayor Brenda Locke.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do not blow up your police leadership in the middle of an extortion crisis,\u201d he said. \u201cSurrey needed stability. Brenda Locke handed it chaos, and every criminal in this region just got the message that our police are leaderless.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCallum charged Locke with staging a \u201ccoup.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe stacked the board with her loyalists. She held a secret meeting. She fired the chief without telling the chair. This is not governance. This is sabotage. This is a coup. And Brenda Locke just put the safety of every Surrey family at risk because she is afraid of losing in October,\u201d McCallum said.<\/p>\n
Locke has not responded to requests for comment. Nor has Councillor Rob Stuff, who McCallum says is \u201cthe person now holding the gavel\u201d with Chappell gone.<\/p>\n
The former mayor said \u201cthis is not a coincidence. That is a takeover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides Stutt, Hanne Madsen, Jaswinder Sidhu, George Duncan, Archie Johnston, Larry Thomas and Perm Jawanda are still on the board. Its next meeting is set for June 17.<\/p>\n
In March the Lieutenant Governor appointed five new provincial members under section 23(1)(c) of the Police Act to the Surrey police board, joining Chappell, provincial appointee Carwana, and Surrey council appointees Johnston and Stutt.<\/p>\n
Asked why Lipinski was fired Jason Kuzminski, executive director of the board, issued a statement attributed to Madsen, on its \u201cLeadership Transition Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate Norm Lipinski\u2019s service to SPS and his support steering the Surrey Policing Transition for more than five years,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cUltimately, the Board made the decision that it needed a new leader to support the transition into this next phase of SPS\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy Chief Constable Todd Matsumoto is the interim police chief while the board recruits a new chief with information concerning that process to be shared \u201cin the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meantime, here\u2019s a letter Lipinski sent to members of the Surrey Police Union after he was \u201cterminated without cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
Subject: Re: Message to Members<\/p>\n
To the Members of the Surrey Police Service,<\/p>\n
On my first day back from vacation, I was called into a meeting with the Police Board and informed that my employment was being terminated without cause.<\/p>\n
While this is not the way I hoped my time with the Surrey Police Service would come to an end, I leave with immense pride in what we have accomplished together under extraordinarily challenging circumstances.<\/p>\n
Building a new police service from the ground up and reaching \u201cPolice of Jurisdiction\u201d status is, without question, the proudest achievement of my 48 years in policing. That milestone was only possible because of the professionalism, dedication, and resilience demonstrated by every member of this organization.<\/p>\n
As I look back on our journey, I don\u2019t focus on the numbers, the projects, or the many remarkable achievements \u2013 I think about the people. The many moments our team came together to solve difficult problems with courage and creativity. Those are the memories that will stay with me.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one thing I have learned, it\u2019s that organizations don\u2019t succeed because of structures alone \u2013 they succeed because of the people who care about one another.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been an honour to serve alongside of you and I am grateful for the partnerships we built, the laughs we shared, and the great policing service we provide.<\/p>\n
It has truly been the privilege of a lifetime.<\/p>\n
Norm Lipinski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Second Surrey Police Board director resigns Published 2:51 pm Thursday, June 4, 2026 A second Surrey Police Board…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-715556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}