Surrey mayoral candidate Doug McCallum has filed a formal complaint with Elections BC and the federal RCMP for alleged foreign interference in the upcoming municipal election in Surrey, after Elections BC stated it had found \u201cno violations\u201d in Facebook posts McCallum had raised concern about. <\/p>\n
McCallum\u2019s Safe Surrey Coalition issued a press release July 28 concerning a \u201cnetwork\u201d of at least four Facebook pages posing as local news in Surrey, Delta and Vancouver being operated out of India, \u201cpaid for in Indian rupees, and billed to an entity at a Government of India research facility\u201d which are \u201caimed at Canadian voters one week into the pre-campaign period for the Oct. 17 election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three out of the four Facebook pages in question have people who manage the page who are located in India, while Meta data shows ads for three of the pages were paid for in Indian rupees. Some of the ads show ACTS at C-DAC Innovation Park, Pune as the advertiser and payer of the ads. C-DAC, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, is a research arm of India\u2019s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. <\/p>\n
(For a more thorough exploration of the pages, see our closer look at what we know about these Facebook pages<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The Now-Leader reached out to Elections BC on Tuesday (July 28), and the senior director of communications, Danielle Johnston, said that it reviews every complaint it receives and takes \u201callegations of foreign interference seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that they are aware of the four Facebook pages that Safe Surrey Coalition identified.<\/p>\n \u201cAn initial review of the pages in question does not appear to show a violation of election advertising rules under the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act (LECFA). Under LECFA, election advertising is regulated during the pre-campaign period (July 20 to September 18, 2026) and campaign period (September 19 to October 17, 2026).<\/p>\n On Wednesday (July 29), McCallum issued another press release stating that Elections BC did not find any violations because it was not looking for any. <\/p>\n \u201cElections BC checked whether somebody bought an ad in February. Nobody asked them that,\u201d said McCallum. \u201cWe asked who is paying a company in India to write about Surrey city hall every single day. They didn\u2019t look. So today we filed the complaint; we filed with the RCMP, and now they have to look.\u201d <\/p>\n The press release also points to a Mayor That Cares Facebook page and a Brenda Locke fan Instagram page. The Facebook page had over 271 followers on July 29, but it does not appear to have any posts, photos or content. <\/p>\n Screenshots of a post on the Facebook page were provided by Safe Surrey Coalition, but the Now-Leader was not able to independently verify it, although it does look the same as posts on the Instagram fan page. Several posts with the same design as the Instagram posts were shared to different Facebook Groups between November 2025 and July 2026 by Mayor That Cares. <\/p>\n The Instagram page has 12 followers and over 140 posts, many of which are duplicate posts of the same photos and captions. <\/p>\n Several of the posts show photos and captions similar to the official Mayor of Surrey, BC account, which is the official Facebook page for Mayor Brenda Locke. <\/p>\n Some of the earlier posts highlight work that Brenda has done during her time as mayor and state things like, \u201cwhile others grandstand, Brenda delivers.\u201d<\/p>\n The Facebook page was originally called Brenda Locke Fan Page and was created on Aug. 6, 2025. The name was changed at some point to the current name, Mayor That Cares. The Facebook page, which is run by the same people who manage the Instagram page, ran one ad in November 2025, and it was paid for in Indian rupees by ACTS at C-DAC Innovation Park, Pune. The ad was removed because Meta found it did not follow its rules on ads about \u201csocial issues, elections or politics.\u201d <\/p>\n The ad was promoting the page and said, \u201cCommunity-run fan page celebrating Brenda Locke. Sharing real progress, community updates, and leadership that puts Surrey residents first.\ud83d\udccc This page is not officially affiliated with Brenda Locke or the City of Surrey.\u201d<\/p>\n Around 300-399 rupees ($4.40- 5.85 CDN) was spent on the ad, and it got 4-5,000 impressions, with 10 per cent of those in Syria and 10 per cent in Damascus. The data did not show how many people in Canada viewed the ad, but a note at the bottom of the data stated if a country was not listed it had \u201creceived fewer than 1 percent of views.\u201d <\/p>\n Elections BC senior director of communications, Danielle Johnston, said they had received McCallum\u2019s complaint Wednesday (July 29) and that they \u201care reviewing these allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn regard to the questions around foreign interference, we have not seen evidence of widespread foreign interference in B.C. elections. However, Elections BC recognizes this is a growing concern at all levels of elections in Canada,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n Locke\u2019s campaign manager, Teddy O\u2019Donnell, issued a statement on behalf of Locke and Surrey Connect and said, \u201cMr. McCallum is playing games to score cheap political points. That\u2019s not leadership, that\u2019s desperation. Mayor Brenda Locke and Surrey Connect have no knowledge of these accounts or who operates them. Surrey Connect would also like to highlight that \u201cSurrey Speak\u201d, the social media page Mr. McCallum claims is promoting Mayor Locke, also promoted Mr. McCallum\u2019s own City Councillor, Doug Elford.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n The Now-Leader has reached out to the RCMP for comment. <\/p>\n -With files from Tom Zytaruk <\/p>\n READ MORE: McCallum claims Indian election interference in Surrey, demands investigation<\/a><\/p>\n