On June 1, 2022 Surrey, City Council meeting, the council decided they will move back to virtual meetings.
Surrey Mayor, Doug McCallum put forward a motion to revert the council meetings back to virtual meetings online. Coun. Laurie Guerra agreed and spoke in favour of Mayor Doug McCallums motion to move back to virtual meetings.
“I think this is a very wise option. This isn’t coming out of thin air. This is coming due the shenanigans’ that happened in here on Monday night.”
The City council meetings moved online because of the COVID mandates and safety measures and have since returned to be in person. But now they are looking to put distance in-between themselves and the public once again.
“we were at the virtual meetings to due safety reason from COVID and this provides the flexibility to go back to it for the same safety reasons for our staff. I think we have a duty to protect our staff, there out here. And the members of the chamber that are here for valid reasons to speak to public hearings and ourselves as well” said Coun. Laurie Guerra
What happened on Monday, May 30, 2022 that Coun. Laurie Guerra s referring to is when Doug McCallum got heckled at the in-person City Council meeting.
Coun. Jack Hundial raise a point of privilege to ask Doug McCallum to step down while he is entangled in a public mischief charge. The audience cheered and clapped but Doug McCallum refused to step down. The audience began to heckle him and multiple people saying “you’re a criminal” and one person says “you shouldn’t be in office. You’re a criminal”. Doug McCallum the called for a recess.
The crowd is angry because Doug McCallum refuses to step down and begin to shout for McCallum to step down. The council meeting lasted a whole 7 minutes before the recess was called, one hour later the meeting was adjourned until June 1, 2022.
As of December 2021, Doug McCallum is being charge with public mischief for an incident where he claimed a woman ran over his foot in a Save-on Foods parking lot. New evidence has surfed through a court order for freedom of information, it was discovered the Police said Doug McCallum wasn’t fully truthful about the encounter, Reported Global News.
McCallum has face a lot of backlash lately and with the new evidence he has been facing calls to resign and step down from the Surrey Police Board.
