Delta police chief’s wife offers apology after Centennial Beach incident

DELTA (NEWS 1130) – The wife of Delta’s police chief is offering an apology after a video surfaced of a reported altercation on the waterfront outside the couple’s Centennial Beach home.

A woman was apparently sprayed with a hose by Chief Neil Dubord’s spouse as she was walking along the beach.

Kiran Sidhu tells NEWS 1130 she was leaving a friend’s picnic several weeks ago and was trying to get to her car during a particularly high tide. She says she saw some other people walking along the water, so decided to do the same

“So I started climbing over those rocks and then the woman who lives in the house right above the rocks came out and started shooing me away and kind of just tell me I wasn’t allowed to be there,” Sidhu recalls.

“She said, ‘There are signs, can’t you read?’ Just, you know, being very demeaning.”

Sidhu says after explaining to the woman that she just needed to get to her car, the resident “threatened to push me.”

“We had some choice words, we exchanged some not so nice things,” Sidhu adds.

The woman then proceeded to “body shame” her, Sidhu explains.

“As I slipped and lost my footing, she said that it would be funny if I fell, and that, but they already had enough beached whales on the beach,” Sidhu says. “Proceeded to say things like, ‘If I was as fat as you, I wouldn’t be at the beach in the first place.’ Things that were completely unrelated to the incident. At one point, she told me to go back home and that I didn’t belong there.”

At the time, Sidhu says she wasn’t aware that the woman she was talking to was Dubord’s wife. It was only after her friends went back to the house later on that they found out who she was.

Video of the argument — brought to the attention of the Delta Optimist — apparently shows the verbal exchange between Sidhu’s friends and Lorraine Dubord after the incident.

Complaint filed

Sidhu filed a report with the Delta Police Department, which prompted an independent investigation by the Surrey RCMP.

Lorraine has since issued a statement.

“I would like to apologize to the individual involved in the way the situation was handled at Centennial Beach three weeks ago. Everyone should feel welcomed and supported in our community,” Lorraine says in a statement provided to the Optimist. “I trust that all the facts and the complete story surrounding this regrettable incident will be gathered in due course through the ongoing and independent RCMP investigation.”

Lorraine says she’s committed to promoting diversity and fighting racism.

“I will continue to listen and learn from the discourse occurring in our community on this matter,” she adds in her statement.

Sidhu doesn’t believe Lorraine’s apology goes far enough.

“I think that it didn’t sound very heartfelt,” Sidhu tells NEWS 1130. “She even said, ‘I would like to apologize to the individual.’ Use my name, I’m a human, remember? And she’s already dehumanized me in so many ways in that actual incident.”

Sidhu hopes she’ll receive a more “genuine” acknowledgement of what happened and a more sincere apology.

She’s expected to speak with a Surrey RCMP investigator about the matter next week.