Questions remain about Surrey mayor’s legal costs ahead of first court appearance

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum has his first court appearance in his charge of public mischief on Tuesday, but questions are being raised about the transparency of his legal bills.

McCallum has hired high-profile B.C. lawyer Richard Peck, who was recently part of Meng Wanzhou’s legal team.

Bill Tieleman heads the Surrey Police Vote Campaign and says Surrey taxpayers deserve to know how much McCallum’s legal fees are.

“One of the best and most expensive criminal lawyers has been retained by the mayor, but the mayor went and applied to the city for indemnification, which means all of his legal bills will be paid for by the city,” said Tieleman.

The city has confirmed it will be paying for the mayor’s defense due to the indemnification bylaw.

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Tieleman believes the legal bills could be adding up.

“The preparation for the appearance, that’s very very expensive. We’re talking about a senior criminal lawyer. It could be hundreds and hundreds of dollars an hour,” he said.

Surrey Police Vote is calling on the City of Surrey to publicly disclose McCallum’s legal fees.

During an interview with CityNews, Mayor Doug McCallum was asked about the charge, but said he could not comment.

“You know better than to ask me that,” said McCallum. “My lawyers advised me that I should not be making any comments on it.”

The charge of public mischief stems from an incident between McCallum and pro-RCMP supporters back in September.

McCallum claimed a woman ran over his foot in a grocery store parking lot, however no charges were laid against anyone else.

If convicted, McCallum could face up to five years in prison.