Judicial review being asked to set aside termination of Chief Norm Lipinski: Linda Annis
Surrey, B.C. (September 28, 2026): Surrey First candidate for mayor Linda Annis says Chief Norm Lipinski’s application in British Columbia Supreme Court asking for a judicial review to set aside his termination has opened the door on four years of Brenda Locke’s political interference with the Surrey Police Board.
Annis said Locke’s four-year fight with the Surrey Police Service (SPS) included stopping recruitment and hiring, taking the provincial government to court and losing, and cutting $47 million from this year’s SPS budget while the extortion crisis took its toll on the city. The court application includes detailed and pointed affidavits from Lipinski, former police board chair Harley Chappel, and Mike Serr, former administrator of the Surrey Police Board.
“For more than four years, Brenda Locke has done everything she could to stop or stall the transition, which is now in year eight,” said Annis. “These court documents provide example after example of her political interference and her complete disdain for Norm Lipinski, the SPS, and a local police service for Surrey. Reading the documents and affidavits, it’s clear that Mayor Locke turned the transition into a personal and political vendetta that cost the people of Surrey.”
Annis said Locke’s election-night declaration to Global BC that the chief and inspectors would be fired set the tone for her entire term as mayor.
“Brenda Locke spent the past four years opposing the police transition, meanwhile she sidelined every other big issue in the city,” noted Annis. “She cost us time and money on a transition that should have been completed four years ago. We’re in year eight, when the entire Second World War took just six years to win.”
Annis said the mayor’s hand-picked board did her bidding, and the court case lays out in detail serious governance issues about the latest board’s decision to terminate Norm Lipinski without cause.
“The board has still not answered even basic questions about the reasons for termination, and the severance package,” said Annis. “They cancelled this month’s public meeting because they wanted to duck tough questions before the election. At the same time, there is a very real concern that Brenda Locke’s handpicked board may be looking to hire a new police chief before the October 17 election. This very serious court case should give the board cause to put the brakes on any hiring until the case is heard and decided. It’s time to end the lack of transparency and political interference. When it comes to policing and public safety, Surrey voters deserve a mayor who will fight the criminals, not our police service.”