Former Surrey police chief Norm Lipinski challenges firing in B.C. Supreme Court
Former Surrey Police Chief Constable Norm Lipinski has filed a petition in the Supreme Court of British Columbia challenging his June 1 dismissal, alleging that his firing was influenced by “extraneous political considerations” and followed a police board meeting that was “convened through misrepresentations to the chair of the Board.”
Mayoral candidate from Imagine Surrey, Mike Starchuk is calling on Mayor Brenda Locke to answer five questions about Lipinski’s dismissal.
The court filing is supported by affidavits from former police board chair Harley Chappell, founding board member James Carwana and former provincially appointed board administrator Mike Serr.
Chappell states that board member Larry Thomas, who the filing says spent more than 30 years with the City of Surrey and worked closely with the mayor, requested the May 29 meeting. Chappell says Thomas assured him, in the presence of the board’s executive director, that no decisions would be made at the meeting.
Carwana says he was told the meeting concerned collective bargaining. There was no public notice of the meeting, while the board’s minutes indicate that the public portion lasted seven minutes. At 2:49 p.m., all staff were asked to leave the room and the board spent 91 minutes in camera discussing a “confidential personnel matter.” Those minutes remain sealed.
Surrey Connect Coun. Rob Stutt chaired the meeting. Chappell says he learned what had happened the following Monday and resigned the next day, writing that “the political tentacles and pressures have reached far too deeply into our newly formed SPS board.”
The petition also outlines statements and actions attributed to Mayor Brenda Locke. Days after Lipinski was hired in 2020, Locke said “the fix was in.” Following her election in 2022, she said officers who would lose their jobs would include “the Chief.”
Locke also filed two complaints against Lipinski with the police complaint commissioner, both of which were dismissed. According to the petition, she told a member of the Surrey Police Service in August 2024 that “we need to get rid of Chief Lipinski.”
The filing says Lipinski received positive performance reviews throughout his five years as chief, and the board extended his contract until 2028 last October.
It further states that the province allowed the terms of four board members to expire before the Premier announced that the vacancies “will only be filled by candidates of mutual agreement between the mayor's office and the provincial government.”
According to the petition, four of the five new board members were recommended by the City of Surrey without public postings. The members had been serving for less than 10 weeks when Lipinski was dismissed.
Starchuk is asking Mayor Locke to answer questions on the record before October 17:
Before May 29, did you, your office or City staff discuss the chief’s employment or the purpose of the meeting with any member of the police board?
Did you know the board intended to fire the chief before it did? When did you learn and from whom? Would you provide your phone records to verify?
Will you ask the board to unseal the May 29 minutes and publish the reasons for the firing before voters go to the polls?
According to the filing, changes at Surrey’s police board included Lipinski being dismissed without notice or an opportunity to respond, a resident asking who moved the motion and being told “I'm not at liberty to discuss that,” and a request for a written explanation being ruled “out of order.”
The petition, Lipinski v. Surrey Police Board, Supreme Court of British Columbia No. S-267236, Vancouver Registry, along with supporting affidavits, was filed on September 28, 2026, and is available through the court registry. The allegations contained in the filing have not been tested in court.
Cheney Cloke, former vice-chair of the Surrey Police Board and a Safe Surrey Coalition candidate for Surrey City Council, called on Brenda Locke to resign as mayor and withdraw from the October 17 election after Lipinski asked the court to declare his June 1 dismissal unlawful.
Surrey First mayoral candidate Linda Annis said Lipinski’s application for a judicial review, seeking to set aside his termination, has raised questions about what she described as four years of political interference by Brenda Locke with the Surrey Police Board.