Norm Lipinski asks the BC Supreme Court to declare his Surrey Police Service termination void or to set it aside on procedural-fairness grounds.
The Story
Norm Lipinski, the former chief of the Surrey Police Service (SPS), filed a petition in BC Supreme Court on Monday challenging his dismissal by the Surrey Police Board (SPB).
According to the filing described publicly, Lipinski disputes an SPS employment termination decision that removed him on June 1, after he had served as chief since 2020.
A day after his abrupt removal, the SPB confirmed Lipinski’s departure, but did not provide a reason for the termination.
In his petition, Lipinski seeks a declaration that contractual provisions allowing the board to terminate his employment are “void and of no effect.”
Alternatively, the petition asks the court to set aside the termination. Lipinski argues that the board denied him procedural fairness before dismissing him.
The petition alleges Lipinski was not given notice of the basis for the board’s decision and was not provided an opportunity to address the SPB prior to his dismissal.
Lipinski’s filing also alleges the decision was motivated by “extraneous political considerations” rather than by matters related to his conduct or competence.
After his firing, former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum called for an immediate, independent police investigation into the circumstances surrounding Lipinski’s termination.
McCallum’s comments also pointed to the subsequent resignations of two SPB directors, calling for scrutiny of what led to those departures following Lipinski’s removal.
While McCallum and Lipinski’s petition describe concerns about the termination process, the allegations have not been proven in court.
The petition is now before the BC Supreme Court, where the court will consider Lipinski’s requests for relief, including whether the termination can stand and whether the decision-making process met procedural-fairness requirements. Since the SPB did not publicly state reasons at the time it confirmed his departure, the court proceedings will be the forum where the parties’ competing claims are tested.
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