Complaint filed alleging Surrey Facebook pages interfering with election

Safe Surrey Coalition and its mayoral candidate Doug McCallum have filed a formal complaint with Elections BC with “new evidence” of illegal advertisements relating to the upcoming municipal elections and also delivered a formal report to the Federal RCMP. 

This comes after McCallum alleged foreign interference in the upcoming municipal elections in Surrey Delta and Vancouver. In a press release on July 28, the coalition called for a federal investigation into the matter by the RCMP, Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Elections BC The party also wants all pages removed by Meta and TikTok and for the province to state publicly whether municipal elections are being monitored for foreign interference. 

Safe Surrey has pinpointed at least four Facebook pages it believes are posing as local news sites, but being operated in India, funded from India and aimed at Canadian voters one week into the pre-campaign period for the election. 

What to know about the Facebook pages

I love Surrey is listed as a friendship page and states to be a place for community stories and local updates. Created in March 2025 and with 16,500 followers, it ran one advertisement from May 5-6, 2025. It was removed because it did not adhere to Facebook’s rule about ads about social issues, elections or politics. The advertisement was about Surrey council greenlighting $23 million in “infrastructure upgrades.” One-hundred Indian rupees ($1.47 CAD) were spent on the ad, but it did not show who paid for it. The page has 8 organizers, with five being located in India and three in Canada. 

Delta Speak, created on Jan. 21, is categorized as a local and travel website. The page has run four ads to its 2,000 followers. One ad was removed for also not adhering to Facebook’s rules about ads on social issues, elections or politics — the ad was about an alleged mechanical failure at the Second Narrows Rail Bridge which disrupted transportation. The ad cost around 200 -299 rupees ($2.94-4.39 CAD). The other three ads also did not relate to elections or a political party. There were no organizations or locations listed for who managed the page. Some ads had been paid for by ACTS at C-DAC Innovation Park, Pune, India. This is the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing — a research arm of India’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

I Love Vancouver is listed as a community service, with 25,000 followers and created in December 2019. Some early posts from 2019 are in Hindi, however, they appear to be jokes or stories and not news content. Six of the people who manage the page are located in India, while two are in Canada and one in the United States. 

I Love Delta is categorized as a local and travel website with 7,000 followers. Seven people who manage the page are located in India, while one is in Canada. It has run no advertisements since being created in 2018.

It is unknown who paid for the ads on the I love Surrey and I love Delta pages, and it also remains unknown why C-DAC would be paying for some advertisements. 

The July 28 press release writes that content on the Surrey pages amplified current Mayor Brenda Locke and presents “her record on policing, extortion and gang violence entirely in her own framing.”

However, many of the posts across the pages do not reference elections and instead are snippets of local announcements that media outlets have reported on as well — other posts appear to be unsourced news or even AI-generated content. 

Elections BC is an independent Office of the Legislature and responsible for ensuring campaign financing and election advertising rules, as written in Local Elections Campaign Financing Act, are followed. 

The act outlines that third party sponsors must register with Elections BC prior to advertising, put their names on all advertisements and disclose how much they spent. 

When responding to McCallum’s statement on July 28, Elections BC spokesperson Danielle Johnson said that the pages flagged by the Safe Surrey Coalition had been reviewed and found no violations of the elections advertising rules. The rules apply to paid communication during the official campaign period from Sept. 19 to Oct. 17 and the pre-campaign period from July 20 to Sept. 18. 

Johnson said the paid posts fall outside of the pre-campaign period, and thus do not meet the definition of elections advertising.  Unpaid social media posts and free communication on the internet are also not election advertising. 

McCallum alleges that Elections BC did not properly look into who produced the content, costs and who paid for it. The July 29 statement from the coalition explains that they have found “new evidence” of a Facebook page called Mayor that Cares. 

The press release includes a screenshot that shows the profile picture being of Locke, with the page proclaiming to be a “community-run fan page” of the mayor and being listed as a public service. It also noted that it was not officially affiliated with Locke or the City of Surrey.  

The page ran one ad from Nov. 22-24, 2025 and was paid for by 300-399 rupees ($4.40- 5.85 CDN). It was taken down due to Facebook’s rule on ads about social issues, elections or politics — the post was self-promotional about the page being a fan page and sharing community updates. 

However, the page now appears to have removed all photos and posts and is listed as a personal blog.  

Teddy O’Donnell, Locke’s campaign manager, issued a statement writing that “McCallum is playing games to score cheap political points. That’s not leadership, that’s desperation. Mayor Brenda Locke and Surrey Connect have no knowledge of these accounts or who operates them.” 

The Federal RCMP said allegations need to be made to the police directly and the party has since written a formal report and delivered it. 

In a statement to the Citizen, the RCMP wrote it “does not comment on operational matters, including whether a complaint has been received or whether an investigation may or may not be contemplated.” 

The coalition has also now filed a formal complaint with Elections BC and Johnson confirmed in a statement to the Citizen that the office has received McCallum’s complaint and are reviewing the allegations. 

“Elections BC takes any potential contravention of the legislation we administer seriously, including allegations of foreign interference, and we review every complaint we receive,” she wrote. 

Johnson added that they have not seen evidence of widespread foreign interference in B.C. elections. In 2023, Elections BC formed the Election Integrity Working Group, which includes the RCMP, Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, and is active leading up to local elections to ensure Elections BC can respond appropriately if threats arise.