Former Surrey Police chief asks B.C. Supreme Court to quash his firing

Fired Surrey police chief Norm Lipinski has asked the B.C. Supreme Court to overturn his termination.

The petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday by Lipinski’s lawyer, Robin McFee, an expert in labour and employment law, argues the firing of Lipinski by the Surrey police board was unlawful and is invalid.

The petition seeks a declaration that the contractual provision used to terminate Lipinksi is void, or that his termination should be set aside because it wasn’t done properly, or it should be set aside because the board failed to properly follow its own process.

“The purported actions of the board or members of the board, are unlawful and fundamentally undermine the independence of the chief constable and the nature of the important public office held by the chief constable,” says the 48-page petition.

The lawsuit is the latest development in a long-running battle over the move to create a new municipal police force in Surrey to replace the RCMP, the biggest change of its type in a city of that size in Canada.

Lipinski was appointed to lead the change in November 2020 and his contract was renewed for another three years by the police board in October 2025. It included an option for another two-year extension.

But on June 1, the Surrey police board suddenly dumped Lipinski.

The firing came after five new board members were appointed by the province in consultation with the City of Surrey led by Mayor Brenda Locke, who had fought hard to retain the RCMP but failed to do so.

The new board members had been on the job less than 10 weeks.

In the aftermath, two long-term board members quit, including chairman Harley Chappell, who, according to the petition, was not in attendance at a special meeting where Lipinski’s termination was decided, and at which Chappell was told there would be no major decisions.

While there were provisions in Lipinski’s latest contract that allowed for his termination without cause and payment in lieu of notice, the petition argues the B.C. Police Act and common law do not allow for the chief constable to be terminated without cause and without any procedural protections.

The petition argues that Locke sought to undermine or remove Lipinski, highlighting that in December 2023, she met with the temporary administrator of the Surrey police board, retired Abbotsford police chief Mike Serr, and expressed that she did not like that Lipinski was chief constable, and was unhappy with Lipinksi’s spouse.

The petition’s filing comes less than three weeks before a municipal election, where Locke is seeking re-election. A search for a new police chief was announced on Sept. 2.

The petition points to a 2003 case from Ontario that found a police board did not have the authority to terminate a police chief without cause under that province’s Police Services Act, and argues there is also no authority in B.C. that allows the board to terminate the chief without cause.