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Foreign Interference Alleged in Municipal Elections: McCALLUM DEMANDS FEDERAL INVESTIGATION
8-26-2026
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SURREY, B.C. — Doug McCallum and the Safe Surrey Coalition are demanding an immediate federal investigation into what they describe as foreign interference in the upcoming municipal elections in Surrey, Delta and Vancouver.
In a statement released July 28, 2026, the group pointed to a network of at least six Facebook pages that present themselves as local news outlets covering the three cities. According to Meta’s public Ad Library and Page Transparency tools, the pages are managed primarily from India, with advertising paid for in Indian rupees and linked to an entity at a Government of India research facility.
The pages identified include I Love Surrey (created March 21, 2025; managers listed as India 5, Canada 3), I Love Delta (managers India 7, Canada 1), I Love Vancouver (approximately 25,000 followers; managers India 6, Canada 2, United States 1), and Delta Speak (created January 21, 2026). Delta Speak ads have shown estimated audiences exceeding one million and spending reported in Indian rupees.
Meta records name both the beneficiary and payer of some advertising as “ACTS at C-DAC Innovation Park, Pune.” C-DAC is the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, a research organization under India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Several ads carried Meta warnings that the advertiser had not disclosed the payer, beneficiary or location; at least one ran without the required disclaimer. After a Vancouver content creator publicly highlighted the Pune disclosure, references to that location began disappearing from some records while the Indian operators remained, the coalition said.
McCallum characterized the activity as more than influence or marketing. “This is foreign interference in a Canadian election,” he said. “Foreign operators, foreign money, aimed at the voters of three Canadian cities, hiding their own location the moment they were caught. Ottawa calls this a national security matter when it happens federally. It is happening in Surrey right now and not one person in authority has said a word.”
The coalition described the network as a sustained operation involving daily posts, custom graphics, branded video cards, headline overlays and coordinated hashtags rather than isolated boosted posts. Content on the Surrey-focused pages has amplified Mayor Brenda Locke, including material presenting her record on policing, extortion and gang violence in her own framing and distributed to local audiences without sponsorship disclosure, according to the group.
Under British Columbia’s Local Elections Campaign Financing Act, third-party sponsors must register with Elections BC before advertising and identify themselves on every ad. Sponsors spending $500 or more must file disclosure statements. Organizations of any kind and individuals who are not residents of British Columbia are prohibited from funding third-party election advertising. Offences can carry fines of up to $20,000 for an organization and imprisonment of up to two years. The coalition argued that an entity in Pune cannot lawfully fund election advertising in the province.
Safe Surrey Coalition is calling for:
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CSIS and RCMP Federal Policing to investigate the network as foreign interference, determine who commissioned, funded and directed it, and examine any role by a foreign state entity or its representatives in Canada.
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Elections BC to investigate unregistered third-party advertising, missing sponsorship information and prohibited foreign funding, including both production and distribution costs.
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The Surrey Police Service and Surrey Police Board to be briefed and coordinate with federal partners.
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Meta and TikTok to remove the pages pending full disclosure of ownership, operators and funding.
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The Province of British Columbia to state publicly whether municipal elections are being monitored for foreign interference.
“Canadians decide Canadian elections. Surrey residents decide Surrey’s future. Not operators in Pune, India,” the statement concluded.
All cited records were drawn from Meta’s publicly accessible Ad Library and Page Transparency tools and are independently verifiable. Supporting documentation was attached to the original release. The municipal elections are scheduled for October 17, 2026.
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