Surrey mayoral candidate alleges foreign interference in city elections, points finger at India
A network of Facebook pages posing as local news in Surrey, Delta and Vancouver is operated from India, paid for in Indian rupees, and billed to an entity at a Government of India research facility. Safe Surrey Coalition is calling in CSIS, the RCMP, Elections BC and the Surrey Police Service.Surrey mayoral candidate and forme mayor Doug McCallum and the Safe Surrey Coalition are demanding an immediate federal investigation into foreign interference in the municipal elections of three British Columbia cities.A network of at least six Facebook pages presenting themselves as local news in Surrey, Delta and Vancouver is operated from India, funded from India, and aimed at Canadian voters one week into the pre-campaign period for the October 17 election.This is not a Canadian operation. The people running it are in India. The money paying for it is in rupees. The payer named on the advertising is an entity at a research facility of the Government of India.Foreign hands are inside Surrey's election."This is foreign interference in a Canadian election," said Doug McCallum. "Not influence. Not marketing. Interference. 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," he added. Advertising from this network was paid for in Indian rupees. The payer and beneficiary named in Meta’s records is "ACTS at C-DACInnovation Park, Pune." C-DAC is the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, a research body of the Government of India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Ads across this network carry Meta's warning that the advertiser did not disclose the payer, the beneficiary or their location. At least one ran without the required disclaimer. After a Vancouver creator publicly exposed the Pune disclosure, the Pune location began vanishing from the records. The operators in India did not. I Love Surrey, created March 21, 2025. Page managers: India (5), Canada (3). I Love Delta, @ilovedeltabc, 7,000 followers. Page managers: India (7), Canada (1). [Exhibits B, C] I Love Vancouver, @Ilovevancouvercity, 25,000 followers. Page managers: India (6), Canada (2), US (1). [Exhibits D, E] Delta Speak, created January 21, 2026. Paid ads with an estimated audience over one million. [Exhibits F, G]A SUSTAINED OPERATION, NOT A ONE-OFF AD BUYSix pages. Three cities. Daily posts, custom graphics, branded video cards, headline overlays, coordinated hashtags. That is a sustained production operation run from abroad, not a handful of boosted posts."You do not spend years building a false Surrey audience by accident," said McCallum. "It was built to be used. It is being used now."Content on the Surrey pages in this network amplifies Mayor Brenda Locke, including a public safety post presenting her record onpolicing, extortion and gang violence entirely in her own framing, pushed to Surrey audiences with no disclosure of who paid to put it there. A foreign-funded network is promoting a candidate in a Canadian municipal election.Under the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act, third party sponsors must register with Elections BC before advertising and must put their name on every ad. Sponsors with $500 or more in advertising expenses must file a full disclosure statement. Organizations of any kind, and individuals who are not residents of British Columbia, are banned outright from funding third party election advertising. Offences carry fines of up to $20,000 for an organization and up to two years imprisonment.
