When Indo-Canadian developer Bob Cheema filed the defamation suit against former Surrey civic candidate Brian Young last year, claiming that Young falsely and maliciously published a series of tweets in April and May 2019 that suggested Cheema surreptitiously wields power and influence over elected representatives of the City of Surrey, many in the South Asian media, including DESIBUZZCanada publisher, warned Cheema’s friends that Cheema was going to get himself into a bigger soup by suing Young if Young didn’t fold like other lesser beings receiving Cheema’s defamation letters. That’s exactly what happened! Young’s explosive allegations against Cheema includes: Cheema told him that he had spent more than $300,000 on the campaign so far and that he controlled the South Asian media by paying hosts to report his stories, says Young in the affidavit. The exact wording regarding allegations of Cheema paying off the South Asian (largely Punjabi media) reads: “I control the South Asian media by paying host to report stories.” “I paid the cleaning staff at Surrey City Hall and they retrieved items from councillors’ garbage,” Young claims Cheema told him. None of the allegations are proven in a court of law.

By Mr. X – Special To DESIBUZZCanada

SURREY – While Indo-Canadian developer Bob Cheema has been busy sending out bulk defamation letters to members of the South Asian media, including DESIBUZZCanada, he’s getting a taste of what it’s like when you to attempt to silence media coverage of Surrey police and his role in it as well as his cosy relationship with Surrey mayor Bob McCallum, who on election night called him a close friend.

When Cheema filed the defamation suit against former Surrey civic candidate Brian Young last year, claiming that Young falsely and maliciously published a series of tweets in April and May 2019 that suggested Cheema surreptitiously wields power and influence over elected representatives of the City of Surrey, many in the South Asian media, including DESIBUZZCanada publisher, warned Cheema’s friends that Cheema was going to get himself into a bigger soup by suing Young if Young didn’t fold like other lesser beings receiving Cheema’s defamation letters. That’s exactly what happened!

These defamation letters are what in the media is known as libel chill, an attempt by unhappy campers with money who can use their pocketbook to get lawyers to send in letters to try to scare those making allegations about them or their business, an essence an attempt to suppress opinion and debate. 

Now if a media outlet or individual is telling lies (as is the case with some members of the Punjabi media who are paid to say whatever and make salacious and untrue allegations), the law should be readily applied as the law allows the individuals making false allegations to retract and possibly give an apology. 

But airing allegations even if they are not proven in court is not a crime and that is exactly what has been done by the Vancouver Sun (who have bigger lawyers than Cheema so he can’t scare them). 

The Sun broke the story of the explosive allegations leveled against Cheema by Young. It should be mentioned here that these are just allegations as they have been proven in court yet. But part of Young’s newly filed affidavit includes actual text messages from Cheema.

Young admits making the comments but denies that the tweets were defamatory in his affidavit, which was Sept. 30 in B.C. Supreme Court..

Young says in the affidavit that in June 2018 he met with McCallum to support him running for mayor and expressed concerns about McCallum “overtly associating” with Cheema, or any major developers, as it would go against McCallum’s platforms and policies,” reported Vancouver Sun.

Young, a former president of the Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce and ex- chief operating officer for the Surrey/Delta Golf Club who ran for city council in 2014, said McCallum told him that no major developers such as Cheema would be involved in the campaign.

But, around August 2018, Young says he had a meeting with McCallum that was also attended by Cheema at which Cheema told him he wasn’t involved in the “front line” of politics and would never be seen in photos or videos with McCallum,” reported the Sun.

“I’m only in the backroom,” Young alleges Cheema told him.

Cheema also told him that he had spent more than $300,000 on the campaign so far and that he controlled the South Asian media by paying hosts to report his stories, says Young in the affidavit.

The exact wording regarding allegations of Cheema paying off the South Asian (largely Punjabi media) reads: “I control the South Asian media by paying host to report stories.”

“I paid the cleaning staff at Surrey City Hall and they retrieved items from councillors’ garbage,” Young claims Cheema told him.

In his defamation suit, Cheema claimed that Young’s tweets wrongly suggested that the developer had orchestrated a secretive and improper scheme around Surrey’s plan to replace the city’s RCMP detachment with a municipal police force and that he had hand-picked the chief of police for the new municipal force, reported the Sun.

Young’s affidavit says that in August 2018 Cheema called him to discuss police transition issues and told him that he already had a chief of police picked.

“He is currently the deputy chief at the Vancouver Police Department and he is South Asian,” Young alleges Cheema told him. The man referred to obviously is Vancouver Deputy Police Chief Steve Rai, who has been dragged into this mess largely not of his own doing. 

While Surrey Police Chief appointment process is currently underway but the word is that many high profile candidates are refusing to take the post due to the uncertainty as the National Police Federation is still lobbying to stop the Surrey police transition.

Young concluded the seven-page affidavit by saying that his motivation for making all of the tweets was his passion relating to the “very controversial” issue of the policing transition in Surrey and the public debate about that subject.

Young is seeking to have the defamation suit dismissed under B.C.’s new law protecting people from strategic lawsuits against public participation, the so-called anti-SLAPP legislation. The hearing to deal with that application is set for Oct. 28.

On Wednesday, Cheema told the Vancouver Sun he couldn’t respond to Young’s affidavit.

“This is a matter in front of the courts so I cannot say anything,” he said.

Mayor McCallum was busy boasting about the NDP’s Skytrain guarantee but has so not made any comment on the Young’s explosive allegations regarding him and Cheema. 

Meanwhile, Indo-Canadian property hucksters are busy buying up land around the Skytrain route in hopes of big profits 10 or more years down the road as construction is yet to begin.