Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum did not appear in court Tuesday morning, but both Crown and his defence are in agreement that they will ultimately request a five-day trial on his charge of public mischief.
The matter was put over to Friday morning, where a date will be fixed for a pre-trial conference.
McCallum was charged on Dec. 10, stemming from an investigation into his claims that someone ran over his foot at a Save-On-Foods parking lot during an altercation with opponents of the city’s police transition last September.
His defence lawyer told the court McCallum will not be entering a plea at this time as they are waiting for “outstanding information.”
The mayor, who has said he will seek re-election in the fall, has declined all comment on the case while it is before the courts.
McCallum has retained one of the priciest defence lawyers in Vancouver: Richard Peck, who also defended Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou from a United States extradition request.
According to the Criminal Code of Canada, public mischief includes “making a false statement that accuses some other person of having committed an offence.”
– with files from Erin Ubels and Elizabeth McSheffrey