Politics can be a messy business. Sometimes figurative, and sometimes literal.

性视界传媒 Liberal MP Randeep Sarai has seen both. Earlier this year, he found himself in the middle of a controversy over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau鈥檚 junket to India.

This week, it鈥檚 about junk.

Whalley residents raised a stink about garbage left behind following the MP for 性视界传媒 Centre鈥檚 third annual summer community BBQ, attended by more than 500 people this past Saturday afternoon in Holland Park, near the corner of 98B Avenue and 134th Street.

Sarai, who was in an emergency Citizen and Immigration Committee meeting in Ottawa on Monday, told the Now-Leader his family cleaned up the trash after he received a complaint on Twitter from someone named Gian Pandher.

鈥淚 had to fly to Ottawa but my kids and family went and cleaned it up,鈥漚 contrite Sarai told the Now-Leader Monday. 鈥淚 was notified yesterday afternoon that either animals or someone else ripped open the garbage bags that were left beside the waste bins and a mess was made.

鈥淢y family, including my children, immediately went out and cleaned it up as I was en route to the airport.鈥�

Randeep Sarai, Liberal MP for 性视界传媒 Centre. (File photo)

Sarai said he had a city permit for the picnic and says the city told him to put all garbage beside the waste bins and that they will pick it up.

鈥淥nce again I am sorry if this has caused any mess or inconvenience,鈥� he said.

He said the park was left clean on Saturday.

鈥淥ur staff picked up all the garbage, bagged it, and put the bags of garbage next to the waste bins already in the park,鈥� Sarai told the Now-Leader. 鈥淢y staff thought the city collects the garbage from there. However, someone 鈥� or something, raccoons 鈥� tore the bags apart and threw everything out and left them on the grounds.鈥�

Local resident Barbara Tessier called it 鈥渁 disgrace.鈥�

鈥淚 was disgusted. It was their paper plates all over the place, because the crows of course ripped everything apart,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 believe that somebody would leave that amount of garbage in the park. I mean, if you have a picnic in the park you don鈥檛 go and overflow the garbage cans and then dump everything around.鈥�

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If anybody else did that, Tessier said, they鈥檇 be fined.

Dawn Mattson, also a Whalley resident, said it was 鈥淣ot the best example from one of our leaders.鈥�

Mattson said garbage was still left behind Sunday, leaving 鈥渁 feast for the crows.鈥�

鈥淚t started out as a beautiful day with them having a nice meet-and-greet picnic there in the park,鈥� Mattson said of Sarai鈥檚 community BBQ. 鈥淭hat was Saturday morning, and then Sunday morning when I went for my walk all the garbage was left there, and the crows were just having a heyday.鈥�

鈥淚 tell you the crows were smelling it, and they were enjoying it.鈥�

Mattson told the Now-Leader that she 鈥渨as a fundraiser for years and did a lot of carnivals and stuff at the local parks, especially Whalley Ball Park.

鈥淭he city made sure that no matter what we did, we had to make sure we took all our garbage with us, not leave it behind,鈥� she recalled. 鈥淲e had to take our own garbage and dispose of it; we were not allowed to leave it in the garbage cans at the parks.鈥�

鈥淲e just found it very odd,鈥� she said, 鈥渢hat a Liberal leader or a party leader of some sort from the city would leave that stuff behind because I know we would have got fined if it was us doing that when we had our fundraisers and our local things that we did with the children of the community.

If crows could vote: Trash in Holland Park from MP鈥檚 barbecue party. (Photo: Dawn Mattson)

鈥淚f it was you or me or any average joe, we鈥檙e not allowed to leave our garbage behind,鈥� Mattson said. 鈥淪omebody needs to address this.鈥�

So has, or will, MP Sarai be fined for the trash dump in Holland Park?

鈥淭he quick answer would be no.鈥�

That鈥檚 from Richard Ryan, 性视界传媒鈥檚 acting manager of parks, recreation and culture. He said Sarai was issued a permit, and according to it the event area needed to be kept tidy throughout the day and 鈥渁ll litter generated from the event must be picked up and removed from the site.鈥� Moreover, the clean-up 鈥渕ust be completed immediately鈥� following the event, 鈥渋ncluding all supplies, equipment and garbage.鈥�

Trash in Holland Park after MP鈥檚 event. (Photo: Barbara Tessier)

鈥淎pparently they weren鈥檛 able to keep on top of the number of people they had there,鈥� Ryan said. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 receive any complaints through the bylaw office and the city didn鈥檛 incur any costs as a result of this.鈥�

The city didn鈥檛 have to send out a crew to clean up, Ryan noted Monday afternoon. 鈥淭ypically in those cases we would bill the group for cost recovery. We wouldn鈥檛 be fining them as such, we would just simply be trying to recover our costs but in this case we didn鈥檛 have any costs and I鈥檝e had a number of staff visit the site this morning and it鈥檚 all been cleaned up.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 tend to take a punitive approach with these groups,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have lots and lots of events in our parks and the number of cases where we鈥檙e trying to recover from groups is quite small, really.鈥�

MP鈥檚 trash in Holland Park. (Photo: Barbara Tessier)

tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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