Former mayor not in court for sex assault charge

Former Kelowna mayor Colin Basran was not on hand for his first court appearance on a charge of sexual assault.

Basran, 45, was represented in provincial court Tuesday by his lawyer’s representative, and the case was put over to Feb. 21 to allow more time to review evidence.

In December 2022, the B.C. Prosecution Service announced the charge against Basran for an incident that allegedly occurred in Kelowna in May 2022 when he was mayor.

The police investigation was conducted by the Kelowna RCMP and reviewed by the Nelson Police Department before being forwarded to the Crown for charge consideration.

Basran has hired Richard Peck as his lawyer. Peck recently defended the former mayor of Surrey, Doug McCallum, and was the lead lawyer in the Huawei Meng Wanzhou extradition case.

The prosecutor in the case, Brock Martland, recently defended Vancouver Canuck Jake Virtanen, who was found not guilty of sexual assault allegations.