Law society, with help from Claude Richmond, rejects hearing for former Kash Heed prosecutor

Former West Vancouver police chief Kash Heed's decision to enter provincial politics in 2009 has ended up casting a pall on the careers of a growing number of people.

Members of his campaign team, including high-profile political organizer Barinder Sall, are facing criminal charges.

Former attorney general Wally Oppal committed political hara-kiri and missed out on an MLA pension by choosing to run (and lose) in Delta South in 2009. This cleared the way for Heed's candidacy in Oppal's former seat of Vancouver-Fraserview.

Former NDP candidate Gabriel Yiu might have won the 2009 Vancouver-Fraserview election and become an NDP MLA had it not been for the dirty tricks employed by the Heed campaign.

And Heed himself faces the loss of his seat for exceeding the election-expense limit, and it's unlikely that any police force will take him back as long as his legal problems continue.

Terrence Robertson is next on the list

Yesterday (February 4), the Law Society of B.C. announced that it had ordered former special prosecutor Terrence Robertson to undergo a "conduct review".

This was in connection with Robertson allegedly not telling the Ministry of Attorney General criminal justice branch about his firm's "$500 donation" to the Heed campaign.

"The Law Society determined Robertson failed to meet the expected standard that requires a lawyer to disclose to his client previous connection to the parties in a matter," the law society stated in a news release.

Robertson's letter of withdrawal as special prosecutor stated that his firm contributed $1,000—and not $500 as the law society maintained—to the Heed campaign.

"I was aware of the contribution to the Heed campaign by my law firm but did not believe that it was a conflict of interest that would preclude me from acting as Special Prosecutor," Robertson wrote.

A "conduct review" might sound serious to the public. In fact, if the law society had deemed Robertson's behaviour truly reprehensible, it would have issued a "citation" (the society's equivalent of a charge for an offence) and Robertson would have had to face the music at a hearing. This probably would have been covered by news reporters.

By ordering a conduct review and not issuing a citation, the law society doesn't have to fork out a bunch of money for what would have inevitably turned into a media circus.

A conduct review entails the lawyer attending a private meeting with a law society bencher and another senior lawyer. It's designed to ensure that the lawyer understands problems resulting from his or her conduct, and to ensure that this isn't repeated.

"To achieve this result, the reviewers and the lawyer must be free to exchange views and opinions," the law society explains on its website. "Accordingly, to be most effective the review must take place privately."

To justify this decision in Robertson's case, the society stated in its news release: "The review panel, consisting of public representatives Claude Richmond and Peter B. Lloyd and senior lawyer Richard Stewart, QC, was satisfied Robertson understood the significant error in judgment he made and accepted his statement that he deeply regrets the damage his error made to the confidence in the role of special prosecutors and to Heed."

In case you're wondering, that's the same Claude Richmond who was the employment and income assistance minister in the last Gordon Campbell government. After his political career ended, he was appointed as a "lay bencher" on the law society board.

The law society, as much as anyone, should know that justice must not only be done, but it must be seen to be done. Despite this, it placed a former B.C. Liberal cabinet heavyweight on the panel that made this recommendation for a conduct review for Robertson for not disclosing a contribution to the campaign of another former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister.

This decision, with Richmond's active input, ensures that the former special prosecutor's handling of the Heed case will not stay in the news through a messy and expensive hearing attended by the media—which could have undermined the B.C. Liberal government's efforts to get reelected.

In addition, the law society decided to announce this decision in a news release on a Friday, which is what organizations do when they want to minimize media coverage.

It's no wonder some British Columbians feel that their province has turned into a banana republic under B.C. Liberal rule.