Three people charged in connection with a flyer linked to Kash Heed's campaign
Three people with connections to former solicitor general Kash Heed's election campaign have been charged. At the centre of the charges is a 2009 election flyer that was distributed in Vancouver-Fraserview, Vancouver-Kensington, and Vancouver-Langara.
Heed is a former West Vancouver police chief and before that was a long-time senior officer with the Vancouver police department.
Heed's campaign manager in Vancouver-Fraserview, Barinder Sall, faces three charges under the Election Act and three Criminal Code charges, including two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of falsification of books and documents. Each Criminal Code charge is an indictable offence liable to up to five years in prison.
Heed's former financial officer, Satpal Johl, has been charged with a single count under the Election Act of failing to ensure election expenses were properly recorded.
Meanwhile, Dinesh Khanna has been charged with failing to identify the name of an election sponsor and for telling a false story to a person exercising powers under the Election Act.
Special prosecutor Terrence Robertson declined to lay charges against Heed, the Liberal MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview.
A Criminal Justice Branch news release stated: "On the evidence presented to the Special Prosecutor, there is nothing to show that Kash Heed had any personal knowledge that the election financing report was false. In addition, given the facts that give rise to the obstruction of justice charges against Barinder Sall and Dinesh Khanna and the charge of falsification of a document against Barinder Sall, there is no substantial likelihood of a conviction against Mr. Heed."
The branch added: "In these circumstances, a court would likely find that even with the exercise of reasonable diligence, Kash Heed could not have known about the conduct of Barinder Sall and Dinesh Khanna."
Sall previously worked for former attorney general Wally Oppal, who preceded Heed as the Liberal MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview.
In 2008, Sall helped organize a dinner with former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell and Indo-Canadian community members at La Terrazza restaurant in Yaletown.
Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.
Comments
2 Comments
PAB
May 3, 2010 at 4:59pm
Heed is as slick as his hair.
Feb. 23, 2009: Heed resigns as chief constable from the West Vancouver Police Department. He is never brought to task on an allegation that he interfered with an investigation of a child-pornography case. Heed is accused of leaking information to a police-board member who worked at the same company as the accused in the case, West Vancouver resident Jack Crone, a former senior executive at RBC Dominion Securities. The complaint is dropped because Heed resigns before it is filed, taking advantage of a legal loophole that allows police officers to avoid an investigation by the province's independent Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. The office reviews the case and agrees the Police Act doesn't apply to ex-officers. Crone is later sentenced to four months in prison for possession of child pornography after police found 1,200 disturbing photos and videos of children engaged in sex acts on his computer.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=23a5...
RodSmelser
May 4, 2010 at 10:40am
I think there's two follow-on items here.
First, since he has not been charged personally, but campaign workers very close to him have been, will Heed be taken back into the BC Cabinet, and what would the expectation be in similar circumstances in other provinces, or in Ottawa?
Second, does this eliminate Heed as a viable contender for the BC Liberal leadership if and when Premier Gordon M. Campbell returns to the private sector?
Rod Smelser