Kash Heed

Kash Heed MLA
MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview
Incumbent
Assumed office 2009
Preceded by	Wally Oppal
Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General of British Columbia
In office June 10, 2009 – April 9, 2010
Premier	Gordon Campbell
Preceded by	Rich Coleman
Succeeded by	Michael de Jong
In office May 4, 2010 – May 5, 2010
Preceded by	Michael de Jong
Succeeded by	Michael de Jong
Personal details
Political party	BC Liberal
Residence	Vancouver, British Columbia
Occupation	MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview
Religion	Sikh

Kash P. Heed (Kashmir Singh Heer) is a Canadian politician, who was elected as a BC Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2009 provincial election, representing the riding of Vancouver-Fraserview.

He formerly served as the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General. He was formerly chief constable of the West Vancouver Police Department and a former superintendent with the Vancouver Police Department and was the first Indo-Canadian police chief in Canada.

Heed graduated from the B.C. Police Academy in 1979 and began his career as an officer with the VPD. In June 2007 he lost out to Deputy Chief Jim Chu for the position of Chief Constable of the VPD, but days later was appointed to that title in West Vancouver. He led the West Vancouver Police Department for 19 months and resigned on February 23, 2009.

He was the superintendent in charge of the south part of Vancouver, and as an Inspector was commander of District 3, which corresponds to the southeast quadrant of Vancouver.

Other roles in his career with the VPD have included heading the drug squad and Indo-Canadian gang task force, as well as implementing the department's COMPSTAT information technology system.

He is a published author who also teaches criminology and criminal justice at two B.C. colleges. He pioneered initiatives aimed at crime reduction and prevention as well as greater community and police engagement. He led the Indo-Canadian Task Force and inspired the formation of grassroots organizations dedicated to preventing gang violence.

Political campaign

Heed's opponent and main electoral rival in the British Columbia New Democratic Party, Gabriel Yiu has accused him of using images showing Heed in a police uniform in his campaign materials as being improper.

Heed resigned from the West Vancouver Police Department prior to the end of his five year contract. He also resigned before he could be brought to task on the allegation of improperly revealing information to a police board member. Prior to the allegations Heed had decried the fact (Video media) that some former employees of the WVPD had used the same tactic to avoid a hearing by the Police Complaints Commission.

While Solicitor General, Heed stated that he wished to change the system so that police officers will not be able to avoid hearings by either retiring or by resigning; however, this change would not be retro-active.

Resignation

On April 9, 2010, Heed resigned in response to an unspecified RCMP investigation involving violations of the Elections Act. Heed is the third consecutive solicitor-general to step down in the last 25 months. Fund-raising regularities subsequently came to light but the Special Prosecutor exonerated Heed of involvement and he came back into cabinet on May 4, 2010. Then. less than 24 hours later, the Special Prosecutor himself resigned when it was discovered that the law firm he came from had made financial contributions to the election campaign of Heed's party, the Liberals. Heed, once again, stepped down pending a more detailed probe into the case

MORE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST KASH HEED

Last Updated: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 | 2:14 PM PT CBC News

DOCUMENT: Heed search warrant info pgs. 1-40 (PDF)

DOCUMENT: Heed search warrant info pgs. 41-96 (PDF)

HEED CLAIMED IGNORANCE OF CAMPAIGN LAWS

CBC VIDEO: KASH HEED Investigation

CBC VIDEO: Kash Heed vs. RCMP

An RCMP search warrant application alleges Liberal MLA and former solicitor general Kash Heed broke the law. The document alleges Heed committed the crime of breach of trust. The warrant, prepared by Sgt. John Taylor, reveals the RCMP took the extraordinary step of executing a search warrant at the headquarters of the West Vancouver Police, where Heed was once police chief. The RCMP are most concerned with $6,000 that investigators believe Heed paid to two campaign workers after he was elected in 2009. Police allege it was taxpayer money earmarked for office furniture, but Heed's office had already been furnished by Wally Oppal, the former attorney general. The RCMP also uncovered email exchanges with Barinder Sall, who worked on Heed's campaign. In one exchange, Heed used a horseracing analogy to say Oppal needed to be put out to pasture, while referring to himself as a stallion.

Left cabinet in 2010 Heed - the MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview - left the cabinet in April 2010 following allegations his campaign violated election regulations with illegal advertising during the run-up to the May 2009 election. Since the controversy became public, Heed has maintained he knew nothing about alleged offences by his campaign workers. According a search warrant executed during the investigation to the documents and made public in 2010, Heed told police that: ·He wasn't sure how Barinder Sall became his campaign manager and didn't know his title. ·He had no idea how election campaigns were run and didn't know who was responsible for what. ·He didn't know who was in charge of printing his campaign pamphlets. ·He hadn't read the B.C. Election Act.

But Heed did tell police he turned over campaign donations to Barinder Sall, who faces a number of charges including obstruction of justice and violating the Elections Act. Heed's campaign financial agent, Satpal Johl, is also charged, as is Dinesh Khanna, who runs a Metro Vancouver bulk-mailing business. Heed is a former Vancouver police officer. He hasn't commented on the RCMP warrant. Premier Gordon Campbell said he won't comment on the latest allegations against Heed. He said he's going to let the special prosecutor complete his investigation.

KASH HEED FINED FOR ELECTION VIOLATIONS

CBC News Posted: Aug 31, 2011 2:48 PM PT

B.C. LIBERAL MLA KASH HEED HAD TO RESIGN FROM CABINET AT THE HEIGHT OF A SPENDING SCANDAL. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has fined former B.C. solicitor general Kash Heed $8,000 for violations of the provincial Election Act. Chief Justice Robert Bauman could have forced a byelection for the violation but decided instead to allow Heed, a B.C. Liberal, to keep his seat in the B.C. legislature. Heed had admitted exceeding spending his $70,000 spending limit by $5,579 in the 2009 campaign, but said he did not know about the excess spending at the time and had left those details to his campaign staff. The amount overspent was later corrected by the court to about $4,000. Fines in such cases are double the amount a candidate has gone over the limit.“Responsibility for the conduct of the campaign rests ultimately with the candidate,” Bauman wrote in his decision. Heed issued a statement after the ruling. “I accept the decision of the chief justice and I will abide by his ruling," Heed said. The overspending involved an anonymous pamphlet that surfaced during the campaign, smearing the NDP candidate he was running against in the riding of Vancouver-Fraserview.

BROCHURE SPENDING NOT DECLARED An RCMP investigation later determined the brochure had been produced by the Heed campaign but that the expenses for it were not declared. Charges have been laid against two of Heed's campaign workers. Two special prosecutors investigating the complaints against Heed had cleared him of any criminal wrongdoing. Heed, a former West Vancouver police chief, was considered a star candidate for the Liberals in 2009, and was appointed solicitor general after the election win in his first foray into politics. He was forced to resign less than a year later when the police investigation into his campaign spending became public.

FORMER B.C. SOLICITOR-GENERAL KASH HEED 'THOUGHT HE WAS BATMAN,' SAYS EX-AIDE

I was his right-hand man. Now I'm taking the fall ==

'By MICHAEL SMYTH, The Province,November 3, 2011

Kash Heed's former campaign manager says the ex-solicitor general saw himself as a modern-day Caped Crusader, even having a 'bat phone' installed in his office.

By day, he’s known as Kash Heed, less-than-mild-mannered Liberal MLA and former top cop of British Columbia. But to his once-loyal sidekick, Heed will be forever known as the Caped Crusader of the legislature. “Kash thought he was Batman — and I was his Robin,” said Heed’s former campaign manager Barinder Sall, who was rung up on electoral-finance charges on Friday. Sall pleaded guilty to financing the notorious dirty-tricks campaign against Heed’s NDP opponent in the last election, and was fined $15,000. Heed was cleared of criminal wrongdoing — though he was fined, too, for exceeding campaign spending limits — and remains the Liberal MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview. At least, that’s his public title. In his own mind, Sall says, Heed was a modern-day superhero, battling his way through the cutthroat world of politics and policing. “Back when he was police chief in West Vancouver, Kash had a secret phone line in his office that he called ‘the bat phone,’” said Sall, who seems determined to drag the ex-solicitor-general down with him. “I don’t know if it was red like the real Batphone, but that’s what he always called it, and I was one of the few people who knew the secret number. In Kash’s world, he was Batman.” Sall opens up a thick binder of documents, and starts showing me a series of private email exchanges between himself and Heed. In one email, Sall alerts Heed to the appointment of a new provincial gang-war commissioner. “Call bat phone,” Heed replies. In another, Sall updates Heed on a seniors’ housing project. “Call bat line,” Heed fires back. Why is Sall showing me this? “Because it proves how close I was to him,” says Sall, who’s angry Heed has distanced himself from him. “He was like my big brother. I was his right-hand man. Now I’m taking the fall.” The pair were so close, Sall says, that Heed shared his private thoughts on other Liberal MLAs. More emails spill out from the binder. They show “Batman” Heed firing plenty of batarangs at his colleagues. Former solicitor-general John Les was “a goof,” says one. Liberal MLA John van Dongen “doesn’t have a clue” about street crime. Cabinet minister Mary McNeil was a “loser” and “dense.” When Sall informs him that the Liberals recruited McNeil as a “star candidate,” Heed fires back: “I could run for the Marijuana Party and beat her.” Heed talks in the emails about joining the B.C. Green Party, too. And there are several mentions of Heed wanting to run for the NDP. “I think I’m going to jump ship and move to the NDP,” Heed writes to Sall. “I think I should be able to be their leader after the next election.” Many of the emails were written when Heed was West Vancouver police chief and reveal a burning ambition in politics or to become the police chief in Vancouver, a job that eventually went to Jim Chu. Once, Heed spotted Sall and another strategist chatting to Chu at an event, triggering a nasty email. “Boy, do you guys know how to destroy your credibility,” Heed wrote. Kash Heed declined to be interviewed for this column. He issued a public statement that said: “The matter is over and it is time to move forward. The prior decision by the special prosecutor and the court re-affirmed my integrity and I will not be commenting further.” But Sall alleged earlier this week that he did not disclose $40,000 in campaign spending in Heed’s riding, which has triggered a new review by Elections B.C. Meanwhile, Premier Christy Clark said Liberal MLAs will decide whether Heed should remain in the government caucus. But a Liberal source says it’s unlikely Heed will be kicked out. Why? Because Clark does not want to risk losing Heed’s seat to the NDP in a byelection. For now, it looks like “Batman” will remain in the Liberal Batcave, while his erstwhile “Robin” tries to rebuild his life. “I admit that I financed the flyer,” Sall said of the sleazy anti-NDP election pamphlet at the centre of the dirty-tricks scandal. “At the time, my gut told me not to do it. I should have listened to my gut. I hurt a lot of people, and Kash Heed hurt me badly.” Now, he’s doing his best to hurt Heed back.

EMAILS, CONTROVERSY LEAVE HEED IN LIMBO

By Les Leyne, Times Colonist, November 3, 2011

It's getting steadily more difficult to accept the concept of Kash Heed as a Liberal MLA. Sure, he sits on the Liberal side of the legislature. But his seat is in a remote, frozen gulag, as far away from the action as you can get. Sometimes seating charts speak volumes. Sometimes body language does, too. What was Heed trying to say Tuesday, for instance ? Premier Christy Clark had just finished a passionate riff on the jobs plan. All the Liberal MLAs banged their desks in approval. Except Heed. He looked around quizzically and did nothing. On Wednesday, Clark delivered a half-dozen "we're tough on crime" answers in a row during question period, something you'd think would bring an ex-cop out of his chair, cheering. Nada. Heed was completely engrossed in his iPad. That's not the correct demeanour for a team player. Not only is he sitting on the end of the bench, he's not even banging his stick on the boards when the team gets a goal. Coaches notice stuff like that. But insufficient desk-thumping is the least of his problems. The more immediate concern is his former campaign manager, Barinder Sall, who is either conscience-stricken, or has vengeance on his mind. Sall admitted to violating the Election Act while working to get Heed elected and was dinged $15,000 by a judge, which is $4,000 more than Heed paid to settle with Elections B.C. for the overspending on a fake brochure produced during the 2009 campaign. The discrepancy must have bothered Sall. He went public with claims that Heed was a lot farther over the spending limit than has been admitted. At the same time, the media has been blitzed with copies of emails from Heed that reveal him as a self-absorbed, caustic commentator on civic goings-on. To be fair, only the most damaging notes were disclosed. If Heed ever wrote about how important it is to support the United Way, or be nice to the elderly, those ones didn't make the cut.

The few that were released are along the lines of the following, sent to Sall at 5: 48 a.m. on Oct. 1, 2007: Subject: "Wake up!

"Hey, what happened to my ICBC Board position? Did your good friend Mary I'm a Looser (sic) McNeil get it, or your confidante Jamie I'm going to use all Barinder's ideas for free Graham get it? Of course, your ideas for the former got him DICK because he is such a looser too.... They are as dense as your bajee (brother, pal) Chu."

That little wake-up call and a few digs in later years at Liberals John Les ("what a goof") and John van Dongen ("doesn't have a clue") were in circulation when Heed showed up this week at the legislature. He walked into the caucus room and sat down beside all those "losers," "goofs" and clueless colleagues. Awkward.

Sall also struck back at his former candidate by implying Heed was a lot farther over the spending limit than he eventually admitted to being. That unproven allegation landed on the desk of recently-appointed chief electoral officer Keith Archer. Heed has already generated so much work for Elections B.C. he's probably a line item in their budget. The first investigation of the brochure prompted the appointment of a special prosecutor, which led Heed to step down as solicitor general. Then he was cleared and yanked back into cabinet. Then the special prosecutor acknowledged a conflict of interest, so Heed stepped back down, while another special prosecutor reviewed it all over again. Heed was cleared again of any criminal wrongdoing, but fined under the Election Act for the overspending incurred by way of the offending brochure. Now the NDP wants a third special prosecutor named to take another run at him, which is verging on the absurd. Liberals are still trying to figure out what to do with him in caucus. Clark said it's an issue that will eventually be discussed. Only two months ago, Heed was celebrating his third consecutive exoneration by the authorities. The two prosecutors had cleared him and even the judge who levied the fine said Heed acted in good faith.

Now he's in the glue again. You win some, you "loose" some.

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

Editorial: KASH HEED NEEDS TO STEP DOWN AS MLA

'The Province, November 3, 2011

KASH HEED FINDS HIMSELF AMID ANOTHER SCANDAL.

If there was ever any honour in politics, surely it's gone, as the case of Liberal MLA Kash Heed sadly reveals. Last week, Heed's former campaign manager Barinder Sall was fined $15,000, placed on probation and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service for his part in a dirty tricks campaign against Heed's chief opponent, the NDP's Gabriel Yiu. Dinesh Khanna, another campaign worker, was fined $3,000 for his part in the scheme to print anonymous Chinese-language pamphlets smearing the NDP. In August, Heed was fined $11,000 for overspending on his campaign in Vancouver-Fraserview, although no charges were brought against him related to the pamphlets. Now Elections B.C. is looking into claims by Sall that he didn't report $40,000 and there are further allegations the former solicitor-general and West Vancouver police chief badmouthed his cabinet colleagues. Premier Christy Clark says her Liberal caucus will decide Heed's fate, specifically whether he'll remain in caucus. She should act like a leader and kick him out.

More importantly, Heed should resign his seat, which the evidence shows was narrowly won and tainted by illegality. The voters and democracy were harmed by the actions of Heed and his team. If he has even the slightest bit of honour, he'll resign and put citizens above his own narrow selfinterest. - - - - - - What do you think? Email a brief comment, including your name and town to:

© Copyright (c) The Province

References

• Heed heads west, makes history by Mike Howell, Vancouver Courier, Friday, July 13, 2007 (retrieved July 22, 2007)
• West Vancouver's new police chief 'an innovator' CBC.ca News, Wednesday, June 27, 2007 (retrieved July 22, 2007)
• West Van top cop Heed resigns North Shore Outlook, February 23, 2009 (retrieved February 23, 2009)
• B.C. Solicitor-General Kash Heed stepping down The Vancouver Sun April 9, 2010 (retrieved April 9, 2010)

External links

• Kash Heed, MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview
• Indo-canadian editor promotes Kash Heed by Carlito Pablo, Georgia Straight, April 12, 2007 (retrieved July 22, 2007)
• Vancouver police target gang violence CBC.ca News Thursday, March 8, 2007 (retrieved July 22, 2007)
• DOCUMENT: Heed search warrant info pgs. 1-40 (PDF)
• DOCUMENT: Heed search warrant info pgs. 41-96 (PDF)
• HEED CLAIMED IGNORANCE OF CAMPAIGN LAWS
• CBC VIDEO: KASH HEED Investigation
• CBC VIDEO: Kash Heed vs. RCMP