Internal records exclusively obtained by Public Eye show Kash Heed and his former campaign co-ordinator Barinder Sall had a relationship dating back to before the former West Vancouver chief constable became involved in provincial politics.
On May 3, Sall was charged under the Criminal Code and the Election Act following a RCMP investigation into possible offences allegedly involving Heed's 2009 election campaign office.
The former solicitor general, who has denied any wrongdoing and not been charged, has appeared to sidestep questions about his relationship with Sall.
For example, when CKNW legislative bureau chief Sean Leslie asked Heed whether he or someone else had picked Sall to be his campaign co-ordinator, the MLA said, "I'm not going to comment with respect to that" before walking away from reporters.
But, according to 47 pages of records released by the West Vancouver police department in response to a freedom of information request, Sall was helping promote Heed in the media as early as 2007.
"Kash, Send me your realistic dream car? And what your money is no object dream car? What was your first patrol car? So I can pitch the story idea," Sall wrote in an email from Dec. 28 of that year.
Many of the records, including Heed's reply to that message, were blacked out by the department under section 22 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which prohibits the disclosure of personal information that would be an unreasonable invasion of a third party's privacy.
On Sept. 2, 2008, Sall was again pitching for Heed. In an email he forwarded to the chief constable, Sall encouraged then CFUN-AM host Joe Leary to have the Heed on his show to talk about "how things are going in WestVan and discuss his new state of the art website www.wvpd.ca."
In messages sent on Feb. 18, 2009, Sall and Heed are also shown trying to figure out the identity of an anonymous email criticizing the chief constable for advocating police amalgamation in the Lower Mainland.
"This is definitely an alias for a local politician. I could guess who," Heed wrote after seeing the email.
"Go to your desktop and open the message and click on VIEWthen options that should say what IP address the email came from," Sall replied.
And then there's the email Liberal MLA Sindi Hawkins sent on Jan. 30, 2009 to the Sikh Centennial Foundation, encouraging the organization to honour the chief constable - a month before Heed announced his resignation.
"I would ask that you consider Chief Kash Heed of the West Vancouver Police Department as a candidate to honour this year. Chief Heed is the first Indo-Canadian police chief in Canada" she wrote in an email that was forwarded to Heed. "I can certainly provide you with Chief Heed's contact info should you require or you can contact Barinder Sall at [email protected]."
Sources identified by The Vancouver Sun only as "Heed supporters" have "insisted" Sall "and other key people in the Vancouver-Fraserview 2009 election campaign were already in place" when the chief constable decided to run in that riding.
The six charges against Sall relate to the publication and financing of controversial anti-New Democrat, Chinese-language pamphlets distributed in Vancouver-Fraserview during that campaign. Those pamphlets had no sponsorship information on them, a violation of the Election Act.
At the same time those charges were laid, special prosecutor Terrence Robertson cleared Heed because "there was no evidence of actual knowledge on his part and no evidence that reasonable diligence would have made him aware of any of the offences that have been charged against other people involved in the campaign."
A day later, Robertson stepped aside after disclosing his law firm had contributed $1,000 to that campaign. His successor, Peter Wilson, is now conducting a "fresh independent" charge assessment.
A caucus spokesperson said the former solicitor general was "unavailable" to speak with Public Eye for this story.
Sean Holman is editor of the online provincial political news journal Public Eye (publiceyeonline.com). He can be reached at [email protected].
