Kash Heed will return to his position as solicitor general and the minister responsible for public safety, Premier Gordon Campbell announced today.
"His commitment to the duties and responsibilities of Solicitor General were paramount last month when he stepped aside,” Campbell said in a news release. “I am sure this has been difficult both for Kash Heed and his family.”
Special prosecutor Terrence Robertson's statement yesterday completely exonerated Heed, the release said.
Criminal and Election Act charges were laid yesterday against Heed's campaign manager Barinder Sall. Also charged were the Heed campaign financial agent Satpal Johl and the owner of the North American Mailing company, Dinesh Khanna. The charges relate to an illegal brochure and alleged interference with the investigations into who was responsible.
“It's been a long three weeks, but it's great to be back in the saddle,” said Heed.
Responding to reporters' questions Heed denied his election was tainted or that he is serving under a cloud. “I was confident I'd done absolutely nothing wrong,” he said. “The special prosecutor has made his ruling, and he has exonerated me.”
“The premier has exercised poor judgment,” said Mike Farnworth, the NDP critic for the ministry of public safety and solicitor general. “This election has been tainted. There is a bit of a cloud.”
The charges against Heed's two most senior staff members are serious and Campbell should have waited until the court case is over before deciding what to do, he said.
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.
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alive
2 years ago
Really?
What happened, is Gordo running out of crooks that will follow orders and run for a disgraced party?
frances
2 years ago
Reminds me of the last days
Reminds me of the last days of the Socred regime, when it felt like we were living in some kind of third world banana republic. Shocking arrogance and corruption.
telus employee
2 years ago
Heed should lose his seat
Whether he had anything to do with this or not is irrelevant. It had the potential to influence the outcome of the election and there should be a bi-election.
Name
2 years ago
Clueless top cop?
I'm shamelessly plagiarizing here from a comment just spotted elsewhere that's too good not to share:
"Yeah, let's put the clueless "top cop" back on the job - the same one who never knew about the goings-on right in his own campaign office.
morechatter
2 years ago
Clueless Premier?
Who just didn't know about all the dirty tricks Basi was up to with the then Finance Minister who had the support of the former Primer Minister, Martin.
And what does the premier have to say about the illegal activities of staffers and their connection to key cabinet members such as himself?
Premier Gordon Campbell and his Liberal caucus projected a wall of solidarity Thursday, saying it's business as usual for the government despite the police raids on the legislature last month.
While acknowledging the raids on the offices of two ministerial aides have caught the government in unwanted negative publicity, MLAs and cabinet ministers said they were carrying on with new plans for policies and initiatives.
"I have a busy agenda both as a treaty-negotiations minister and justice minister and I'm working away at lots of things that have not slowed down because of this," Attorney-General Geoff Plant said just before he resigned. Actually it was funny key people associated with members who where also under investigation also resigned. Geoff and What's her name, you know the former Snooty liberal the one no one seemed to like especially when Campbell made her Minister of Education. I believe she now does some writing for Canwest.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/bc-election/business+usual+stoic+Campbell+says/1424173/story.html?id=1424173#ixzz0n6uyXY00
crankypants
2 years ago
Premature reinstatement
Once again Gordon Campbell shows that it's time for him to call it a day. Both he and Kash Heed intimated that Mr. Heed was exonerated by Terrence Robertson. This was an exaggeration of major proportions. Mr. Robertson stated that in all likelihood there was little chance for conviction of Mr. Heed. Nowhere did he state that Heed's hands were clean.