The Curious Case of Sam Nagra

The murky relationship between Liberal politics and criminal behaviour grew just a little bit murkier last week with the arrest of a Victoria-area resident named Sarabjit Nagra (better known as Sam).According to the police department in the Victoria suburb of Saanich, Nagra is now facing 24 counts, involving fraud, impersonation, and false pretences.Police spokesman Const. Chris Horsley declined to give too many details of just what Nagra, 47, is alleged to have done, but did say that the charges stem from "a lengthy investigation involving the Saanich police financial crimes section and investigators from ICBC."The charges cover a period of five years - from 1998 through 2003 - and also a variety of B.C. locations, including Saanich, Duncan, Surrey and Abbotsford.None of this would be very interesting, except for Nagra's self-proclaimed relationship with the Liberal party, particularly on the federal level.Charged bias in coverage of Basi and VirkSome Tyee readers may remember Nagra. He was one of two leaders of the South Asian community who, on their own hook, called a news conference back in January, about three weeks after the now-infamous visit by the RCMP and Victoria police to the Legislative Buildings to execute search warrants on the offices of two then-ministerial assistants, David Basi and Bob Virk.The purpose of the news conference was, originally, to defend Basi and Virk from what Nagra and his partner, Jag Dhanowa, saw as unfair attacks against them in the media. Nagra and Dhanowa began by arguing that Basi and Virk had been victimized by others who wanted federal Liberal nominations in various south Vancouver Island ridings - individuals who hadn't received the support of Basi during what was at that point the ongoing nomination process.But somewhere along the way, the whole thing went off track, and much of the news conference was spent with Nagra and Dhanowa vigorously accusing the assembled news media of overt racism in their coverage of the police raids on the legislature and the continuing investigation. Nagra insisted that the coverage would not have been the same, had Basi and Virk been Caucasian. The attack was heavy-handed, clumsy, and not very politically smart - if you'd like more friendly coverage from the news media, it is usually not a wise move to accuse them holus-bolus of racism with virtually no evidence to back it up.Hints at hidden powerIt could have been dismissed as an event of very little value, were it not for the implications that Nagra made about his personal power within the Liberal party. He insisted that Basi had no great influence in the Liberal ridings, and that there was no such thing as "Basi's boys" - even though numerous Liberal party members, both Indo-Canadian and Caucasian, had described the organizing activities of that informal group to reporters in the previous couple of weeks.However, Nagra also clearly hinted that someone else did have the sort of personal power within Liberal circles that had been ascribed to Basi - quite possibly himself. Indeed, he implied to reporters that he had the power to shake up all three south Vancouver Island federal Liberal riding associations, should he choose to exercise it. At one point, he snapped irritably at a reporter that he might "put a brown face" in as a candidate in all three ridings, if the attacks on the Indo-Canadian community didn't stop.At another point, a reporter asked Nagra whether Indo-Canadians had met discrimination within the Liberal party. They had, he agreed, and "that's why we took over the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding association." He went on to explain that a single Indo-Canadian had been elected to the riding association executive, but had found his views were not greeted with favour. According to Nagra, he and his colleagues decided to gain control of the riding executive to back their single board member - and succeeded.No evidence to back up boastsIt should be made clear that there is no evidence at all that Nagra could deliver what he was bragging that he could. Environment Minister David Anderson won an easy acclamation in the Victoria riding. High-profile Alliance MP Keith Martin defected to the Liberals and so was granted an easy ride in Esquimalt.And the most that can be said in that Saanich-Gulf Islands riding was that Bob Russell, the long-declared candidate who'd attracted the wrath of Dhanowa and Nagra did lose - but to another Caucasian candidate, well-respected lawyer David Mulroney. Mulroney's victory, however, was an interesting one. He was allowed to run after declaring his candidacy only three days before the nominating meeting - a much shorter time than the association's rules normally allow. He decided only to run after two other candidates picked to go up against Russell proved not to be available. Former B.C. ombudsperson Dulcie McCallum chose, in the end, not to run, and broadcaster Pia Shandel was ruled ineligible by the party because of past comments made on a radio talk-show.Trouble at the templeIndeed, it's not even clear whether Nagra still holds much power within the Indo-Canadian community itself. For all his bold talk during the news conference, he was also running into problems with internal politics within the Victoria Sikh temple. The Moderate group, with which he was affiliated, lost control of the temple executive in an election a month after Nagra's news conference - an election held only after the B.C. Supreme Court began hinting that the group, which had controlled the executive for about the past seven years, might be in contempt of court if it didn't get on with holding the vote.Nagra and his associates insisted that the rival group in the temple election, the "Progressive Moderates," was really a group of traditionalists who would revive the fight about whether chairs and tables should be allowed in the temple dining room.But those Progressive Moderates, who won the vote, insist they're not at all interested in re-opening the tables-and-chairs question, butinstead were worried about the level of control Nagra and his associates were exercising. They complained that the former executive was spendingtoo much money without consulting the membership, and was applying what amounted to rules of closure during temple debates.No links to Legi-gateAs of today, Nagra is clearly innocent of any offense until proven guilty in a court of law. And, it should be made clear, there's absolutely nosuggestion that the charges against him are linked in any way to the investigations involving Basi or Virk or the search warrants executed atthe legislature.All the same, with a federal election likely looming within weeks, the last thing the scandal-plagued federal Liberals need is yet another self-proclaimed power broker finding himself well mired in the criminal justice system.Barbara McLintock is the Victoria-based contributing editor of The Tyee.