“Kash Heed Affair” shows why it pays to do your homework

Last month, already sinking in the polls thanks to the politically toxic HST, the BC Liberal party was hit by yet another torpedo.

Kash Heed, BC’s Solicitor General and the MLA for Vancouver Fraserview was under investigation by the RCMP. The case surrounded an inflammatory pamphlet sent to thousands of Chinese voters during the May 2009 provincial election. The brochures accused the NDP of supporting death taxes and wanting to legalize drugs and prostitution. Elections B.C. passed the controversial pamphlets to the RCMP since they lacked the required election contact/sponsor information and did not meet election advertising laws. Soon enough the RCMP zeroed in on Heed and last month, on learning he was under investigation, stepped down from his cabinet position.

Not good for any politician and particularly ironic bad news for the province’s top cop. A month later, special prosecutor Terrence Robertson, a partner with law firm Harper Grey, announced that though there would be no charges against Heed, there would be charges brought against his top campaign aides. This never looks good for a politician, but it was about to get much worse. After exonerating Heed, Robertson resigned citing conflict of interest. In less than 24 hours, Heed was reappointed to cabinet and then resigned a second time (after an evening of waffling) after learning that the special prosecutor’s firm charged with investigating his case had given $17,000 to the BC Liberals in the three years leading up to the 2009 election, $1,000 of which was donated specifically to Heed’s campaign in South Vancouver.

Dazed and confused, Heed referred to the whole mess as a bizarre process, an undoubtedly accurate interpretation.

What’s even more bizarre was how this whole mess almost slipped through the cracks. When questioned by the RCMP about the conflict of interest due to his political donations, Robertson is alleged to have dismissed the issue, but then, strangely had a change of heart hours after exonerating Heed. However, while the police seem to have diligently brought up the issue, unfortunately the opposition seemed to have missed it. Although the firm’s contributions are there in black and white in the BC Liberal campaign disclosures, no one (not the BC Liberals or the BC NDP) seem to have checked it out.

Only after it all came out thanks to Robertson’s last minute confession did the opposition pounce. Had the special prosecutor not said a thing, the whole incident may very well not have come to light.

The lesson here? Do background checks and your homework looking into even the most upright civil servants to make sure no one’s doing something they shouldn’t. Although in the end Heed’s debacle and resign-reinstatement-resign has helped the BCNDP, next time they might not be quite so lucky and a politically damaging issue like this may very well slip under the rug.