LIBERAL FRIEND HIRED TO DISTRIBUTE SLEAZY PAMPHLETS

Kash heed: Former solicitor-general's political career hangs in the
balance as police continue investigation

While someone was circulating illegal election pamphlets alleging that
the NDP would legalize cocaine, heroin and prostitution, Kash Heed was
making sure to present a very different image to the voters of
Vancouver-Fraserview.

Heed resigned as solicitor-general last week over a police
investigation into the sleazy pamphlets that flooded the riding in the
final days of last May's election.

The flyers were aimed at the riding's large Chinese community, and
alleged the NDP was "soft on crime" and would legalize prostitution
and deadly narcotics.

The pamphlets were toxic to the NDP in the Chinese community, where
cracking down on gang warfare, drugs and violent criminals were
critical election issues.

Meanwhile, as the NDP were getting slimed in the illegal leaflets,
Heed's official campaign was aggressively pushing the opposite message
- - the one Chinese voters wanted to hear.

"Kash Heed: Tough on Crime," proclaimed the Liberals' official campaign
pamphlets, which featured a picture of Heed in a police uniform. Heed is a
former chief of the West Van cops, and the picture of him in his uniform
angered and frustrated NDP forces being painted as friends of criminals in
the simultaneous slimefest.

Under the Police Act, by the way, it's illegal for a police officer to
use his position "for personal gain" or purposes unrelated to official
duties - which may explain why the Liberals air-brushed out the West
Vancouver police insignia from Heed's shoulder patch in the pamphlet
photo.

NDP candidate Gabriel Yiu said he confronted Heed about the altered
photo during the campaign. "He avoided the question and kept saying I
was smearing him," Yiu said Thursday.

But the real smearing was going on in the illegal pamphlets flooding
the riding.

While the Liberals' official flyers showed Heed in a police uniform,
the illegal anti-NDP flyers showed pictures of notorious Chinese
underworld figures - like infamous loan shark Betty Yuan, gunned down
in a Richmond gangland hit - and suggested the NDP would legalize
drugs and facilitate crime. Yiu lost to Heed by just 748 votes. Now
police are investigating whether the illegal pamphlets can be traced
back to the Liberals. And there are already plenty of dots to connect.

Elections B.C. has said the illegal pamphlets were delivered by
Richmond's North American Mailing Service, a company that donated
money to the Libs.

Company owner Dinesh Khanna, also a Liberal donor, refused to say this
week who hired his service, though he did say he's been interviewed by
the police.

"I gave [the RCMP] all the information," Khanna told CTV's Stephen
Smart.

Khanna has been lauded by Liberals in the B.C. legislature. In 2001,
Liberal MLA Rob Nijjar praised "the undying, loyal support of Dinesh
Khanna." And Liberal MLA Dave Hayer introduced Khanna in the
legislature in 2007, noting the bulk-mail maestro was visiting the
provincial capital with a police superintendent from India!

Now it's up to our cops to crack a case of sleazy politics - while the
career of Kash Heed, the Liberals' law-and-order star, hangs in the
balance.