There was more gun violence on the Lower Mainland with a shooting at an Abbotsford party just before midnight and an early morning accidental shooting in Vancouver.

Vancouver Staff Sgt. Randy Fincham said a man received life-threatening injuries when he accidentally shot himself in the  Downtown Eastside about 2:30 a.m.

“Police responded to a report that a man who had been assaulted was collapsed on the ground in front of the Maple Hotel, 177 East Hastings Street,” Fincham said.

Police continue to conduct interviews, neighborhood canvasses and continue to search the area to locate any persons or possible vehicles that may have been involved, she said.

“The motive for this incident is unclear at this time,” Bird said.

Shawn Womacks was caught red-handed as he unpacked what he believed to be cocaine from a Martha Stewart box at a Burnaby warehouse in 2012.

The Crown thinks the 45-year-old long-time criminal should spend 10 years in jail for his role in the international drug deal involving two full-patch Hells Angels and several associates.

Prosecutor Sarah Paulson noted Monday that Womacks had just finished another sentence for trafficking when he got involved with associates who committed to buy hundreds of kilos of cocaine from South American brokers.

Those brokers turned out to be undercover RCMP officers posing as cocaine suppliers who arrested Womacks and others on Aug. 25, 2012.

RCMP in Surrey announce seizures as a result of a raid of the Kelowna Hells Angels clubhouse as part of Operation E-Predicate in 2012. Shawn Womacks, who was convicted last year, is now facing a sentencing hearing as part of the undercover sting operation that went down nearly five years ago.

“Mr. Womacks, we know, opened up that Martha Stewart box and began distributing the stacks of placebo into different bags so they could be carried out,” Paulson told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross.

“He was actually handling the packages. He wasn’t merely picking up closed bags and carrying those off into the Budget truck. We heard zipper sounds on the recording and he was redistributing them throughout the bags.”

Womacks arrived at the warehouse that day wearing gloves, carrying a radio and ready to work, Paulson said.

His codename was Football.

While Womacks wasn’t one of the leaders of the conspiracy, his role was still significant, Paulson said.

Womacks was convicted of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

“The Crown’s submission is that Mr. Womacks played an important role as he was the final actor that brought the highly valued 200 kilograms of cocaine into the hands of the group of accused.”

Womacks, along with Hells Angels David Giles and Bryan Oldham and associate James Howard, were convicted last September in the drug case that the RCMP dubbed E-Predicate. 

The police received a $4-million down payment, then delivered a kilo of real cocaine and 199 kilos of fake product to the Burnaby warehouse.

Womacks’ lawyer Lou Webster said his client should get no more than five years in jail.

He said Womacks played a very small role in the drug operation and was only trying to make some cash to pay off a drug debt.

“He had a $60,000 debt to a serious cocaine trafficker in the Interior and ultimately took the job that brings him before the court,” Webster said.

“He felt there was a yoke around his neck and felt himself to be in significant danger.”

Webster said Womacks’ lengthy criminal history related to decades of substance abuse stemming from a troubled childhood.

His client is now sober, has a positive relationship and is working in a job he loves, he told Ross.

Womacks addressed the court briefly after both lawyers completed their submissions.

“I am truly sorry for what I have done,” Womacks said, his voice breaking.

Ross reserved her ruling on his sentence until March 31.

Sentencing hearings for Womacks’ co-accused continue at the Vancouver Law Courts this week.

kbolan@postmedia.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

Twitter.com/kbolan

Related

• Surveillance footage shows alleged killer of Surrey gangster Birinder Bhangu
• Recent uptick in gang violence shows the system is failing in B.C., say critics
• Nanaimo Hells Angels prospect’s death being treated as homicide, his mother says

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My colleague Keith Fraser covered the decision today by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross to sentence Hells Angels associate James Howard to 10 years for his role the massive E-Predicate cocaine conspiracy,

Howard was deeply involved in the conspiracy for months before he and others were arrested by undercover police in August 2012. Ross sentenced him to 10 years, five years than prosecutors were seeking and at the higher end of what the defence said would be appropriate.

Tomorrow full-patch Bryan Oldham will have his hearing, though Ross will likely reserve her decision.

Meanwhile David Giles and Shawn Womacks will learn their fate on March 31 – I plan to be covering that now that

I have finished some of the longer-term stories I’ve been working on.

Here’s Keith’s latest story:

Since Len Van Heest was deported to the Netherlands on March 6, he calls his mom on Vancouver Island every morning to find out how his favourite teams are faring.

The Raptors. The Penguins. The Blue Jays. He wants all the results.

The ritual has helped keep the 59-year-old with bi-polar disorder focused and stable despite the upheaval in his life that came when he was sent back to a country he left as a baby.

His Victoria lawyer Peter Golden is still hopeful Van Heest will be allowed to return to B.C. despite a string of convictions for uttering threats, assault and mischief related to his mental illness.

A nine-month sentence he received triggered his removal from Canada. His fate now rests in the hands of Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen.

Van Heest, who doesn’t speak Dutch, is living in a Salvation Army shelter in Amsterdam.

“Len, from what I understand, was really scared when he got off that airplane. He was perspiring. He was agitated. The person that (Canada Border Services Agency) said was going to give him a room — a family friend — was in Australia,” Golden said.

“Len’s passion and one of the things that has kept him in good shape is that he follows sports. So he phones his mom every morning to get the scores. Part of what has kept his stability for the last few years is this routine.”

Van Heest is one of hundreds in B.C. with criminal records deported under stricter rules brought in by the former Conservative government in June 2013.

The 2013 legislation means any permanent resident sentenced to six months or more can be deported with fewer avenues of appeal. The old threshold was a two-year court sentence and more chances to appeal.

CBSA statistics show that the new rules have had the intended effect.

The total number of criminals deported from the Pacific region in 2011, 2o12 and 2013 was 174. Over the subsequent three years,  276 people were deported from the region for their criminal history.  

Some have been high-profile gangsters like Barzan Tilli-Choli, of the United Nations gang, who was sent back to Iraq in January after serving almost eight years for plotting to kill the Bacon brothers. He came to B.C. as a teen in 1999. 

Others, like Van Heest, suffer from serious mental health issues that contributed to their criminality. 

Many of those affected have been in Canada since early childhood, but their caregivers never obtained citizenship for them.

“Somebody dropped the ball, whether it was the parent or the state if they ended up being a ward,” Golden said.

In Van Heest’s case, his family thought he was automatically a Canadian.

“By the time he was an adult and could have (applied for citizenship), he couldn’t because he had the (criminal) record and he was also dealing with a mental illness that was untreated,” Golden said.

Critics say the new rules are unforgiving and don’t look at the individual circumstances of those ordered out of Canada for criminality.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel said she supported the legislation in 2013 and still supports it today. And she thinks the majority of Canadians do, too.

“The primary responsibility of legislators is to keep the Canadian population safe, so that’s really … why we made these changes in 2013,” she said.

Focusing on any specific case, including Van Heest’s, is the wrong approach, Rempel said.

“Where I think we go off the rails is when we look at one case in a vacuum, or talk about taking away the personal responsibility component from criminal actions.”

CBSA communications officer Kristine Wu said the agency places “the highest priority on removal cases involving national security, organized crime, crimes against humanity and criminals.”

“Everyone ordered removed from Canada is entitled to due process before the law,” she said. “Our position is clear: Once all avenues of recourse are exhausted, the person must leave Canada or be removed.” 

One of those the CBSA is currently trying to deport is long-time Kelowna resident David Roger Revell, a former Hells Angel associate convicted in 2008 of conspiracy to traffic cocaine after a massive RCMP undercover operation targeting the biker gang. He was sentenced to five years.

David Revell, convicted in 2008 in a case involving the Hells Angels.

Then in 2013, he pleaded guilty to two assault charges in a domestic violence case involving a former girlfriend and was sentenced to two years probation. 

Revell, a father and grandfather who now works in Alberta, was born in England and was brought to Canada as a 10-year-old in 1974. Like Van Heest, he never got Canadian citizenship. Unlike Van Heest, his convictions are unrelated to mental illness.

Revell argued to the Immigration and Refugee Board last year that he never would have pleaded guilty in the assault case if he had known it would lead the CBSA to renew a review of his admissibility that had been on hold after the 2008 conviction.

“According to Mr. Revell, he pled guilty to simply put an end to proceedings that were requiring him to travel back and forth from Fort McMurray to Kelowna,” Immigration and Refugee Board member Marc Tessler noted in a July 2016 ruling. “According to Mr. Revell, if he had received a warning letter, he would never have pled guilty.”

Tessler agreed with Revell’s evidence that his deportation to England would have a “profound” impact on him.

“He has lived in Canada for 42 years and has only known Canada as home,” Tessler said.

But Tessler rejected Revell’s claims that his Charter rights had been violated and ordered him deported.

Revell has now asked the Federal Court to review Tessler’s decision. A hearing is set in Vancouver for May.

Revell’s lawyer Lorne Waldman said he plans to again argue that his client’s Charter rights would be violated by his deportation and that “Canadian jurisprudence should begin to acknowledge that it is just unacceptable to remove someone from the only country he’s ever really known.”

“The issue now that is coming before the court is: Are there circumstances in which it might be a violation of a person’s right to life, liberty and security of person to send that person away from a place where he has lived most of his life?”

Waldman, who is based in Toronto, said he has been inundated with calls from people living in Canada for decades who now find themselves in a similar situation to Revell and Van Heest.

“What they’ve done is they have significantly increased the number of long-term permanent residents that are being deported because the threshold now is so low,” he said. “It has had a fairly dramatic impact and that’s why we are seeing such a large number of cases now moving forward.”

Caily DiPuma and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association have won the right to intervene in a Charter case about a former Hells Angels associate ordered deported to England despite coming to Canada as a young boy.

On March 15, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association was granted intervener status in Revell’s case.

Lawyer Caily DiPuma said the association got involved as an opportunity to challenge a 1992 Supreme Court of Canada decision called Chiarelli that says deporting a permanent resident with a criminal record doesn’t violate the principle of fundamental justice guaranteed in the Charter.

“We think that that case was unfairly limiting the individual rights of persons in deportation contexts and that it should he revisited by the Supreme Court of Canada. This case provides an opportunity to the court to reconsider those issues,” DiPuma said.

She said there must be more discretion to look at the individual circumstances in each deportation case.

“So we are not saying in any given case that a particular outcome is desirable, but that the deportation regime ought to enable the individual to argue the impact on their Charter rights,” she said.

The possibility of deportation is now routinely raised during sentencing hearings.

In December 2015, a lawyer for Sophon Sek, 37, who was sentenced to a year for helping the Surrey Six killers get into the apartment where they killed six men, noted that his client would likely be deported once his sentence was done.

Sek, who came to Canada from Cambodia as a four-year-old, has recently been transferred into immigration custody to await a deportation hearing scheduled for next month.

Another gang associate fighting a deportation order is Bi Dong (Adam) Lam, who was brought to Canada from Vietnam while still a toddler.

He was told he would have to leave Canada because of a 2014 conviction for possessing a firearm in violation of a court order and a 2007 break and enter conviction stemming from a Langley home invasion. 

Jimi Sandhu.

Former Abbotsford gang associate Jimi Sandhu argued against his deportation to India last year on humanitarian and compassionate grounds — he came to Canada as a child of seven to live with his grandmother. 

He said his legal problems started after he fell in with the wrong crowd in the ninth grade. He later pleaded guilty to violent assaults in 2010 and 2012. In the first case, he got a 31-day sentence, and in the second, 23 days in jail. A 2014 murder charge was later dropped.

Despite Sandhu’s sentences being below the six-month mark, he was deported after the Immigration and Refugee Board found he had a pattern of negative behaviour over many years and showed no remorse for his crimes. He was returned to the Indian sub-continent last year.

Ujjal Dosanjh, a former federal Liberal cabinet minister, has publicly appealed for the immigration minister to intervene in Van Heest’s case.

Lowering the threshold for deportation was the wrong thing to do, Dosanjh said.

“I think that if there is a guy who’s lived here for 40 or 50 years, if he is a criminal, he is our criminal. We made him what he is. If he hasn’t killed anybody and isn’t a traitor or a terrorist, we have a moral and ethical obligation to see if there is anything redeemable about the person, and make sure they remain a part of Canadian society,” Dosanjh said.

Green Party MP Elizabeth May said what happened in Van Heest’s case “is heartbreaking and really not what Canadians expect from their government.”

She has been lobbying on his behalf in Ottawa and maintains contact with his mother Trixie.

“He spent nine months in jail. That is definitely paying his debt to society. He is not a mastermind criminal. He is someone with a mental health issue,” May said.

She said the changes to the deportation laws have shifted the focus to “deporting people as fast as possible.”

“If we are deporting people to a country where they don’t speak the language, they have no connections, there is something wrong with that,” she said.

Golden says one of the most disturbing aspects of Van Heest’s case is that the CBSA deported him despite the fact that his application to remain on humanitarian and compassionate grounds was still under review by an immigration official.

“It’s perverse that you have the Minister of Public Safety through the Canada Border Services Agency saying we’ve got to get this guy out of here, and a senior immigration officer representing the Minister of Immigration saying we are considering your application,” Golden said.

He is hopeful the application will be successful.

“Anybody who hears Len’s story is sympathetic. They shake their heads,” Golden said. “We should be able to get Len back. A lot of people are working hard to do that.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

Twitter.com/kbolan

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The young man gunned down Friday in Abbotsford was earlier mentioned in a B.C. Civil Forfeiture case connected to another shooting.

Jaskaran Lally, 20, was killed just about 2:30 p.m. Friday in the 3500-block of Chase Street.  Abbotsford Police were called to the scene about 4:30 p.m.

The Integrated Homicide investigation Team was called in to take over the case. 

“Mr. Lally was known to police, and was associated to local gangs,” Cpl. Meghan Foster said in a news release.  “This outcome is another example of the risks associated with gang life, and those involved are not protected from the dangers of it.”

My colleague Glenda Luymes filed this story detailing Lally’s criminal history.

Police are looking for information about the Ford F150 truck seen leaving the area.  

Ford F150 seen leaving murder scene March 24, 2017

Anyone with information is asked to contact to contact IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or  ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

The B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office filed a suit in December 2014 to seize two vehicles allegedly used in the October 2014 murder of  Harwindip Baringh in Abbotsford.

In the statement of claim, the director of civil forfeiture alleged two Nissan Altimas – one white and one blue – were used by gun-toting members of rival crime groups the day Baringh was shot to death.

Baringh was associated to the “Chahil crime group,” the court document said, and was driving with a passenger in a Jeep Grand Cherokee through a residential neighbourhood the evening he died.

About 6:37 p.m., the Jeep pulled over on Sparrow Drive and a blue 2007 Altima occupied by Baringh’s associates Navdeep Sidhu and Lally stopped beside it, the suit said.

“The passenger window of the blue Altima went down and a conversation took place between the occupants of the two vehicles. The Jeep then drove away and the blue Altima followed behind.”

About 7:45 the same night, surveillance cameras show the Jeep and the blue Altima following a white Acura and the white Altima.

“Mr. Baringh’s Jeep and the occupants of the blue Altima proceeded to follow the white Acura and the white Altima around a turn on Sparrow Drive where they were ambushed by occupants of the white Acura and the white Altima, whose vehicles were parked and blocking the road,” the director of civil forfeiture alleged.

Someone in the Acura got out and sprayed the Jeep with gunfire … An occupant or occupants of Mr. Baringh’s Jeep shot back at the occupants of the white Acura and Altima.”

The blue Altima pulled up closer to the Jeep and “more gun shots were exchanged between the occupants of the four vehicles.” Both Altimas and the Acura took off while the Jeep remained on Sparrow Drive.

Abbotsford Police received the 911 calls about shots fired around 7:46 p.m. and attended the scene to find Baringh’s body inside the Jeep.

Investigators obtained search warrants for the two Altimas on Oct. 13. There’s no information in the suit about who owns the Acura and why it was not seized.

The white Altima is registered to Gurmail Brar, who told police his son Darshpreet was the car’s only driver. The director alleges the younger Brar is associated to the Dhaliwal crime group.

“The white Altima has been used to engage in a violent ongoing gang conflict between the Dhaliwal and Chahil crime groups and is a recognized target in that conflict,” the suit says.

“The white Altima was used to facilitate the murder of Mr. Baringh and the attempted murder of his associates and if released is likely to be used to engage in weapons offences and further violent crimes involving firearms.”

When police searched the blue Altima owned by Navdeep Sidhu, they found “bullet holes in the passenger quarter panel and windshield post that had been repaired with bondo putty. The windshield also contained a bullet hole on the bottom of the passenger side.”

The civil forfeiture director said the blue car “was used to conspire against and seek out associates of the Dhaliwal crime group that the occupants of the blue Altima were engaged in a violent conflict with.

“If returned to Mr. Sidhu, (the car) is likely to be used by him or his associates to commit further firearms offences and violent crimes that are likely to cause death or serious bodily harm.”

The car was later forfeited.

A woman who accused her stepfather of sexually assaulting her decades ago plans to file a complaint with the Canadian Judicial Council this week over controversial comments made by the B.C. Supreme Court judge presiding over her case.

The woman, whose identity is shielded by a publication ban, says she is also distraught at the conduct of Crown prosecutor Katie Bouchard, who stayed four charges against her stepfather on March 21.

Even before the 56-year-old woman took the stand in Kamloops Supreme Court to begin her testimony on March 20, Justice Peter Leask asked Bouchard to cut some of her witnesses to speed up the trial.

“Full disclosure, I live in Vancouver,” Leask said, according to Kamloops This Week reporter Tim Petruk. “Kamloops is a wonderful place, but I like sleeping in my own bed.”

Shortly after the comments, the woman took the stand as the Crown’s first witness against her stepfather, who was charged with four counts of sexually assaulting her in the 1970s when she was a teen in Adams Lake.

She said she felt Bouchard’s tone with her was harsh and she “slipped up” on one of her answers.

“I felt like I was being cross-examined. That’s what I felt like. It was just bang, bang, bang, bang, rush, rush, rush.”

She said she wasn’t prepared for some of the things the Crown asked, including about her son who committed suicide last year.

“I couldn’t believe she was bringing that up. I just went, ‘Could you please stop.’ So the judge called a recess,” the woman said, crying.

The trial was adjourned until the following day.

Bouchard told her to read over her evidence from the 2016 preliminary hearing as well as her statements to police, she said.

20170323 Complaint Re Conduct of Hon Peter Leask – Perrin by The Province on Scribd

The woman only learned about Leask’s comments when she read Petruk’s reporting early the next day.

“I had no idea this had happened. It just felt like a punch in the stomach,” she said.

She returned to the courthouse, expecting to continue her testimony.

Instead, Bouchard told her the charges were being stayed because she no longer felt there was enough evidence.

The woman said the RCMP and the Crown who approved the charges thought there was sufficient evidence when she came forward in 2014. And a provincial court judge also determined there was enough evidence to go to trial after the preliminary hearing.

She said she has been rocked by both the Crown’s decision and Leask’s insensitive comments in court.

Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin reiterated Monday that Leask’s comments had no bearing on the decision to drop the charges.

“The decision to stay the charges in this case was made after a full and careful review of the evidence available to the prosecutor with conduct of the file,” he said in a statement. “After reviewing this information and conferring with senior counsel … the prosecutor concluded the charge assessment standard was no longer met. In these circumstances, a stay of proceedings is the appropriate course of action.”

The woman said she should have been allowed to complete her testimony. 

“They were looking for an out just to get it over with,” she said.

UBC law professor Benjamin Perrin has already filed a complaint about Leask’s comments, based on Petruk’s report of what was said in court.

Perrin said Monday that even if Leask was joking, his comments are inappropriate in any trial, let alone one about sexual assault allegations.

“It was very disturbing to me, particularly in the context that 95 per cent of sexual assault cases never get reported to police, and one of the reasons victims give is that they don’t trust the justice system,” Perrin said.

Comments like Leask’s “only serve to reinforce that message,” he said.

In 2007, Leask was censured by the judicial council for swearing during the Crown’s closing arguments in a drug case involving a Hells Angel he later acquitted.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Here’s the feature I’ve been working on over the last week or so on all the B.C. criminals who have been ordered deported. As you can see, there is a real range of cases from Len Van Heest, the mentally ill man who committed crimes while suffering from bi-polar disease to Barzan Tilli-Choli, convicted of conspiracy to kill the Bacons and identified as the shooter who killed Jonathan Barber after mistaking him for a Bacon brother in 2008.

Interestingly, there will be a test case of sorts before the Federal Court of Canada in May, involving David Revell, convicted of conspiracy to traffic cocaine in one of the E-Pandora investigations targeting the Hells Angels.

Here’s my story:

VANCOUVER, BC – MARCH 23, 2017 – Lawyer Caily DiPuma in Vancouver, B.C., March 23, 2017. The B.C. Civil Liberties Assn has won the right to intervene in a Charter case about a former HA Associate ordered deported to England for his criminal records despite coming to Canada as a boy. (Arlen Redekop / PNG staff photo) 

The Deported: Hundreds of B.C. criminals without citizenship shipped out

Since Len Van Heest was deported to the Netherlands on March 6, he calls his mom on Vancouver Island every morning to find out how his favourite teams are faring.

The Raptors. The Penguins. The Blue Jays. He wants all the results.

The ritual has helped keep the 59-year-old with bi-polar disorder focused and stable despite the upheaval in his life that came when he was sent back to a country he left as a baby.

His Victoria lawyer Peter Golden is still hopeful Van Heest will be allowed to return to B.C. despite a string of convictions for uttering threats, assault and mischief related to his mental illness.

A nine-month sentence he received triggered his removal from Canada. His fate now rests in the hands of Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen.

“Len, from what I understand, was really scared when he got off that airplane. He was perspiring. He was agitated. The person that (Canada Border Services Agency) said was going to give him a room — a family friend — was in Australia,” Golden said.

“Len’s passion and one of the things that has kept him in good shape is that he follows sports. So he phones his mom every morning to get the scores. Part of what has kept his stability for the last few years is this routine.”

Van Heest is one of hundreds in B.C. with criminal records deported under stricter rules brought in by the former Conservative government in June 2013.

The 2013 legislation means any permanent resident sentenced to six months or more can be deported with fewer avenues of appeal. The old threshold was a two-year court sentence and more chances to appeal.

CBSA statistics show that the new rules have had the intended effect.

The total number of criminals deported from the Pacific region in 2011, 2012 and 2013 was 174. Over the subsequent three years,  276 people were deported from the region for their criminal history.  

Some have been high-profile gangsters like Barzan Tilli-Choli, of the United Nations gang, who was sent back to Iraq in January after serving almost eight years for plotting to kill the Bacon brothers. He came to B.C. as a teen in 1999. 

Others, like Van Heest, suffer from serious mental health issues that contributed to their criminality. 

Many of those affected have been in Canada since early childhood, but their caregivers never obtained citizenship for them.

“Somebody dropped the ball, whether it was the parent or the state if they ended up being a ward,” Golden said.

In Van Heest’s case, his family thought he was automatically a Canadian.

“By the time he was an adult and could have (applied for citizenship), he couldn’t because he had the (criminal) record and he was also dealing with a mental illness that was untreated,” Golden said.

Critics say the new rules are unforgiving and don’t look at the individual circumstances of those ordered out of Canada for criminality.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel said she supported the legislation in 2013 and still supports it today. And she thinks the majority of Canadians do, too.

“The primary responsibility of legislators is to keep the Canadian population safe, so that’s really … why we made these changes in 2013,” she said.

Focusing on any specific case, including Van Heest’s, is the wrong approach, Rempel said.

“Where I think we go off the rails is when we look at one case in a vacuum, or talk about taking away the personal responsibility component from criminal actions.”

CBSA communications officer Kristine Wu said the agency places “the highest priority on removal cases involving national security, organized crime, crimes against humanity and criminals.”

“Everyone ordered removed from Canada is entitled to due process before the law,” she said. “Our position is clear: Once all avenues of recourse are exhausted, the person must leave Canada or be removed.” 

One of those the CBSA is currently trying to deport is long-time Kelowna resident David Roger Revell, a former Hells Angel associate convicted in 2008 of conspiracy to traffic cocaine after a massive RCMP undercover operation targeting the biker gang. He was sentenced to five years. 

David Revell, convicted in 2008 in a case involving the Hells Angels. 

Revell, a father and grandfather who now works in Alberta, was born in England and was brought to Canada as a 10-year-old in 1974. Like Van Heest, he never got Canadian citizenship. Unlike Van Heest, his convictions are unrelated to mental illness.

Revell argued to the Immigration and Refugee Board last year that he never would have pleaded guilty in the assault case if he had known it would lead the CBSA to renew a review of his admissibility that had been on hold after the 2008 conviction.

“According to Mr. Revell, he pled guilty to simply put an end to proceedings that were requiring him to travel back and forth from Fort McMurray to Kelowna,” Immigration and Refugee Board member Marc Tessler noted in a July 2016 ruling. “According to Mr. Revell, if he had received a warning letter, he would never have pled guilty.”

Tessler agreed with Revell’s evidence that his deportation to England would have a “profound” impact on him.

“He has lived in Canada for 42 years and has only known Canada as home,” Tessler said.

But Tessler rejected Revell’s claims that his Charter rights had been violated and ordered him deported.

Revell has now asked the Federal Court to review Tessler’s decision. A hearing is set in Vancouver for May.

Revell’s lawyer Lorne Waldman said he plans to again argue that his client’s Charter rights would be violated by his deportation and that “Canadian jurisprudence should begin to acknowledge that it is just unacceptable to remove someone from the only country he’s ever really known.”

“The issue now that is coming before the court is: Are there circumstances in which it might be a violation of a person’s right to life, liberty and security of person to send that person away from a place where he has lived most of his life?”

Waldman, who is based in Toronto, said he has been inundated with calls from people living in Canada for decades who now find themselves in a similar situation to Revell and Van Heest.

“What they’ve done is they have significantly increased the number of long-term permanent residents that are being deported because the threshold now is so low,” he said. “It has had a fairly dramatic impact and that’s why we are seeing such a large number of cases now moving forward.”

On March 15, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association was granted intervener status in Revell’s case.

Lawyer Caily DiPuma said the association got involved as an opportunity to challenge a 1992 Supreme Court of Canada decision called Chiarelli that says deporting a permanent resident with a criminal record doesn’t violate the principle of fundamental justice guaranteed in the Charter. 

“We think that that case was unfairly limiting the individual rights of persons in deportation contexts and that it should he revisited by the Supreme Court of Canada. This case provides an opportunity to the court to reconsider those issues,” DiPuma said.

She said there must be more discretion to look at the individual circumstances in each deportation case.

“So we are not saying in any given case that a particular outcome is desirable, but that the deportation regime ought to enable the individual to argue the impact on their Charter rights,” she said.

The possibility of deportation is now routinely raised during sentencing hearings.

In December 2015, a lawyer for Sophon Sek, 37, who was sentenced to a year for helping the Surrey Six killers get into the apartment where they killed six men, noted that his client would likely be deported once his sentence was done.

Sek, who came to Canada from Cambodia as a four-year-old, has recently been transferred into immigration custody to await a deportation hearing scheduled for next month.

Another gang associate fighting a deportation order is Bi Dong (Adam) Lam, who was brought to Canada from Vietnam while still a toddler.

He was told he would have to leave Canada because of a 2014 conviction for possessing a firearm in violation of a court order and a 2007 break and enter conviction stemming from a Langley home invasion. 

He said his legal problems started after he fell in with the wrong crowd in the ninth grade. He later pleaded guilty to violent assaults in 2010 and 2012. In the first case, he got a 31-day sentence, and in the second, 23 days in jail. A 2014 murder charge was later dropped.

Despite Sandhu’s sentences being below the six-month mark, he was deported after the Immigration and Refugee Board found he had a pattern of negative behaviour over many years and showed no remorse for his crimes. He was returned to the Indian sub-continent last year.

Ujjal Dosanjh, a former federal Liberal cabinet minister, has publicly appealed for the immigration minister to intervene in Van Heest’s case.

Lowering the threshold for deportation was the wrong thing to do, Dosanjh said.

“I think that if there is a guy who’s lived here for 40 or 50 years, if he is a criminal, he is our criminal. We made him what he is. If he hasn’t killed anybody and isn’t a traitor or a terrorist, we have a moral and ethical obligation to see if there is anything redeemable about the person, and make sure they remain a part of Canadian society,” Dosanjh said.

Green Party MP Elizabeth May said what happened in Van Heest’s case “is heartbreaking and really not what Canadians expect from their government.”

She has been lobbying on his behalf in Ottawa and maintains contact with his mother Trixie.

“He spent nine months in jail. That is definitely paying his debt to society. He is not a mastermind criminal. He is someone with a mental health issue,” May said.

She said the changes to the deportation laws have shifted the focus to “deporting people as fast as possible.”

“If we are deporting people to a country where they don’t speak the language, they have no connections, there is something wrong with that,” she said.

Golden says one of the most disturbing aspects of Van Heest’s case is that the CBSA deported him despite the fact that his application to remain on humanitarian and compassionate grounds was still under review by an immigration official.

“It’s perverse that you have the Minister of Public Safety through the Canada Border Services Agency saying we’ve got to get this guy out of here, and a senior immigration officer representing the Minister of Immigration saying we are considering your application,” Golden said.

He is hopeful the application will be successful.

“Anybody who hears Len’s story is sympathetic. They shake their heads,” Golden said. “We should be able to get Len back. A lot of people are working hard to do that.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

Twitter.com/kbolan

Kamloops This Week reporter Tim Petruk was in court March 20 when B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Leask urged the Crown in a sexual assault case to speed things up and eliminate some of her witnesses in the trial — which was scheduled for two weeks.

And he quipped that he preferred to sleep in his own bed. 

Petruk reported the inappropriate comments. The next day, the Crown stayed the four charges against the 90-year-old man accused of raping his stepdaughter in the mid-’70s from the time she was nine until she was 15.

UBC law professor Benjamin Perrin filed a complaint against Leask. And now the victim in the case, who I interviewed at length over the weekend, is about to file her own complaint.

It is not the first time Leask has been in hot water for remarks made from the bench. I broke the story a decade ago about him swearing during the Crown’s closing submissions in a drug case involving a Hells Angel who he later acquitted.

Here’s my latest story:

Complainant in Kamloops sex assault case devastated by judge’s comments, Crown stay of charges

KIM BOLAN
More from Kim Bolan

Published on: March 27, 2017 | Last Updated: March 27, 2017 5:56 PM PDT

A Kamloops man was deported to his native Pakistan earlier this month for failing to tell Canadian officials that his brother was an alleged international terrorist charged in an Islamabad hotel bombing, Postmedia News has learned.

Aitizaz Ud Din Syed, 29, originally came to B.C. in 2013 on a student visa, but had been working at a tech company in Kamloops during the last year.

He was arrested in January by the Canada Border Services Agency for misrepresenting information on his visa application almost four years earlier.

Syed’s older brother, Ibrar Ud Din Syed, was the alleged mastermind of the September 2008 Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad that left 55 dead and hundreds wounded. Al-Qaeda was believed to be behind the deadly attack.

There is currently an Interpol warrant for Ibrar Syed’s arrest, although his younger sibling told the Immigration and Refugee Board recently that his brother likely died in an air raid about two years after the hotel bombing.

Syed also told the IRB that he didn’t realize he had to list a dead sibling on his visa application, but admitted he later learned he should have done so and didn’t notify authorities at that time.

CBSA official Jeffrey Wicharuk told IRB member Trent Cook during a Jan. 6 hearing that the agency had learned of “derogatory information” about Syed from the RCMP and CSIS that might make him inadmissible to Canada on security grounds.

He asked for more time to get the information, which had to be declassified or redacted.

Lawyer Antya Schrack said the younger Syed “has never been associated with any terrorist organization.”

“He’s not been a member of any political party … has never been politically involved. He did not know the name of the organization his brother is supposed to have belonged to and heard of it the first time when I showed it to him,” Schrack told Cook.

“He studied in Canada for a year and four months. He was enrolled for a master’s program and has completed the master’s program, and he’s still active in research and is working for a company in Kamloops which is called iTel Networks.”

There were no issues with Syed during the eight months he worked at iTel, company official Justin Beaulieu told Postmedia.

“I can confirm that he worked here, but that’s really all I can divulge,” he said. “To be honest, I actually don’t know a lot of the details. I just know that something happened and he wasn’t able to return to work. And that is pretty much it.”

Syed remained in detention throughout January and February and appeared before other IRB members seeking to be freed from custody each time.

Wicharuk told one of the hearings that there were concerns “that Mr. Syed may share views that are similar to that of his deceased brother.”

People watch as smoke and fire fills the sky after a suicide truck bombing at the Marriott Hotel September 20, 2008 in Islamabad, Pakistan.

There was a suspicious photo of men in camouflage on his cellphone when he was arrested, Wicharuk said. And investigators found a YouTube video he uploaded of a Taliban leader. There were also some large cash transactions that the CBSA asked the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre to review.

But Wicharuk also said that the video, the photos and the financial transactions are not “the lynchpins of the minister’s suspicion at all.”

“It really lies with information we’ve been seeking to declassify and interview Mr. Syed about.”

By the time Syed’s fourth IRB hearing took place Feb. 23, board member Geoff Rempel expressed frustration at the vague allegations against Syed and the fact none of the classified evidence had yet been presented to the IRB.

And he said it was unfair to keep Syed in jail with no evidence presented about the security threat he might face.

“The Minister (of Public Safety) has used these various issues to justify their suspicion and justify continued detention, but hasn’t apparently followed up on them and that’s of significant concern,” Rempel said.

“It appears to be this derogatory information which the minister is not willing to talk about in any substantive way that is the basis for the minister seeking Mr. Syed’s continued detention. In my view, that’s not adequate to justify the continued deprivation of Mr. Syed’s liberty.”

Syed couldn’t respond to the allegations since the CBSA “hasn’t interviewed him or dealt with him in the course of the last month with respect to any of this suspicion,” Rempel said.

“Mr. Syed is in a rather impossible position here.”

He ordered Syed released. But the CBSA immediately appealed to the Federal Court to set aside Rempel’s order.

Syed, meanwhile, had agreed to return to Pakistan and to remain behind bars in Canada until his deportation could be arranged. He was returned to Pakistan on March 2.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

For the second time in five years, the Hells Angels are expanding their presence in B.C. by opening a new chapter.

The notorious biker gang recently celebrated the launch of its Hardside chapter with a party on St. Patrick’s Day, Postmedia News has learned.

And on the Hells Angels’ international website, a “welcome to the family” note was recently posted for B.C.’s newest chapter.

Hardside was formed after the Haney chapter split into two groups in February. But other Hells Angels from some of the gang’s other B.C. chapters have also “patched-over” to Hardside.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said the CFSEU’s uniformed team first noticed the new Hardside patch while out working in the community.

“As far as we are concerned in terms of the intelligence we have gotten so far, it is a reconfiguration of members,” she said. “They have been subject to civil-forfeiture action and those types of things recently. They have come to the point where they are reconfiguring and rebranding.”

A long-running legal battle between the B.C. Director of Civil Forfeiture and three Hells Angels chapters over the ownership of their clubhouses is expected to go to trial in May.

Winpenny said there are now 121 Hells Angels members provincewide, which is up from about 100 just three years ago.

The expansion has happened despite increased enforcement by police in recent years. Two Kelowna Hells Angels were recently convicted in a major cocaine-conspiracy case. One of them, David Giles, will be sentenced Friday in B.C. Supreme Court.

Winpenny said the CFSEU is “working hard” gathering both intelligence and combating biker organized crime in B.C.

So far, police don’t know where in the Lower Mainland Hardside will be based or whether it will open its own clubhouse. The last new Hells Angels’ chapter, called West Point, opened in 2012 and was supposed to be based in Surrey. But when Surrey RCMP said they would crack down on any attempt by the Hells Angels to open a clubhouse in the city, the gang started meeting weekly at a Langley pub instead.

Hells Angels spokesman Rick Ciarniello didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Support sticker for new Hells Angels “Hardside” chapter

Hardside is the 10th Hells Angels chapter opened in B.C. since the biker gang moved into the province on July 25, 1983.

Retired Vancouver police biker cop Brad Stephen said that in his view, the latest split resulted from a differing approach to being a Hells Angel between old-timers and generally younger members.

The splinter group “needs to maintain their dominant overt presence in the underworld while more traditional, old-school Hells Angels are more resistant to that sort of an image or a presence in the community,” Stephen said.

It has happened before in B.C. In the mid-2000s, some younger members of the East End Vancouver chapter broke away to join the Nomads. And then in 2012, the Langley-based White Rock chapter splintered with younger members forming West Point.

In many cases, old-guard bikers don’t want to draw attention to themselves, while younger, more-active Hells Angels feel they have to be seen in public to compete with other B.C. gangs, he said.

“They still all want to be Hells Angels in the same sandbox. They just have a different take on … how the Hells Angels should be seen in the underworld.”

Stephen believes B.C. Hells Angels today are less territorial than they were 10 or 20 years ago. That’s why the new chapters don’t take a city’s name.

“Hells Angels have evolved from being territorial to being freelancers wherever the market takes them. And they have to progress and adapt to the ever-changing criminal market and how the police conduct their business as well,” he said. “The police have become more collaborative and now the Hells Angels have to adapt and go to where the market takes them.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Hells Angels chapters in B.C.

Vancouver, opened in 1983.

White Rock, opened in 1983.

Nanaimo, opened in 1983.

East End Vancouver, opened in 1983.

Haney, opened in 1987.

Nomads, opened in 1998.

Mission City, opened in 1999.

Kelowna, opened in 2007.

West Point, opened in 2012.

Hardside, opened in 2017.

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I first heard about the Haney chapter splitting back in February, but I couldn’t get the story confirmed until a couple of weeks ago.

I still don’t know where the new chapter – Hardside – will be located. But it is interesting that the Hells Angels’ numbers continue to grow in B.C. despite police efforts in recent years.

Here’s my story:

Notorious biker gang opens new Hells Angels chapter in Lower Mainland

For the second time in five years, the Hells Angels are expanding their presence in B.C. by opening a new chapter.

The notorious biker gang recently celebrated the launch of its Hardside chapter with a party on St. Patrick’s Day, Postmedia News has learned.

And on the Hells Angels’ international website, a “welcome to the family” note was recently posted for B.C.’s newest chapter.

Hardside was formed after the Haney chapter split into two groups in February. But other Hells Angels from some of the gang’s other B.C. chapters have also “patched-over” to Hardside.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said the CFSEU’s uniformed team first noticed the new Hardside patch while out working in the community.

“As far as we are concerned in terms of the intelligence we have gotten so far, it is a reconfiguration of members,” she said. “They have been subject to civil-forfeiture action and those types of things recently. They have come to the point where they are reconfiguring and rebranding.”

A long-running legal battle between the B.C. Director of Civil Forfeiture and three Hells Angels chapters over the ownership of their clubhouses is expected to go to trial in May.

Winpenny said there are now 121 Hells Angels members provincewide, which is up from about 100 just three years ago.

The expansion has happened despite increased enforcement by police in recent years. Two Kelowna Hells Angels were recently convicted in a major cocaine-conspiracy case. One of them, David Giles, will be sentenced Friday in B.C. Supreme Court.

Winpenny said the CFSEU is “working hard” gathering both intelligence and combating biker organized crime in B.C.

So far, police don’t know where in the Lower Mainland Hardside will be based or whether it will open its own clubhouse. The last new Hells Angels’ chapter, called West Point, opened in 2012 and was supposed to be based in Surrey. But when Surrey RCMP said they would crack down on any attempt by the Hells Angels to open a clubhouse in the city, the gang started meeting weekly at a Langley pub instead.

Hells Angels spokesman Rick Ciarniello didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Hardside is the 10th Hells Angels chapter opened in B.C. since the biker gang moved into the province on July 25, 1983.

Retired Vancouver police biker cop Brad Stephen said that in his view, the latest split resulted from a differing approach to being a Hells Angel between old-timers and generally younger members.

The splinter group “needs to maintain their dominant overt presence in the underworld while more traditional, old-school Hells Angels are more resistant to that sort of an image or a presence in the community,” Stephen said.

It has happened before in B.C. In the mid-2000s, some younger members of the East End Vancouver chapter broke away to join the Nomads. And then in 2012, the Langley-based White Rock chapter splintered with younger members forming West Point.

In many cases, old-guard bikers don’t want to draw attention to themselves, while younger, more-active Hells Angels feel they have to be seen in public to compete with other B.C. gangs, he said.

“They still all want to be Hells Angels in the same sandbox. They just have a different take on … how the Hells Angels should be seen in the underworld.”

Stephen believes B.C. Hells Angels today are less territorial than they were 10 or 20 years ago. That’s why the new chapters don’t take a city’s name.

“Hells Angels have evolved from being territorial to being freelancers wherever the market takes them. And they have to progress and adapt to the ever-changing criminal market and how the police conduct their business as well,” he said. “The police have become more collaborative and now the Hells Angels have to adapt and go to where the market takes them.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Hells Angels chapters in B.C.

Vancouver, opened in 1983.

White Rock, opened in 1983.

Nanaimo, opened in 1983.

East End Vancouver, opened in 1983.

Haney, opened in 1987.

Nomads, opened in 1998.

Mission City, opened in 1999.

Kelowna, opened in 2007.

West Point, opened in 2012.

Hardside, opened in 2017.

Long-time Hells Angel David Giles in an undated photo.

Long-time Hells Angel David Giles was sentenced to 18 years Friday — the longest ever handed out to a B.C. member of the notorious biker gang — for his leading role in a conspiracy to smuggle half a tonne of cocaine into B.C. almost five years ago.

Giles, 66 and in ill health, breathed heavily in the prisoner’s box as B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross read out her reasons.

“Considering the nature of this transaction, the quantity of drugs involved, the intention for it to be an ongoing venture, Mr. Giles’ role and Mr. Giles’ personal circumstances, I have concluded that the fit sentence is 18 years,” Ross said.

She gave Giles almost seven years’ credit for his time in pre-trial custody, for a net jail term of 11 years, one month.

Giles was convicted last fall of conspiracy to import cocaine, conspiracy to traffic and possession for the purpose of trafficking after he and associate Kevin Van Kalkeren brokered a 2012 smuggling deal with police posing as South American drug lords.

Van Kalkeren pleaded guilty on the eve of his trial last year and got a 16-year sentence.

After months of negotiating and a $4-million down payment, 200 kilograms of purported cocaine were delivered to a Burnaby warehouse on Aug. 25, 2012. Police swooped in and arrested Giles, Van Kalkeren and six others.

Giles’s lawyer Paul Gill had argued for a lower term because his client is critically ill with liver disease and needs a transplant.

And he said Van Kalkeren was the real leader of the conspiracy, putting up all the cash and introducing Giles to the undercover cops.

Related

• Notorious biker gang opens new Hells Angels chapter in Lower Mainland
• Crown seeks six to seven years in prison for B.C. Hells Angel convicted in major cocaine conspiracy
• Hells Angel convicted in major cocaine conspiracy should get 18 to 20 years: Crown

At one point he told the police that Giles was “the worldwide president of the Hells Angels” — a position that doesn’t exist, Ross said.

While Ross agreed that Giles’s health had to be considered, she rejected the argument that he was subservient to Van Kalkeren while making arrangements for the massive drug shipment.

“Once Mr. Giles was recruited to the conspiracy, he acted as Mr. Van Kalkeren’s equal partner and was treated by Mr. Van Kalkeren as such,” Ross said.

And Giles, who was vice-president of the Hells Angels Kelowna chapter at the time, “said his target was to take 500 kilos every three months,” Ross noted.

“Mr. Giles repeatedly refers to his market, his buyers, his plans for the distribution of the cocaine.”

Prosecutor Chris Greenwood had argued for a term of between 18 and 20 years for the frail, balding Angel.

He said it was clear from what Giles said in intercepted conversations that he had been a major player in the drug trade for years.

Ross said some of Giles’s comments were no doubt boasts to impress the undercover police.

But she said the quantity of cocaine in the deal means “this was a conspiracy at the upper echelons of the drug trade.”

Ross noted Giles’s tough early life — born in Saint John, N.B., to an alcoholic mother who died early. He finished Grade 5 and was then “committed to a reformatory that has become notorious for abuse.”

He went on to foster care and a life of crime, though his last conviction was in 1984 for trafficking.

He was acquitted after another major undercover police investigation in B.C. more than a decade ago.

Before Friday, the longest sentences handed to any B.C. Hells Angels were 15-year terms to Norm Cocks and Rob Thomas in 2014 for manslaughter in the 2011 beating death of Kelowna resident Dain Phillips.

Also sentenced Friday was Shawn Womacks, convicted of possession for the purpose of trafficking after helping unload the cocaine on Aug. 25, 2012.

Ross said an appropriate sentence for Womacks was six years, given that he was only hired as labour and had struggled with addiction for years.

She said Womacks, 45, had offered “sincere expressions of remorse.”

And she said his criminal history, including an earlier trafficking conviction, all had their “genesis in his addiction.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Related

• Notorious biker gang opens new Hells Angels chapter in Lower Mainland
• Crown seeks six to seven years in prison for B.C. Hells Angel convicted in major cocaine conspiracy
• Hells Angel convicted in major cocaine conspiracy should get 18 to 20 years: Crown

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David Giles has been a Hells Angel for 35 years, though since 2012 as a member of the “Big House Crew.” And he could be with that crew for a decade more after getting handed an 18-year sentence in B.C. Supreme Court Friday.

It’s the longest sentence a Hells Angels has ever gotten in B.C. Back i 2014, his Kelowna chapter brothers Norm Cocks and Rob Thomas got 15 years for manslaughter for their role in killing Dain Phillips after his sons got into a conflict with some young HA associates.

Giles is very ill with late-stage liver disease. He is hoping to get a transplant. Now he’s on his way to federal prison.

Here’s my story:

RCMP in Surrey announce seizures as a result of a raid of the Kelowna Hells Angels clubhouse as part of Operation E-Predicate in 2012. 

Anti-gang cops say a suspected drug trafficker is facing new charges after he was stopped for a missing “N” on his car in Burnaby last month.

Jaskaran Johal, 19, was pulled over on March 21 driving a vehicle police associated with trafficking. But when officers got out of their vehicle, Johal fled the scene, Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said in a news release.

“Officers found the vehicle parked at a dead-end street. The officers immediately arrested the driver for alleged flight and dangerous operation,” Winpenny said. “Officers also detected an extremely strong smell of marijuana emanating from the vehicle, and a search of the vehicle turned up a baggie of marijuana in the glove compartment, three cellphones, and a marijuana grinder. A search of the area also resulted in officers finding a baggie of marijuana, and what was suspected to be cocaine, believed to be tossed from the vehicle.”

She said Johal has now been charged with fleeing a police officer, dangerous driving and possession for the purpose of trafficking.

He was already out on bail after being charged with possession of a controlled substance last October. So he is also now charged with violating bail conditions.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

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Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.

It has been a very violent beginning to 2017 with more than 20 murders so far across the Lower Mainland. In only a couple of cases has anyone been charged.

The latest murder occurred April 1, when 20-year-old Tyrell Michael Sinnott was shot to death in the parking lot of Langley motel. 

Police said at the time that Sinnott was involved in the drug trade, though they weren’t sure of any gang links. No doubt his family is struggling to come to terms with the loss of another young man.

I am curious to know what readers think could be done to stop the violence or get people to cooperate with police.

Here’s the murder list for the first quarter of 2017:

Calvin Zhao

Calvin Chi Hang Zhao – Jan. 10, 2017  

The 21-year-old Vancouver resident was found dead in a Jeep of gunshot wounds by RCMP officers responding to several calls about gunshots. Police believe it was a targeted homicide.

Martin Shen – Jan. 16, 2017

The 43-year-old was killed inside his office on Viking Way on Jan. 16. De Kai Liang, 55, has been charged with second-degree murder. Police say the motive was a personal dispute.

Karanpartap Singh Waraich – Jan. 23, 2017

The 22-year-old shooting victim was found in a vehicle that crashed into the golden arches sign at a McDonald’s restaurant in the 12900-block of 96 Avenue in Surrey. He died at the scene. Police believe it was a targeted homicide.

Hershan “Shawn” Bains – Jan. 27, 2017

The 36-year-old Maple Ridge resident was found dead from gunshot wounds in a vehicle in Surrey in the 7400-block of Sinclair Crescent. Police believe the shooting was a targeted act.

Joseph Billy Bustinski – Jan. 27, 2017

The 62-year-old died in a fatal shooting in Vancouver. Vancouver Police officers were called to the Savoy Hotel just before 10:30 p.m. and found the place full of bear spray and patrons struggling to breath. Police discovered Bustinski  inside the hotel suffering from a gunshot wound. He later died from his injuries. Police say the murder appears targeted.

Francis Son Le – Jan. 27, 2017

Le, 24, was found in the parking lot of Richmond General Hospital suffering from stab wounds. He died from his injuries. Le has a criminal record for trafficking and extortion using a firearm. Police said his death “appears to be targeted,” but not related to Richmond’s two earlier murders in 2017.

Lubo Kunik – Feb. 1, 2017

The 61-year-old downtown Vancouver resident was stabbed to death in Stanley Park. Kunik was suffering from stab wounds when he was discovered by a pedestrian just before 11 p.m. along the seawall between Second and Third Beach. He was later pronounced dead at that location. He was Vancouver’s second homicide victim of 2017.

Maninder Singh Braich – Feb. 9, 2017

Just after midnight, police responded to a report of an injured man at a home near Prince Albert Street and East 49th Avenue. The 38-year-old Vancouver resident was rushed to hospital and died shortly after. No arrests have been made but, based on the investigation, police don’t believe the public is at risk. It was Vancouver’s third homicide of 2017.

Shawn Curtis George – Feb. 11, 2017 

Shawn Curtis George

The 44-year-old Tri-Cities resident was found dead in 1300-block of Laurier Avenue, on a trail nearby the Hyde Creek Recreation Centre in Coquitlam. He appeared to have suffered injuries from foul play.

Satkar Singh Sidhu – Feb. 20, 2017 

The 23-year-old man was gunned down on Steelhead Court in Abbotsford. Police said he was pronounced dead at the scene. Responding officers pursued a vehicle that was spotted speeding away from the scene onto Highway 11 and into Mission. Mission RCMP used a spike belt to disable the vehicle. Three male suspects were arrested, but later released. Police believe Sidhu’s murder was targeted and is linked to other gang violence that has occurred in the Lower Mainland.

Parveen Maan – Feb. 23, 2017

The 45-year-old victim was found dead by Burnaby RCMP officers called to a report of a domestic dispute at a residence in the 7900-block of 18th Avenue. A male suspect, the deceased’s husband who has the same name as his wife, was arrested at the scene.  He was charged with second-degree murder.

Allen William Skedden – March 2, 2017

The body of the 52-year-old Delta man was found in the 22,000-block of Fraserwood Way in Richmond. Skedden was last seen Feb. 21, the same day he was reported missing to the Delta Police Department.

Joseph Kellington – March 3, 2017 

Abbotsford murder victim Joseph Kellington.

The body of the 24-year-old Mission resident was found March 3 in Abbotsford. Police said his murder appears to be targeted. Kellington was reported missing to the Mission RCMP on Jan. 31. He was last confirmed alive on Jan. 29 in the Abbotsford area.

Sofien Kazdaghli – March 4, 2017

The body of the 39-year-old Vancouver resident was found in a condominium complex. On the following day, 21-year-old Vancouver resident Diego Alphonso Huerta was arrested as he was about to board a Greyhound bus out of the city. He has been charged with second-degree murder.

Harjit Singh Mann – March 9, 2017

Mann, 49, was in a white sedan with Navdip Sanghera when it was sprayed by gunfire about 9:30 p.m. on East 31st Avenue near Ross Street. Mann, who lived in Surrey, died at the scene, while Sanghera was taken to hospital and died early the next day. Vancouver police said both the major crime unit and gang squad are investigating the murders — the city’s fifth and sixth homicides of 2017. No suspect descriptions have been released and no arrests have been made.

Navdip Singh Sanghera – March 9, 2017 

Sanghera, 32, was in a white sedan with Harjit Singh Mann, 49, when it was sprayed by gunfire about 9:30 p.m. on East 31st Avenue near Ross Street. Mann, who lived in Surrey, died at the scene, while Sanghera was taken to hospital and died early the next day. Vancouver police said both the major crime unit and gang squad are investigating the murders — the city’s fifth and sixth homicides of 2017. No suspect descriptions have been released and no arrests have been made.

Birinderjeet Justin Bhangu – March 13, 2017 

IHIT released photos of a potential suspect in the murder of Birinderjeet Justin Bhangu.

The 29-year-old Surrey resident was fatally shot just before 2:30 p.m. outside the Comfort Inn Hotel in the 8200-block of 166th Street.

Police found him in a vehicle. A dark-coloured Nissan Pathfinder fled the crime scene. Bhangu has a lengthy criminal history dating back more than a decade.

Unidentified man – March 14, 2017

The man was stabbed outside 139 East Hastings Street, the Insite supervised injection site, at 3:30 a.m. He was found on the ground, suffering from a serious stab wound.  He later died in hospital. It was Vancouver’s seventh homicide of 2017.

Jaskarn Lally – March 24, 2017

The 20-year-old Abbotsford resident was found dead in a home in the 3500-block of Chase Street from gunshot wounds. Police suspect his death was targeted. Police said Lally was known to police and was associated with local gangs.

Jaspreet “Jesse” Dhaliwal – March 26, 2017

The 36-year-old man was found by police inside a Surrey home in the 17000-block of 57th Avenue, suffering from wounds received from an edged weapon. He later died in hospital from his injuries. A male suspect was taken into custody by police at the scene. Gurtarn “Tarn” Sandhu has been charged with manslaughter. Police said “the altercation occurred between parties known to each other, and was not random.”

Tyrell Michael Sinnott – April 1, 2017

The 20-year-old Surrey resident died from gunshot injuries at the scene of the shooting in front of a Langley motel in the 8800-block of 201 Street.

Sinnott had a criminal record, and police say he was involved in the drug trade. Police believe his murder was targeted.

Despite the recent murder of a senior Hells Angel and a record sentence for another longtime member, B.C.’s most notorious biker gang showed up in force Saturday for an annual ride to honour a slain comrade.

Close to 100 Hells Angels and associates met at the East End chapter’s clubhouse at 3598 East Georgia St. for the event in memory of Dave (Screwy) Swartz.

Swartz was a full-patch member of the East End chapter when he was gunned down in Surrey on April 6, 1988 by a friend after an all-night drinking party. The friend then killed himself with the same gun.

Members of the Hells Angels gather at Oceanview Cemetery in Burnaby, BC during their annual Screwy Ride to honour their murdered friend Dave “Screwy” Schwartz, April, 8, 2017.

There was a heavy police presence around the clubhouse Saturday, starting early in the morning and lasting until the bikers left for the ride to a Burnaby cemetery about 2 p.m.

Both Vancouver Police and members of the RCMP’s Outlaw Motorcycle Gang unit were on the scene — some in unmarked cars. Several officers snapped photos of the bikers as they arrived and parked outside the clubhouse.

The police then followed the parade of patches along Boundary to 49^th until they turned into Burnaby and headed to the Ocean View Cemetery on Imperial Street. They returned to the clubhouse a short time later.

VPD Const. Jason Doucette said “police closely monitor gang functions to prevent criminal organizations such as the Hells Angels from disrupting the general public.”

“Other than a few driving behaviours that required enforcement, there were no major problems reported,” Doucette said.

Hells Angels spokesman Rick Ciarniello did not respond to a request for comment about the ride.

Members of the Hells Angels ride to Oceanview Cemetery in Burnaby during their annual Screwy Ride to honour the murdered friend Dave “Screwy” Schwartz in Vancouver, BC, April, 8, 2017.

There have been several major events involving B.C. Hells Angels in recent months.

Prominent member Bob Green was shot to death in Langley in October after an all-night party. A member of the 856 gang turned himself into police the next day and was charged with murder. Jason Wallace remains in custody and is due back in Surrey provincial court Tuesday.

On March 8, a prospect for the Nanaimo Hells Angels, Michael Widner, was reported missing near Sooke, days before his body was found. He was also murdered. Last weekend bikers from across Canada rode in his honour on Vancouver Island.

On March 17, B.C. bikers celebrated the opening of a new chapter called Hardside — the 10^th since the gang started in the province in 1983.

Then on March 31, David Giles, a 35-year member of the Hells Angels, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for leading a cocaine smuggling operation that was part of a police sting. It was the longest-ever sentence handed to a B.C. Hells Angel.

Giles, 66, is now believed to be on the outs with his club.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Myself and a photographer checked out the scheduled “Screwy ride” organized by the East End chapter of the Hells Angels on Saturday.

We wanted to see who would be there and whether the new Hardside chapter would be represented. 

Despite the rain, close to 100 bikers turned out. And there were plenty of police officers watching the event as well. 

Here’s my story:

VANCOUVER,BC:APRIL 8, 2017 — Members of the Hells Angels ride to Oceanview Cemetery in Burnaby during their annual Screwy Ride to honour the murdered friend Dave “Screwy” Schwartz in Vancouver, BC, April, 8, 2017. (Richard Lam/PNG) (For Kim Bolan) 00048634A [PNG Merlin Archive]

Hells Angels hold annual ‘Screwy ride’ to honour slain East End biker

Despite the recent murder of a senior Hells Angel and a record sentence for another longtime member, B.C.’s most notorious biker gang showed up in force Saturday for an annual ride to honour a slain comrade.

Close to 100 Hells Angels and associates met at the East End chapter’s clubhouse at 3598 East Georgia St. for the event in memory of Dave (Screwy) Swartz.

Swartz was a full-patch member of the East End chapter when he was gunned down in Surrey on April 6, 1988 by a friend after an all-night drinking party. The friend then killed himself with the same gun.

There was a heavy police presence around the clubhouse Saturday, starting early in the morning and lasting until the bikers left for the ride to a Burnaby cemetery about 2 p.m.

Both Vancouver Police and members of the RCMP’s Outlaw Motorcycle Gang unit were on the scene — some in unmarked cars. Several officers snapped photos of the bikers as they arrived and parked outside the clubhouse.

The police then followed the parade of patches along Boundary to 49^th until they turned into Burnaby and headed to the Ocean View Cemetery on Imperial Street. They returned to the clubhouse a short time later.

VPD Const. Jason Doucette said “police closely monitor gang functions to prevent criminal organizations such as the Hells Angels from disrupting the general public.”

“Other than a few driving behaviours that required enforcement, there were no major problems reported,” Doucette said.

Hells Angels spokesman Rick Ciarniello did not respond to a request for comment about the ride.

VANCOUVER,BC:APRIL 8, 2017 — Members of the Hells Angels ride to Oceanview Cemetery in Burnaby during their annual Screwy Ride to honour the murdered friend Dave “Screwy” Schwartz in Vancouver, BC, April, 8, 2017. (Richard Lam/PNG) (For Kim Bolan) 00048634A [PNG Merlin Archive]

Prominent member Bob Green was shot to death in Langley in October after an all-night party. A member of the 856 gang turned himself into police the next day and was charged with murder. Jason Wallace remains in custody and is due back in Surrey provincial court Tuesday.

On March 8, a prospect for the Nanaimo Hells Angels, Michael Widner, was reported missing near Sooke, days before his body was found. He was also murdered. Last weekend bikers from across Canada rode in his honour on Vancouver Island.

On March 17, B.C. bikers celebrated the opening of a new chapter called Hardside — the 10^th since the gang started in the province in 1983.

Then on March 31, David Giles, a 35-year member of the Hells Angels, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for leading a cocaine smuggling operation that was part of a police sting. It was the longest-ever sentence handed to a B.C. Hells Angel.

Giles, 66, is now believed to be on the outs with his club.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Accused killer Arvin Golic followed through on a threat to kill a Burnaby teen made just hours before a fatal stabbing in Whistler two years ago, Crown counsel Hank Reiner said Monday.

Reiner said in his closing submissions in B.C. Supreme Court that testimony from Golic’s former girlfriend and one of her friends about his threat against Luka Gordic is strong evidence of his guilt.

Gordic, 19, was swarmed by a group of 15, and fatally stabbed early on the morning of May 17, 2015, in Whistler Village.

Golic is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly plotting the attack and being at the scene of the stabbing. Three other youths are also charged in the case, but were tried earlier and are awaiting a verdict.

Reiner said that the evidence of Golic’s ex-girlfriend, Devon Luksic, as well as her friend, Niloo Daliri, is supported by Golic’s own calls, texts and emails to Luksic hours before Gordic was killed.

“Miss Daliri testified that she heard Arvin Golic on the phone to Devon Luksic threatening to stab Luka Gordic,” Reiner told Justice Mary Humphries.

And Luksic testified that Golic told her “he was going to meet up with Luka and he was going to kill him,” Reiner said.

“She testified to that on direct examination and confirmed it on cross-examination.”

Friends and family of fatal stabbing victim Luka Gordic.

Humphries has heard over the last month that two groups of Burnaby teens ran into each other in Whistler on the long weekend in May 2015. Some in each group knew people in the other group.

During their encounter, Gordic told Golic that he should stop being abusive toward his ex-girlfriend, leading to tension between the groups.

Reiner said the two sides were supposed to meet at the Olympic Rings for a possible fight on Saturday, May 16. Golic didn’t show and Gordic believed the matter was over.

But Golic, meanwhile, repeatedly called, texted and emailed Luksic, who was not in Whistler, about his fury over Gordic, Reiner said.

“We submit that you should be left with no doubt whatsoever that Arvin Golic threatened to do what ended up occurring some few hours later. He threatened to stab Luka Gordic and a few hours later Luka Gordic was stabbed in his presence by his best friend in the course of an attack planned by Arvin Golic,” Reiner said.

He told Humphries that defence lawyer Matthew Nathanson will no doubt suggest in his closing that the Crown witnesses are lying.

And Reiner noted that Luksic had at one point recanted her statement to police, but later testified that was only because Golic threatened to kill her and her family.

“She went on to explain that, ‘I was scared for my life and I would rather get in trouble from the police then from Arvin,’ ” Reiner said. “She said she made that choice because it was the only thing she could do to keep herself and her family safe.”

He said she later felt badly about having lied to police.

Golic sat in the prisoner’s box with his head down for most of Monday’s submissions. Extra sheriffs have been on hand in the courtroom because of tensions between Gordic’s family and friends and those supporting Golic.

Reiner is expected to finish his closing submissions Tuesday, followed by two days of submissions by the defence.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Related

• Second murder trial in connection with Gordic slaying in Whistler gets underway
• B.C. judge urged to reject denials of three teenagers accused in death of teen in Whistler

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Harpreet Khela held a picture of his slain cousin, Amandeep Bath, outside the New Westminster courthouse Thursday as he described the unbearable suffering Bath’s 2004 death has caused his family.

Khela and dozens of relatives and friends packed the courtroom to see Parminder Basran sentenced to six years for fatally shooting Bath over a “trivial” dispute on Sept. 24, 2004.

Last month, Basran pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and a murder charge against him was dropped. Bhabjit Aujla, who was with Basran the night of the shooting, was handed the equivalent of an 11-month sentence for assaulting Bath.

Khela said his family was satisfied with the sentences that came after joint submissions by Crown and defence lawyers.

“It’s nice to see that after 12 years … there is some closure to be had. Everyone worked very hard on this case,” Khela said.

“As a family, we believe that some sort of justice was served today. Nothing that they would do today would bring Amandeep back.”

Khela read an emotional victim impact statement to B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Bruce Josephson, noting that there had been no apology or expression of remorse from either accused.

Shortly afterwards, Aujla’s lawyer Michael Klein and Basran’s lawyer Ian Donaldson read letters of apology written by their clients.

Asked about the letters outside court, Khela said he accepted them at face value.

“If someone says they are remorseful, we hope that they are,” he said.

Crown Wendy Stephen read an agreed statement of facts to Josephson about the night of the deadly shooting.

She said Bath, who was 27 at the time, was out with a friend at a New Westminster nightclub when they began receiving calls from Aujla and Basran to meet up. They declined and headed home to Surrey.

As they approached Bath’s house, they saw Aujla’s truck nearby and drove past.

Aujla got out of the vehicle and went over to Bath in the driver’s seat of his friend’s Mercedes.

“An argument ensued because of some comments Mr. Bath had made about a member of Mr. Aujla’s family,” Stephen said.

Aujla punched Bath through the window and Bath sped away, calling 911 “to say he was in trouble,” Stephen said.

She said Aujla and Basran chased Bath and his friend around the residential neighbourhood before cutting off their car near 92nd Avenue and 125th Street in Surrey.

“Mr. Basran got out of the passenger side of the pickup and approached the Mercedes carrying a gun,” Stephen said. “Mr. Basran pointed the gun into the Mercedes. During the melee the gun discharged at or near Mr. Bath’s mouth.”

Both Aujla and Basran took off, although they were arrested shortly after the killing. While they were first charged in 2004, those charges were stayed until 2013, when they were both arrested again.

Stephen called the death “a senseless killing of an unarmed man seated in a vehicle on a public street.”

She noted Basran was 19 at the time of the shooting, while Aujla was 20. Neither had a criminal record and both have lived crime-free, productive lives since.

Their supporters also attended court Thursday. At the morning break, Basran was crying and hugging relatives.

Harpreet Khela holds a photo of his cousin Amandeep Bath while surrounded by Bath’s family outside the courthouse on Thursday.

Josephson, who noted this is his final case before retiring next week, said he was moved by the victim impact statements, particularly that of Bath’s mother Surjit.

In it, she described working hard as a single mom to provide for Bath, her only child and an accounting student.

“I enjoyed every minute of my life that I spent with him,” she said, calling her son “a loving, compassionate young man.”

“His killing tore our home apart,” she said.

Josephson said the tragic case “brings into sharp focus about how otherwise law-abiding youthful citizens can be led into a brief and thoughtless crime which took one life and had a lifelong impact on many other people.

“I can only hope that these proceedings bring some closure to all parties and they can move on with their lives,” he said.

He also issued a lifetime firearms ban on Basran and a 10-year probation for Aujla. Josephson also ordered Basran to provide a DNA sample.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

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