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Read some of Postmedia’s past coverage about Kal Dosanjh’s work here.
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Kalwinder (Kal) Dosanjh, a suspended Vancouver police officer who worked with at-risk youth, has been charged with fraud, theft and breach of trust after an investigation by his own agency.
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The B.C. Prosecution Service confirmed that the 50-year-old Surrey resident faces nine counts, including four counts of fraud over $5,000, four of theft over $5,000, and one of breach of trust by a public officer.
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The alleged offences took place between Dec. 8, 2017 and July 25, 2025 in Vancouver, Surrey and other B.C. locations.
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Sunrise
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In the past, Dosanjh has spoken with Postmedia about his work establishing the charity KidsPlay Foundation, an organization that helps youth stay out of gangs, drugs and violence.
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Here’s what we know about Dosanjh, in his own words. Read on for excerpts of past stories interviewing Dosanjh.
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Vancouver police featured in reality TV series The Beat
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From 2010 to 2012, a reality TV series titled The Beat followed a number of Vancouver Police officers as they patrolled the Downtown Eastside. Dosanjh was featured in the second season of the show.
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‘He was dealing with a lot of suffering,’ says former mentor of 18-year-old victim in gang-related Surrey shooting
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In this May 2026 story, Dosanjh spoke about his past efforts to help a teen stay out of trouble. The teen ultimately drifted toward criminal activity and was shot dead in a gang-related shooting in May 2016.
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“When you’ve invested so much emotionally into this kid and you’re working hard to keep them on the right track, you see they are achieving success, and it feels like there is a light at the end of the tunnel that they will make it out,” Dosanjh told Postmedia.
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“It just hurts.”
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The veteran officer met the teenager three years ago through KidsPlay Foundation, an organization based in Surrey helping youth stay out of gangs, drugs and violence. Dosanjh did not want to publicly name the victim out of respect for his family, but said the victim he knew was the 18-year-old shot to death.
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The two were introduced by the victim’s mother, who called Dosanjh to get her son connected with KidsPlay, he said.
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“He was dealing with a lot of suffering and trauma,” he shared. “So she (the mother) reached out. She was working two or three jobs to make ends meet and give (him) the best life possible, but she recognized that (he) was easily influenced by the wrong people.”
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Surrey anti-gang ‘visionary,’ filmmaker mourned after deadly dispute with neighbour
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Manbir Amar was killed on Aug. 31, 2022 during a physical altercation between two neighbours. Amar, a filmmaker, had worked alongside Dosanjh in anti-gang prevention efforts.
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Amar produced three films: a short, a feature film and an award-winning 2009 documentary titled A Warrior’s Religion that provided an inside look at gang life in Metro Vancouver’s South Asian communities through dozens of interviews.
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Kal Dosanjh, a Vancouver Police officer, credits Amar’s work as fuelling an impactful paradigm shift in gang-prevention work in the South Asian community.
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“He was a real visionary,” said Dosanjh, who leads in-school presentations that encourage youth to steer clear of gang involvement.
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“I remember Mani telling me about how he snuck into Vancouver General Hospital to interview Bal Bhuttar, a notorious South Asian gangster,” Dosanjh recalled. “He asked Bal what led him down the path into the world of gangs, Bal told him about his childhood.
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“This precipitated a deep, insightful dive from the South Asian community to explore the impact that abuse and dysfunction in the household have on pushing kids to pursue drugs, gangs and crime.”
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Surrey forum tackles growing Islamophobia
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In 2016, Dosanjh’s KidsPlay Foundation organized a Surrey forum for teens to discuss issues around Islamophobia and finding ways to develop and improve intercultural harmony in the community.
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The event was organized by the Kids Play Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to steering youth away from a life of gangs, drugs and violence.
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What does that have to do with Islamophobia or racism? Plenty, said founder Kal Dosanjh, a Vancouver police officer. He said the impetus for the forum was a story he had heard about notorious gangster Bindy Johal, who was shot to death in a Vancouver nightclub in 1998.
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Dosanjh said Johal once was asked “why he was getting mixed into gangs and that lifestyle, and he said he grew up fighting on the street,” recalled Dosanjh.
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Growing up as an Indo-Canadian kid in Vancouver, Johal was beaten up, was told to go back to his country, and faced discrimination.
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“Then, he said, he had enough, got together with others, and fought back. Unfortunately it got to the point he became a drug dealer and gangster,” said Dosanjh. “That bothered me.”
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Female foreign students endure harassment, exploitation
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A 2019 piece by Douglas Todd explored the vulnerability of the increasing number of young women coming to Canada from the Punjab region of India and other parts of South Asia, whose often-modest families have sold off much of their property and assets to get them to Canada. Dosanjh was among the community figures who spoke to Postmedia about some of the concerns facing these young immigrants.
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“When these kids, who don’t know the law, hear about deportation, they get scared, because they’ve already spent so much money coming to Canada, and so much money surviving here, that the last thing they need is to be sent back to their country,” Dosanjh said.
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There are more than 500,000 foreign students in Canada. After a jump of almost 50,000 additional students from India in 2017, one quarter of Canada’s international students now come from there.
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“It’s a source of shame if they get sent home. They fear they’ll never get the chance to come back to Canada,” said Dosanjh, who also works with male foreign students whom he says tend to get exploited by under-paying construction companies or become low-level participants in the drug trade to pay high student fees and rents.
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Being able to fly into Canada on a student visa is seen as the “ticket out of India, out of poverty” for many students, said Dosanjh. “For them to be able to stay here means everything in terms of future job prospects, monetary wealth, sanitary conditions, a significant change in lifestyle.” Many will put up with a lot of hardship to avoid going home.
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800 elementary school kids play soccer at B.C. Place
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In 2016, Dosanjh’s KidsPlay Foundation took over B.C. Place for an event that invited elementary school kids to play football on the same pitch where the Vancouver Whitecaps play professionally.
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For the organizers of Kids Play Foundation, it was a chance to get many youngsters from low-income families doing something healthy and positive.
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“We want these kids to know they are important and it will instil self confidence and dignity,” said Kal Dosanjh, one of the founders of Kids Play Foundation.
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Children from 14 schools making up 60 teams spent the day playing mini-soccer games against other elementary schools.
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Dosanjh said the impetus to the Kids Play Foundation soccer day was to get them away from drugs and crime and show them what it is like to be on a team and working together.
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“They were using and selling drugs and we said enough is enough,” said Dosanjh of the reasons they began the program. “We want to make this day memorable for them and when they feel special wonderful things happen.”
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With files from Postmedia
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