Nobody becomes
B.C. solicitor general
Like the last nobody, Nina Krieger
will have to do as she’s told
July 18, 2025
Unless premier David Eby changes his mind, Nina Krieger will have to
oppose OPCC transparency and accountability, and independent civilian
investigation of police sexual misconduct including rape.
To the surprise of probably no one outside media or their official policing expert Kash Heed, Garry Begg lasted just eight months as solicitor general. His expulsion makes him one of the very few NDP MLAs without a cabinet position despite his manifest SG qualifications: He’s an ex-cop and a cop stooge. His problem wasn’t the incompetence he demonstrated as “his” ministry tried to track down a whistleblower contrary to NDP legislation and professed policy. His offence was a blundering inability to align his public statements with those of premier David Eby.
Ability to recite script, not run a ministry, is the priority of any cabinet position. The latter job is done by senior bureaucrats, while policy is determined by the boss (in Eby’s case) or grand viziers (as was the case with Trudeau). So there’s no surprise that Begg’s been replaced by first-time MLA Nina Krieger, who moves way, way up from a supposed job called “parliamentary secretary for arts and film.”
Krieger’s Jewish background might offer belated damage control after Eby kicked Selina Robinson out of cabinet, provoking her to quit the party and accuse him with likely justification of caving in to public sector union anti-Semitism. But other aspects of Krieger’s background might suit B.C.’s all-party plan to uphold the cop status quo by manipulating identity politics. According to her legislative mini-bio, Krieger “has advised on anti-racism education.” She was also a member of the “Inaugural Expert Committee on Countering Radicalization to Violence advising the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence,” whatever that means.
And if the meaning isn’t clear, all the better in this murky subculture. The supposed plan to revamp B.C.’s Police Act is a set of 2022 legislative committee recommendations that, in an extremely nebulous, deliberately confusing manner, proposes different but very vaguely described accountability procedures depending on a victim’s or complainant’s identity group membership. That kind of woke apartheid pushes all the right buttons with all the right people but does nothing to reform policing.
Long-needed reforms include transparency and accountability for the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, demonstrated by four OPCC cover-ups that accidentally came to light: Vancouver police officer Taylor Robinson, New Westminster officer Sukhwinder “Vinnie” Dosanjh, District of Saanich officer Brent Wray and former Victoria police chief Frank Elsner.
Another long-overdue reform would be jurisdiction for B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office over allegations of police sexual misconduct including rape. That’s demonstrated by the multi-year cover-up of allegations that Prince George RCMP committed repeated acts of sexual misconduct against teenaged native girls. (More info here and here.)
Garry Begg helped block OPCC transparency and accountability, and
independent civilian investigation of police sexual misconduct including
rape. Despite those qualifications, he got fired as B.C. solicitor general.
Begg took part in two legislative committees that rejected calls to introduce those reforms. Eby has been stalling on implementing the 2022 recommendations, vague as they are. So did his predecessor, past-premier John Horgan, as well as Begg’s predecessor, past-SG and fellow cop stooge Mike Farnworth.
Since any reform is up to Eby, it’s worthwhile reiterating his career strategy as a social justice phony. He began as a critic of police misconduct working at the Pivot Legal Society and then the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. But Eby limited his criticism to specific cop actions, refusing to point out obvious flaws in B.C.’s system of police accountability. To do so would have angered the political and legal establishment he wanted to join.
After a while he wouldn’t even criticize police, instead deflecting media questions on the subject by calling for better treatment of addiction or mental illness. B.C.’s benighted journalists didn’t even notice the evasions which were at best peripheral, often totally irrelevant and always implied the need to expand the NDP’s unionized power base.
Premier David Eby began his career posing as a cop critic.
But he opposes OPCC transparency and accountability, and
independent civilian investigation of police sexual misconduct
including rape. His flunky cabinet ministers have to do the same.
It was under Eby’s leadership of the BCCLA, and soon after I challenged the group to speak out on the Vancouver police/OPCC cover-up of a gratuitous cop assault on a disabled native woman, that the BCCLA scrapped its police accountability committee.
So as the B.C. NDP’s all-powerful leader, Eby will determine police accountability, which will most likely mean upholding the cop status quo. Solicitor general Krieger, formerly executive director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, will just follow orders.
A few additional notes:
Gary Begg’s ignominious demotion dumps him in the role of “parliamentary secretary for Surrey infrastructure.” It sounds like a do-nothing appointment but one that will provide local photo-ops. The 22-vote Surrey-Guildford election victor needs to build his stature in a city where he doesn’t even live.
Kash Heed’s laughable comments about Begg should end Heed’s media reputation as a supposed expert on all things policing. That is, those comments should end his credibility. As far as the media are concerned, they won’t. B.C.’s media have no credibility on policing either. And that can raise questions about their credibility on everything else.
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