BURST
Convicted B.C. killer Paul Khela has been granted day parole 24 years after newlywed teacher Gary Sidhu was shot to death outside his family’s North Delta home.
Khela, now 48, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2004 for hiring hit men to kill Sidhu over a violent feud that left several people dead or missing in 2001 and 2002.
Parole Board of Canada members Ian Mackenzie and Matthew Burnett said Khela accepted responsibility for his past violence, including the Sidhu murder on April 1, 2002.
“The board found that you presented as articulate and intelligent, and that you answered its questions in a direct and apparently honest manner,” said the ruling, which was signed March 4, but released this month. “You did not minimize your role in the index offence or the severity of your criminal history.”
Mackenzie and Burnett said they believed Khela is sincere in his “expressed desire to continue a path of positive change.”
“You told the board that you understand parole is a privilege and not a right, and that you are serving a life sentence . You also said that you have done `horrific stuff’ in the past and you accept responsibility for what you did and are sorry for hurting so many people,” they said.
But while they ordered Khela’s release to a halfway house, the board members also imposed special conditions on him. He will not be allowed to “associate or communicate with any person you know or have reason to believe is involved in criminal activity and/or gang activity/membership,” the two board members said in the written decision.
Nor will he be allowed to possess more than one cellphone or SIM card, or contact any relatives of Sidhu’s.
Even before the Sidhu murder, Khela was a known associate of infamous B.C. gangsters Bindy Johal and Bal Buttar — both of whom were targeted by hit men. Johal was gunned down at a Vancouver nightclub in December 1998. Buttar was left paralyzed and blind in an August 2001 shooting. He died of his injuries a decade later.
While Khela claimed to the parole board that he wasn’t part of a gang, they found that he was “deeply entrenched in a criminal lifestyle for many years, which included the use of violence and involvement in the drug trade and gang-associated criminal activity.”
The parole decision laid out details of the Sidhu murder.
“While the victim was returning to his home with several family members, he was shot several times by three males. The police investigation determined you were responsible for hiring the shooters, supplying the weapons and arranging payment to them. You were described as facilitating the killing of the victim, although you were not involved in the actual shooting,” the board members said.
While the motive was never confirmed, the Supreme Court of Canada said “there was some evidence that suggested a blood feud was in progress. The victim was wearing a bulletproof vest when he was killed.”
The Sidhu slaying was one of a series over a few months. Sidhu’s buddy, Sarbjit Singh Dhanda, shot and killed Kam Jawanda outside Dhanda’s Richmond home on Sept. 29, 2001. He was later convicted of manslaughter.
Days later on Oct. 9, 2001, Sidhu and Dhanda’s friend, Rick Bhatti, also a teacher, was gunned down. Another friend, Ned Mander, disappeared the same night. Sidhu, who had received threats, left town. But he returned for his brother’s wedding in spring 2002.
Mackenzie and Burnett also looked at Khela’s conduct in prison while serving his sentence, noting that he had both been stabbed and stabbed another prisoner at different points.
“You accepted responsibility for stabbing the other inmate. You said your reputation was key to your survival in a maximum-security prison, so you needed to send a message,” the board members said.
They also noted that since 2020 Khela’s institutional behaviour had improved.
“While there is no doubt that for many years you lived a violent criminal lifestyle, the board finds that there has been measurable and demonstrable positive change over the past several years with just a couple of minor setbacks,” they said. “The board finds that you have reached the stage in your sentence where a structured release to the community is appropriate.”
Bluesky: @kimbolan.bsky.social