BURST
A veteran, high-profile Vancouver police officer who has been charged with theft, fraud and breach of trust is known for his charity work and efforts to keep youth away from gangs, drugs and crime.
Kalwinder (Kal) Dosanjh, 50, was recognized just last year for his foundation work with the King Charles III Coronation Medal. It’s one of more than a dozen recognitions Dosanjh received for his charity and police work, including a Chief Constable’s Commendation, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In a TEDx talk Dosanjh gave in 2023 , he said more than 100,000 kids had been through the Kids Play foundation’s programs free of charge, and it had expanded to other cities in Canada, and internationally, to Colombia and India.
He told the TEDx audience he was inspired to start the foundation after working in the city’s Downtown Eastside and watching young people being devastated by drugs.
“I realized we need to do something different, something better to help these kids,” he said at the time.
The foundation’s website, which was online on Thursday, had been shut down by Friday.
At a briefing Friday morning, Vancouver Police said searches included the address of the charity.
None of the allegations against Dosanjh have been proven in court.
Dosanjh’s wife, Sandy Dosanjh, said outside their house in Surrey on Thursday that her husband was innocent.
“We haven’t committed any crime. I and Kal, we’ve been serving this community over 10 years now at our own time,” Sandy Dosanjh told Omni News.
The Conservative Party of Surrey announced on Friday that Sandy Dosanjh, who was running for a seat as a city councillor, was no longer a candidate.
On Thursday, she suggested the police investigation was related to her “standing up as a councillor because maybe there are people who doesn’t want to disclose what’s going on behind the scenes.”
According to annual reports filed with the Canada Revenue Agency, which are available publicly, the Kids Play Youth Foundation raised more than $1.6 million in the past five years through donations and from some government grants. Just under $560,000 of that money went to expenses, including compensation, office supplies and travel, according to the filings.
The last annual report was filed for the period ending on May 31, 2025.
Dosanjh started his career as a police officer in 2000, and had worked in uniform on the street and as a detective. He has also served in the traffic section, the domestic violence unit, and the financial crime unit, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Dosanjh was one of the officers featured in the reality show The Beat from 2010 to 2012 about police work on the Downtown Eastside.
At the Thursday briefing, Vancouver Police said Dosanjh’s most recent position had been as a motorcycle officer in the traffic section. He’s been suspended with pay, but the force has applied to the Vancouver police board to suspend his pay, a decision process that takes about 30 days.
Police said they had been conducting a 2½-year undercover investigation of Dosanjh.
“This officer, you know, had a profile in the community and internally, and officers are angry and disappointed,” Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai said.
Property and court records searches shows that Dosanjh had been president of West Point Pacific Construction (64th Ave) Ltd. since its incorporation in 2018 with two other people, including Sarabjit Gill, a co-accused who has also been charged with fraud and theft. The company was dissolved on June 29, 2026, for failure to file reports.
Vancouver Police said Friday that police officers that want to have secondary employment must go through a process where the chief ultimately has to give approval.
Just two days ago, Dosanjh posted on his LinkedIn page that the Kids Play Foundation was proud of a successful season of free summer camps, serving hundreds of kids and families across the Fraser Valley.
In May of this year, Dosanjh told Postmedia that he had warned one of the victims in a double homicide that the lifestyle he was choosing would either lead to jail or to his death.
While the longtime Vancouver police officer has “seen it all,” hearing the news of the killing of his former mentee was still difficult, he said then.
“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 said at the time. “It just hurts.”
With files from Postmedia News