BURST
For the first time since the Hells Angels arrived in B.C. in 1983, one of its chapters has been dissolved.
The Hardside chapter in Surrey was the newest in the province when it opened on March 31, 2017, with a party and a congratulatory message on the gang’s international web page.
Since then, two full-patch Hardside members have been murdered and the chapter has been named in lawsuits by both the B.C. government and the City of Surrey.
Postmedia News has learned that in mid-March Hardside was officially closed, with its remaining members moving to other Hells Angels chapters.
Sgt. Sarbjit Sangha of the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit confirmed Wednesday that “the Hardside chapter is currently inactive and effectively dissolved.”
Just a year-and-a-half after Hardside opened, the body of prominent member Chad Wilson was found under the Golden Ears Bridge in Maple Ridge. He had been shot to death. His murder remains unsolved.
Then, in August 2019, Wilson’s fellow Hardside gangmate Suminder (Allie) Grewal was gunned down in a busy Starbucks drive-thru in South Surrey. Two Alberta men later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
In 2020, Surrey filed suit against Hardside’s use of a rented property on 96th Avenue as its clubhouse. The lawsuit claimed the bikers were violating city bylaws and had made renovations without permits — something the defendants denied in their responses. That suit is due to go to trial next year.
Greg DelBigio, the lawyer representing former Hardside member Shannon Rennie in the lawsuit, declined to comment Wednesday on whether the chapter closure will have any impact on the case.
“This case is ongoing so I can’t comment,” DelBigio said in an email.
The City of Surrey also declined to comment Wednesday because of the matter remains before the courts.
Meanwhile, B.C.’s director of civil forfeiture also filed a lawsuit against the Surrey property owners, Gurbinder Singh and Kulwant Kaur Johal, as well as the owners of Hells Angels clubhouses in Mission and Pitt Meadows. The lawsuit, filed in December 2025, says all three properties should be forfeited to the B.C. government for their links to “a criminal organization.”
The owners of all three clubhouse properties have filed statements of defence denying the allegations.
Sangha said that while the Hardside clubhouse has closed, the property it had rented is again for lease by its owners and “remains subject to an ongoing CFO seizure.”
Despite the Hardside dissolution, the net number of Hells Angels chapters remains at 10. Almost simultaneous to Hardside disbanding, a new chapter called West Side was established on Vancouver Island. It’s believed to have resulted from the Nanaimo Hells Angels splitting into two groups.
While West Side has already got an Instagram account, no details have been released about where on the Island it will be based.
The B.C. government seized the Nanaimo chapter’s clubhouse in 2023 after a 16-year-long civil forfeiture court battle. However, Nanaimo Hells Angels members have continued to use two neighbouring properties owned by chapter members.
The province also seized clubhouses in Kelowna and east Vancouver after winning the earlier civil forfeiture suit at the B.C. Court of Appeal.
The Hells Angels first opened in B.C. when the original U.S. club “patched over” an existing B.C. gang called the Satan’s Angels on July 23, 1983.
Vancouver, White Rock and Nanaimo are the original chapters, followed by East End later in 1983, Haney in 1987, the Nomads in 1998, Mission City in 1999, Kelowna in 2007, and West Point in 2012.
Bluesky: @kimbolan.bsky.social