Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Conservative MP Adam Chambers has notified Parliament of his proposal to examine circumstances of Royal Bank of Canada’s purchase of HSBC Canada and to have at least $100-million set aside to cover the possibility of fines from “any current or future investigations by regulators.” The notice of motion to Ottawa’s Finance Committee is in response to The Bureau’s investigation of an HSBC Canada whistleblower’s allegations of surging mortgage fraud and money laundering concerns in Toronto-area HSBC branches during the Covid-19 pandemic. The whistleblower, who left HSBC Canada after making internal complaints in April 2022, believed bank staff were complicit in a fraud that enabled Chinese diaspora real estate investors to secure at least $500-million in questionable mortgages since 2015, by claiming faked or exaggerated incomes in China . . . . CLICK HERE for the full story

Some old-school conservatives (and Conservatives) might have been surprised when Pierre Poilievre recently asked Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to halt the proposed takeover of HSBC Bank by the Royal Bank of Canada.   Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which we know as HSBC, was established in 1865 to finance growing trade between Europe, India and China. Today it fashions itself as “a local bank serving international needs” and provides competitively priced commercial and retail banking services in Canada and elsewhere. In Canada it operates primarily in our two largest metropolitan regions: Toronto and the the so-called 905 region around Toronto as well as Greater Vancouver and the lower mainland around Vancouver. It also operates in some cities across western Canada. HSBC recently put itself up for sale and the Royal Bank was the winning bidder.  But Poilievre has concerns. What gives? Aren’t conservatives the party of big business? CLICK HERE for t...