Thoughts on BC Politics and More

In a milestone that is staggering for its rarity in a jurisdiction regarded as a global nexus of Chinese transnational money laundering that facilitates fentanyl trafficking for Mexican and Iranian gangs, British Columbia’s anti-gang unit has finally secured its first money laundering sentencing in a decade. On Monday, a BC Supreme Court judge sentenced 37-year-old Richmond resident Alexandra Joie Chow to 18 months in jail for laundering the proceeds of crime, following a six-year investigation that targeted illegal Chinese underground casinos and unlicensed money transfer businesses in Metro Vancouver ... ... Chow’s case marks the first time in roughly ten years that a money-laundering investigation in British Columbia has actually resulted in a sentencing ... CLICK HERE for the full story

The BC government said it asked federal counterparts two years ago to scrutinize money laundering in the province’s fishing industry, which intelligence agencies have since warned could be awash in dirty cash.  The province claims it approached the federal finance department in 2023, asking that sales of government fishing licenses be reported to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (Fintrac), Canada’s anti-money laundering watchdog, which monitors such transactions for signs of illegal activity.  Buzz Lanthier-Rogers, a spokesperson for BC’s Ministry of Finance, said it made that request “to improve transparency and detect suspicious financial activity.” It came after stakeholders in the fishing industry and a BC government-sponsored report warned criminals may be using those licenses to disguise the flow of illegal funds ... CLICK HERE for the full story

“Cash is king, credit is a slave,” George N. McLean wrote in his classic 1890 book How to do Business. More than a century later, it’s still good advice – one that active pro-cash movements in many other countries are recognizing. So why does Ottawa seem determined to put its own banknotes out of commission?  In the name of fighting international money-launderers, the Mark Carney government is proposing to outlaw all larger cash transactions and interfere with other key aspects of Canada’s cash economy. Through interviews with experts in business, social policy and politics, Peter Shawn Taylor examines the varied benefits cash provides and asks who stands to gain from a truly cashless society ... CLICK HERE for the full commentary

IMAGE CREDIT:   BC Lottery Corporation   Canada’s financial intelligence agency has hit the British Columbia Lottery Corporation with a $1.075-million penalty for failing to report suspicious transactions and monitor high-risk high-rollers — the first major suspected money-laundering case against the province’s casino arm since the Cullen Commission, whose more than 100 recommendations remain largely ignored by Premier David Eby’s government. The case centers on BCLC’s failure to report suspicious cash transactions tied to a particular “high-risk” gambler, as well as its failure to maintain adequate compliance measures for such cases. The provincial Crown corporation has appealed the decision in Federal Court, reportedly contending that Fintrac failed to consider whether the gambler’s “perceived uncooperativeness and inconsistencies arose from linguistic and cultural differences”  ... CLICK HERE for the full sytory

In this sweeping conversation with Jason James of BNN, I discuss some of The Bureau’s biggest investigations of the summer — including the widening pattern of prosecutorial failures in major synthetic narcotics and money laundering cases in British Columbia. We spotlight the recent collapse of charges against a Chinese-state linked scientist accused of importing over 100 kilograms of precursors for MDMA production. I connect the networks involved to entities previously entangled in the RCMP’s infamous E-Pirate probe, then broaden the lens to examine organized crime's penetration of British Columbia institutions — including the province’s auto insurer. We also dig into the geopolitical and financial stakes behind Premier David Eby and BC Ferries’ controversial $1-billion deal to build vessels in China with a military-linked state shipyard — a project reportedly financed through a federal development bank overseen by Canada’s new Housing Minister, Gregor Robertson. As Vancouver’s for...

Canada’s financial intelligence agency found more than a third of the small and medium-sized banks it reviewed recently failed to follow rules meant to prevent money laundering. A 2024 report from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or Fintrac, said the agency found gaps in anti-money laundering programs at 18 of the 50 small and medium-sized banks it reviewed during the 2023-24 fiscal year.   The report, which was prepared for the minister of finance and obtained by the IJF through access to information legislation, said that in eight of those cases the gaps were significant enough to threaten the “quality of their money laundering and terrorist financing risk management.” In some of the cases, the report said, banks had “deficiencies” in how they reported suspicious transactions to the agency, which they are required to do under federal law. Some also had “vulnerabilities to money laundering and terrorist financing risks" ... CLICK HERE for the ful...

When B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen released his findings in 2022 on how to combat money laundering after his three-year inquiry, he led with two recommendations. • B.C. must create a specialized financial-intelligence and investigation policing unit. • The province needs to establish an independent anti-money-laundering office of the legislature and appoint a commissioner to head it. Nearly 2½ years later, neither has happened.Whether they have any chance of ever happening remains unclear ... CLICK HERE for the full story

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

Nearly 18 months after the Cullen commission made two key recommendations, one to create a special investigation unit and the other to create an independent commissioner, neither has been implemented. Austin Cullen, a BC Supreme Court Justice who headed the three-year inquiry, recommended creating a new money laundering intelligence and investigation unit because the federal government was failing to carry out its mandate to investigate money laundering. A 2019 BC government-commissioned report on money laundering in real estate in BC made a similar recommendation ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Canada's financial intelligence agency has levied a $7.4-million penalty against the Royal Bank of Canada for non-compliance with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing measures. The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada says the violations include failing to submit suspicious transaction reports where there were reasonable grounds to suspect ties to a money laundering offence ... CLICK HERE for the full story

It’s no secret that the RCMP is broken. But as Garry Clement discusses with Brian Lilley this week, the force’s inability to investigate serious national crimes — money laundering, narcotics, organized crime, Chinese interference, terrorism and more — is turning Canada into a haven for lawlessness. And innocent people are paying for it with their lives. Clement served on the force for 30 years, from undercover to senior roles. In his new book, “Under Cover: Inside the Shady World of Organized Crime and the RCMP,” Clement explains how the neglect and dysfunction of the storied police force has left Canada utterly unprepared to combat the sophistication of today’s transnational criminals ... CLICK HERE to hear the full podcast

In testimony barred to Canadian media, Cam Ortis — the former RCMP intelligence director accused of leaking secrets to Hezbollah’s global money laundering networks — has claimed he was attempting to disrupt massive floods of money laundering through Canadian banks from enemy states including China, Iran and Russia. “I saw some unique reporting … that explained, described, and outlined, a threat to Canada and the banking system,” Ortis testified last Thursday — “an extraordinary amount of money that was being laundered through Canada and its closest partners" ... CLICK HERE for the full story

At the risk of sounding like a Johnny-one-note I nonetheless report anew how troubling it is for me (and apparently for lots of other people too) to see world and human conditions continue to worsen day by day.   The latest new example for me was an analysis piece in the Canada Free Press newsletter which reported on the many machinations by former President Barack Obama and many other Democrats to agitate for universal mail-in ballots in the next U.S. election on Nov. 3, which they claim would increase voter participation markedly but which Trump, Republicans and others expect would be prone to too much fraudulent voting and other abuses of the already-troubled electoral system, which you can read by CLICKING HERE  .   Like almost everyone I was already all too aware of how radical anarchist leftists using the label Antifa (supposedly for anti-fascist) have been turning the downtowns of many major American cities into de facto war zones (I say "supposedly" bec...

In a July 26 th , 2018 article in the Georgia Strait , Finance Minister Carole James indicated the provincial government would be ending the corporate secrecy around who owns land in BC – this, permitted under Section 49 of the Business Corporations Act.  The law as it stood laid out strict legal requirements under which shareholder lists could be obtained from companies ... and it prevented the media from visiting a corporate registered records office to find out who owns a company. The government stated it was “taking action to end hidden ownership” in order to crack down on tax fraud and close loopholes. It also stated that due to many parts of the Act involve taxation matters , the Ministry of Finance would be directing the process. According to North Vancouver - Lonsdale NDP MLA Bowinn Ma the legislation was to be introduced by that Fall. Well it actually took longer however -- April 2 nd of the following year in fact – before the NDP govern...

The story of money laundering in BC, and who knew what, when, has been ongoing now for years.   So, the questions to be asked is, “WHY has it taken so long to finally getting around to an inquiry on this?” BC Liberals blame the NDP ... the NDP blame the BC Liberals ... and in the meantime the fall-out from the money-laundering (most everyone was aware of), was thousands dying from drug overdoses, multi-million dollar mansions being purchase by university students ... hyper inflation on housing prices ... gangsters shooting it up on the streets ... and young punks, that had never had a job in their lives, driving around in luxury sports cars worth hundreds of thousand of dollars. Numerous times in the past I accused the former Liberal government of being addicted to the revenues gambling brought in – hence its ever-expanding tentacles into every nook and corner of the province. The BC NDP however, have not been any better! Upon news of the up-coming public inquir...

In late February, I and my BC Green Caucus colleagues, called for a full independent public inquiry into money-laundering in British Columbia. The call came after two weeks of questions in Question Period on the deeply troubling connections in our casinos, real estate market, luxury cars, horse racing, drug cartels and opioid crisis. BC’s Attorney General, David Eby, clearly has a handle on this file. With Dr. Peter German’s first report opening a crack in the door, and two further reports to come by the end of March, the investigation is well underway. The constant flow of allegations in the media is really disturbing. It is shocking that this situation has gotten so out of hand. Serious allegations BC Attorney General David Eby When I asked Minister Eby about money-laundering in Question Period he responded: “ But even more serious than that is when you look at cases like (BC based) PacNet. PacNet is a firm that was alleged to...