Ottawa And Beijing: A Sad Story

An unnamed man believed to be a second secretary in the Canadian embassy in Beijing “is thought to have made well over a million dollars before he bolted” from Canadian embassy service. (Asia Pacific Post Sept 23 04 p.1) His “earnings” came from collecting bribes to overturn the (just) rejection of visa applications. “The applicants would then jump when they arrived in Canada, some claiming refugee status….” (p.9) Instead of sharing information with Canadians, Immigration Canada, Foreign Affairs, and the RCMP all refuse to confirm or deny any investigation – let alone tell who the embassy official was. Their behaviour is a part of growing secrecy (possibly to cover criminal wrong-doing) in Ottawa. Canadians can never expect to know (a) what went on (b) who was involved (c) what steps will be taken to return illegal entrants to Canada (d) what new processes will be put in place to prevent further fraud. Very possibly, no new processes will be put in place. History leads one to believe the Cabinet of Paul Martin does not wish to end the fraud. Allegations of corruption and organized crime infiltration at the Canadian High Commission in Hong Kong in the 1990s was (to put the matter very gently) interfered with by the Chretien government. (Asian Pacific Post, Apr 25 2002; Oct 2 2003). Paul Martin’s government is taking no steps to change the general, highly dubious behaviour revealed for nearly fifteen years. An RCMP External Review committee Report (after almost a decade of investigations, reviews and accusations of cover-ups) said “Asian organized crime figures may have entered Canada because the RCMP failed properly to investigate allegations of widespread corruption at the Canadian High Commission in Hong Kong “. (APP Oct 2 03). They did so after two allegations. In 1991, “ a Hong Kong resident, Choi Sim Leung, complained two embassy officials had offered to expedite her visa application for C$10,000.” (APP Oct 2 03). Around the same time, Brian McAdam, the High Commission’s immigration control officer (from 1989-1993) uncovered a tampered computer system erasing names of triad members, bribery evidence, and connections between organized crime figures and Canadian politicians. For his work he received such systematic opposition from his employers and the RCMP that he suffered depression and took retirement after 30 years of service. RCMP Corporal Robert Read, brought in to examine the allegations, could not get his superiors to take any action despite significant evidence. Finally, he went to the press in order to serve the Canadian public – for which he was fired. The RCMP External Review Committee exonerated Read and said he should be reinstated. The RCMP refused. Read has his case, at present, before the Federal Court. To give a taste of the behaviour involved, a quotation from the Asian Pacific Post, Oct 2, 2003 will tell enough: “…an immigration consultant with Imperial Consultants was charged by Hong Kong police with fraud but Ottawa refused to send one of its officers to testify in the case. …the case against the consultant died. Ironically, the same consultant would later be photographed in a private meeting with Jean Chretien while discussing Asian investment into a hotel in the prime minister’s riding, be investigated and charged for attempting to bribe two Canadian immigration officers with C$40,000, and booked as a key suspect in investor immigration fund scams. In all the cases against the consultant, the RCMP never got their man.” After Corporal Robert Read went public in 1999 and was ‘removed from the file’ “the RCMP did another investigation with a new set of officers. This time they again stated that there was no evidence to lay charges but recommended that action be taken against some 30 Canadian embassy officials for accepting cash and gifts from wealthy Chinese families. None of the 30 was charged. Other than minor reprimands many have been promoted within Immigration Canada and the Department of Foreign Affairs. At least one of the officials is now an ambassador.” The situation in China (matched in too many other countries) has a special edge because people seeking entry are often criminals and often members of triads. Triads are secret criminal and often highly sophisticated societies known for brutal behaviour. They often merge so-called legitimate business and criminal activity. They are often connected to Chinese government, uniting crime with spying and political subversion. Canada has, by all available evidence – admitted many, many triad members to this country. A July 2003, U.S. Federal Research Division, Library of congress report called “Asian Criminal and Terrorist Activity in Canada, 1999-2002,” is very clear on the matter. It reports that “Ethnic Chinese triads, gangs, and syndicates have set up vast operations in Canada and constitute the greatest criminal threats in Canada. These Asian groups are involved in a wide variety of criminal activities, primarily in larger population centers.” (p. 38) The latest scandal was reported in the Asian Pacific Post, not in Canwest papers or the Globe and Mail, perhaps why the APP is called – in the first sentence of this piece – “an independent newspaper”. The other papers copied parts of the APP story. The Globe editorial on the same day must be read to be believed. About China, and called “Tools of Surveillance” (Globe Sept 22 04 A14), the editorial concerns Canadian government support for a ten day trade mission about the sale of security and surveillance equipment by Canadian enterprises to the repressive Chinese police state. The Globe disapproves. It says, however, nothing about criminal Chinese elements protected (in fact) by successive Canadian governments, nothing about Robert Read and Brian McAdam (and others involved in China) whose careers have been destroyed to thwart their integrity, on behalf of Canadian government-supported criminality. There is not even a reference to the Nortel production and sale to China of materials plainly intended to be used for surveillance, security, and repression. The Globe editorial records that only “last week two dissidents convicted of using the internet to spread subversive ideas were sentenced to 15 and 12 years in prison.” Was their capture made possible by Nortel equipment especially produced by Nortel for China? Shouldn’t the Globe give its readers that information? Somewhere Brian McAdam writes that “organized crime can only exist where there are corrupt bureaucrats, police, judiciary, and politicians. “ He forgot to add “and where there is a corrupt press and media”. The latest Beijing embassy revelation and the Hong Kong High Commission fraud that preceded it tell Canadians dangerous things. (1) Canadian government has continuing reason to accommodate lawless behaviour among its employees on behalf of criminals. (2) The RCMP is a palace army, the instrument of a police state, growing more arrogant and dangerous by the hour. (3) The scene inside Canada is becoming as rancid as the scene outside. To see the way in which RCMP police-state behaviour is moving into ordinary, daily Canadian life without any judicial, press, or political interference, go to << www.transfixed.net >> and read the astonishing story there. There must be change. Change there absolutely must be if democracy is to be preserved in Canada. The great danger is that angry Canadians will turn to the Canadian Alliance (re-named the Conservative Party). That would be leaping from the frying pan into Hell. Writing of U.S. immigrant Tom Flanagan, the controlling guru of the party, Marci McDonald lists his goals: “scrapping medicare in favour of personal medical savings accounts … and whittling aboriginal claims on land and self-determination down to individual property rights and municipal self-government.” He believes in top-down decision making, elite groups in power, and wiping out any differences that prevent seamless integration with the U.S. (McDonald’s “The Man Behind Stephen Harper”, Walrus, Oct 04 pp. 34-49 is ‘must’ reading.) Stephen Harper’s clone Republican Party in Canada is no solution to Liberal evils, enormous as they are. So what do Canadians do about a corrupt Liberal pig-sty in Ottawa? Maybe they can hammer the NDP into a party that will mend our democracy – clean out Foreign Affairs, Immigration, reconstruct the RCMP totally, pass laws to end press and media concentration, genuinely reconstruct Medicare through public pharmaceutical laboratories and public care delivery, reconstitute our Crown Corporation presence and operation, reconstruct the Criminal Code to place corporate and commercial crime easily in reach of the Code with very serious sentences attached... as well as making genuine legal protection AND reward available for the whistle-blowers in our society. A huge opportunity is there for the NDP to take. Will it take it? Finally, to show the complete cynicism of the present government, the new “whistle-blowing legislation” denies civil servants the right to take cases against their employees! Under the guise of new legislation to free genuine critics of government wrong-doing, the Liberals are preparing darker repression. Very likely appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada will eventually strike down that clause in the new legislation – but not until innocent people have bankrupted themselves in order to appear before the Supreme Court, which is exactly what the Liberal Cabinet wants to see. Greater cynicism would be hard to find. You ask why conditions exist that make this column take the shape it has taken? Why is Canadian government apparently aiding Chinese criminals? Who is to benefit? Perhaps there are answers that another column can give.