Keeping an eye on Communist, Totalitarian China, and its influence both globally, and we as Canadians. I have come to the opinion that we are rarely privy to truth regarding the real goal, the agenda of Red China, and it's implications for Canada [and North America as a whole]. No more can we rely on our media as more and more information on China is actively being swept under the carpet - not for consumption.
Monday, November 15, 2021
The McAdam file: Bribery, Chinese gangsters and betrayal
The McAdam file: Bribery, Chinese gangsters and betrayal
Brian McAdam was a seasoned Canadian diplomat when he was posted to Hong Kong in 1989. He became the embassy's immigration control officer two years later, and soon uncovered a major scandal.
Author of the article:
Publishing date:
Nov 18, 2016
Brian McAdam, a former public servant who was a whistleblower in the 1990s, and spiralled into depression after his career abruptly came to an end.
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Brian McAdam was a seasoned Canadian diplomat when he was posted to Hong Kong in 1989. He became the high commission’s immigration control officer two years later, and soon uncovered what he believed was a major scandal.Members of Chinese criminal gangs, known as Triads, were applying to enter Canada as entrepreneurs under the country’s business
immigration program. And many were getting visas.What was very, very disturbing to me was I kept seeing all these connections of these people to certain people — politicians — in Canada, and the odd name in our embassy,” McAdam says.
He started writing reports — there were ultimately 32 — documenting the names of the gangsters who were getting into the country and related concerns.
The reports caused panic in the immigration minister’s office and at headquarters in Ottawa, McAdam alleges. “I was exposing incredible negligence. I was exposing incredible corruption. And I was exposing the flaws in our whole immigration system.
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“People in Ottawa didn’t want to investigate anything. They just shut their eyes to everything.” Most of his reports were destroyed, he says.
McAdam returned to Ottawa in 1993, lured by the promise of a job in a new organized crime unit at Foreign Affairs. But when he showed up for work, the job didn’t exist. He alleges the personnel manager urged him to take a retirement package, though he was just 51. Days later, he went on sick leave and never returned to work.
In 1996, RCMP Cpl. Robert Read began investigating McAdam’s allegations that employees at the Hong Kong mission had received bribes and that Triad criminal gangs had infiltrated an immigration computer system.
After finding gaping holes in earlier RCMP investigations, Read urged his superiors to authorize a thorough investigation, but was taken off the case. Concerned that his bosses were suppressing his findings, Read went to the media with his concerns in 1999, which led to his dismissal from the RCMP in 2002.
McAdam’s allegations also sparked a joint RCMP-CSIS investigation known as Project Sidewinder, which probed the threat posed by the purchase of Canadian companies by Triad members or associates with links to the Chinese Intelligence Service.
In a secret 1997 report , Project Sidewinder’s investigators supported McAdam’s concerns, concluding that “China remains one of the greatest ongoing threats to Canada’s national security and Canadian industry.”
Days after the report was submitted, CSIS ordered all copies destroyed, dismissing it as “conspiracy theories” and “rumour and innuendo.” It was later drafted and a toned-down version was produced in 1999.
According to documents released in 2001 under access to information to researcher Ken Rubin, the RCMP believed the spy agency shelved the report because it was uneasy with its message that Beijing’s spies were working with Chinese criminal gangs in Canada.
The Outer Part of the Peace Gate Series: Uncovering the forerunner of Canada's redification, immigration officers and police officers are all blocked
Michel Juneau-Katsuya (right), the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Asia-Pacific Region, has teamed up with the Royal Mounted Police to conduct a large-scale investigation. Through the information of Canadian immigration officer Brian McAdam (middle) and police officer Robert Reid (left) Excavating a bigger picture to expose the red crisis in Canada, the conspiracy theories were accused of being destroyed, along with a batch of background information, and the three were even more persecuted. [Picture: "Next Magazine" No. 609 (November 8, 2001)]
It is said that on the eve of 1997, there were the first warnings of the CCP infiltration in the West. Senior Canadian immigration officials and law enforcement officers exposed the benefits received by their colleagues. They even pointed out that the CCP infiltrated various industries in Canada through the Hong Kong tycoons, triads and talent exchange programs, and brought drugs. Trading, money laundering, theft of technology, and other espionage activities have also subsidized major political parties with considerable amounts. As a result, he was banned by the superiors and investigated the stillbirth. He himself was accused of anti-China upper brains, and his job was lost in the end.
1. Disclosure
In 2004, the Canadian CTV old news program W5 interviewed immigration officer Brian McAdam and related people to discuss how to expose the scandal of criminals migrating to Canada through loopholes. It all started during the 1997 transition period in Hong Kong.
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
CTV W5- Corruption and Cover Up(2004):
The story begins a dozen years ago in a place halfway around the world, Hong Kong. In the early 1990s, it was a time of uncertainty, 1997 was looming, the year that Communist China would take control of Hong Kong, and millions of Hong Kong Chinese were desperately looking for a way out, and Canada was far and away, the country of choice.
There were huge lineups at Canada’s High Commission in Hong Kong to apply for visas but there were some in the crowd who should have raised suspicion.
Sandy Boucher, the former chief inspector of the Narcotics Bureau of Hong Kong, said that the "Ice Queen" successfully escaped from the hunt and settled in Canada as a businessman. The local authorities should be aware of this. [Picture: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Sandy Boucher, the former chief inspector of the Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau, said that Li Qiuping, the famous Asian drug dealer "Ice Queen", escaped the hunt and successfully settled in Canada as an entrepreneur. The situation is staggering.
Former Royal Hong Kong Police Inspector Sandy Boucher: “Organized crime figures people with records, people without records but serious criminals were looking to move to Canada. Some were applied and got turned back and some applied and got in.”
And one of Boucher’s cases proved exactly that. As the head of the Royal Hong Kong police Narcotics Bureau, he was closing in on a notorious drug trafficker known as the “Ice queen” Li Chau Ping’s gang was producing almost 500 tons of the street drug crystal meth, also known as “Ice.” When the police raided her labs in one of her safe houses the “Ice queen” got on a plane to Canada.
Don Clark(Host): “You thought perhaps she was just going for a couple of weeks or a holiday?”
Sandy Boucher: “Oh sure. I knew before the raid went down that it would probably spook her and her syndicate. We assumed that she’d go over there wait till things that die down a little and she’d come back.”
Boucher couldn’t believe it when an RCMP Officer called to say that the “Ice queen” had landed.
In 1992, "Ice Queen" Li Qiuping arrived in Canada from Hong Kong to settle in Canada. [Picture: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Sandy Boucher: “And I said well, of course she’s landing. It’s an airplane you know. He said, no no she’s landing! I said I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean. And turned out he meant she’s gonna be a landed immigrant. She was landing as an immigrant. And I said it can’t be, she’s got a criminal record, I know that she’s known to Canadian authorities. She was a major organized crime figure.”
Don Clark: “She was one of the biggest targets in Hong Kong and China at that time.”
Sandy Boucher: “Yeah, that’s who she was.”
Li Chau Ping was welcomed by the Canadian government as a business investor. Her story, she was willing to invest 170 thousand dollars in a fast food chicken franchise in of all places, the wilds of northern Saskatchewan, a tiny town called Lauren’s.
Back in Hong Kong, some were beginning to wonder, if a high-profile criminal like the “Ice queen” could get into Canada, how many other criminals were also being welcomed? It seemed the Chinese organised crime groups known as the Triads had found a way.
In 1989, Canadian diplomat Brian McAdam was sent to Hong Kong as the immigration officer of the consulate, responsible for approving immigration and issuing visas. He and Mount Police Garry Clement successively exposed a number of embassy staff involved in receiving benefits and suspected of being infiltrated by the Hong Kong underworld.
In 2008, immigration officer Brian McAdam accepted the 88th issue of " New Era Weekly" , describing how he experienced the trap of gangs buying officials: In 1992, on behalf of Canada, McAdam was invited to participate in a forum on world gang issues held in Vancouver . After the forum, an official from the RCMP and an official from the immigration department accompanied him...to a restaurant and introduced McAdam to six men. They escorted him to a nightclub with karaoke at eleven o'clock in the evening. McAdam said: "Three beautiful women appeared and sat at their table... One of them told me that she was from Hong Kong... It was "Mama Sang" from a well-known nightclub in Hong Kong... Suddenly, the two ladies started touching me under the table. The thigh, and the RCMP probably received the signal. He said to me, "Brien, there is a room next to it, go!" I realized that this was a "sweet" trap that was designed long ago, so I stood up and said, thank you very much, but I feel very tired, and I will be out of company first.” McAdam investigated the friends he met in Vancouver after returning to Hong Kong. Five of the six people were eventually confirmed to be members of the gang. …//[Picture: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Brian McAdam was the immigration control officer at Canada’s High Commission in Hong Kong at the time. He was sending detailed intelligence back to Ottawa, warning that Canadian embassy staff were fraternizing with the wrong people.
Don Clark: “Who were they associating with the costume concern?”
Brian McAdam: “People that I knew had very good reason to believe were Triad members.”
Don Clark: “Organized crime, Chinese organized crime.”
Brian McAdam: “Yeah.”
Don Clark: “And what were they doing with these people? Were they…”
Brian McAdam: “They go to parties, you’d see their people at cocktail parties, trips to Macau, shopping trips to Bangkok.”
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
Expensive gifts, luxury yachts, trips to the casinos in Macau, but that wasn’t all.
Garry Clement is now the Chief of Police in the small town of Kohlberg Ontario. But in the early 1990s he was an RCMP officer stationed at the High Commission in Hong Kong.
RCMP Garry Clement [Photo: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Clement found more signs of corruption. Money handed out to Canadian embassy staff to bet on the horses at Hong Kong’s luxurious Happy Valley racetrack. But that was only the first part of the deal. Clement remembers a warning that he received from a wealthy and connected businessman.
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
Garry Clement: “The one thing that he told me very early on in my time there is nobody in the Chinese culture does anything for nothing, and I never forgot that. I think that’s where you have to look at. Why was the Canadian mission being targeted? Why was the Canadian mission being invited out to all these events? Well we all know, Canadian passports.”
The two said that they had personally seen the computer data being deleted; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a computer expert David Balser to Hong Kong to investigate and confirmed that there was a security breach, but the authorities did not follow up.
And it gets worse. At the time all these applications were being processed electronically, McAdam and Clement had come up with a special code to identify known criminals who had applied, code “H.”
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
Brian McAdam couldn’t believe his eyes one day when sitting at his computer, he opened his secret file of known triad members to discover someone had broken into the systems.
Brian McAdam: “Suddenly was within just a few seconds, the name and the details appearing, the name just started dropping off like the letters were sliding off the rulers, just falling down and the screen is blank. I thought I was doing something wrong. So I thought I’ll just grab my file that doesn’t have this code to see what happened. The other files came out no problem, they didn’t disappear. Just my files which were quoted ‘H.’”
Immigration officer Brian McAdam described how the department’s confidential computer files of criminals involved disappeared before his eyes. Picture: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Don Clark: “And these files were essential because this was the basis of the intelligence that you had collected on some very bad guys who wanted into Canada. And with that information deleted from the computer, all of a sudden they would look clean and just be left from the system.”
Brian McAdam: “Yeah.”
The evidence was mounting that something was going on. The RCMP launched an investigation and the Department of Foreign Affairs sent over a computer expert.
The top-secret report prepared by David Balser in 1992 confirmed the worst suspicions. They were alarming breaches of Canada’s immigration policies. But for reasons unexplained, the RCMP investigation ignored the Balser report.
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
Garry Clement: “Anybody that saw that report should have taken very definitive action. Why it was not taken? I don’t know.”
RCMP Garry Clement [Photo: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Brian McAdam thought the situation was serious and repeatedly urged the authorities to follow up, but was squeezed out by his colleagues.
The Mounties also paid little attention to evidence of bribery, forgery of visas, and profiteering at the Canadian High Commission.
Don Clark: “How compromised was Canada at that point?”
Brian McAdam: “It was extremely vulnerable, and the most disturbing thing is that no one took this problem seriously at the time.”
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
No one except for Brian McAdam who was pushing for a full inquiry into the allegations of corruption and fraud, allegations that pointed directly to the staff at the High Commission. But suddenly the career civil servant who had received glowing performance reviews found himself shunned by his colleagues.
Brian McAdam: “Nobody wanted to talk to me and I became very ostracized within the office.”
Immigration Officer Brian McAdam [Photo: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Don Clark: “No wonder they didn’t want to talk to you, you were the guy turning over all the stones. You were trouble.”
Despite all the efforts to shut McAdam down, the scandal would not go away, too many people knew.
A person familiar with the operation of the underworld revealed to W5 how criminal organizations bought embassy personnel.
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
Don Clark: The corruption at the High Commission in Hong Kong was known far and wide by certain criminal organizations, and that brings us here to London. We found a man who knows firsthand the operations of Chinese organized crime, otherwise known as the Triads. He agreed to come out of the shadows to fly in from an undisclosed location and meet us here in London, to reveal for the first time what he knows about the connections between the Triads and the scandal at the Canadian High Commission.
Some members of the international intelligence community have long supported Brian McAdam and they persuaded this man to talk to W5. But he had conditions, we had to protect his identity. No name, no pictures of his face, and his voice had to be altered. He is connected to the Triads through family and business, and talking to us about them could be fatal. But he says he knows exactly how they operated with the Canadians.
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
The source: “First of all, some Triad remembers, they don’t present as the Triad. They are very famous businessmen, even legislators, solicitors, accountants and they hold senior position in the Triads. They would invite whoever newly arrive from Canada to work in the High Commission of Canada in Hong Kong, to go the race course in their box, do some racing, talking and then going party. or going on a big big yacht. And some money change hands, some handshake, and problem solved you know. Can you afford to buy a gold Rolex? So they give you a gold Rolex, fancy car, then when you get hooked on, then they’ll ask you to do a favor. Beside, who knows at those days? Who knows? Everybody doing I think. I think it took more than one person in the High Commission of Canada to get the job done, not just one single person. It must be a big big scandal behind it all.”
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
Don Clark: “With the type of corruption that was evident at the High Commission at that time, is it possible that a number of very serious criminals, Triad members would get through the system and get to Canada?”
The source: “They’re all living there now! Big-time businessmen, popular in Chinatown business. If you try to tell me nobody take bribery in that time, nobody in Hong Kong would believe it. Especially those who couldn’t make it.”
Don Clark: “How much would it cost?”
The source: “Nobody give me the price. But I would figure out somewhere of a half million Hong Kong dollars. Would you pay a half million to buy the whole family an insurance? Or would you like to go to Africa or some tiny island in the Pacific, or would you like to go to the Maple Leaf? I would choose the Maple Leaf.”
How many criminals bought their way in? The half-hearted RCMP investigation turned a blind eye to that. But this scandal was about to take a new twist.
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
The political arena has almost no response to the scandal. Only Liberal MP David Kilgour was willing to meet Brian McAdam and wrote to the prime minister requesting follow-up, but there was no answer.
Allegations of passports for sale at Canada’s High Commission in Hong Kong, staff accepting gifts and money, socializing with known criminals all uncovered by Immigration Control Officer Brian McAdam.
Don Clark: Now you might have thought that all of this would have set off alarm bells here on Parliament Hill, the very thought that employees of the government of Canada were involved in massive corruption that could have allowed dangerous criminals into the country. But surprisingly nobody here not one ministry not one agency seem to be very interested in getting to the bottom of this, except for one Liberal MP who felt that this was perhaps the most serious scandal that he had encountered in his political life.
David Kilgour met with Brian McAdam and he was convinced that something was seriously wrong in Hong Kong. In his 1995 letter to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien he tried to warn him about the highly irresponsible and/or illegal activities and asked for a full public inquiry.”
Canadian Liberal Party Chairman David Kilgour [Photo: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
David Kilgour: “I thought that what McAdam was saying is a 30 year veteran of Immigration Canada who had done like two postings in Hong Kong that what he was saying was serious enough that I thought I should refer it first to the immigration minister of the day, and then the Prime Minister.”
Don Clark: “The inquiry didn’t happen?”
David Kilgour: “No it didn’t.”
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien never even acknowledged Kilgour’s letter. And it was into that climate of “see no evil, hear no evil” that our second whistleblower stumbled.
In 1993, Senior Sheriff Jim Puchniak applied to go to Hong Kong for investigation, but was persuaded by Superintendent Gary Lagamodiere that he would offend senior representative John Higginbotham in Hong Kong.
Senior Sheriff Jim Puchniak [Photo: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
In 1993, Staff Sergeant Jim Puchniak wanted to go to Hong Kong and conduct a proper investigation, but the RCMP liaison officer at the mission inspector Gary Lagamodiere wrote a memo back to Ottawa advising against it, saying it would upset the High Commissioner John Higginbotham.
Don Clark: “Lagamodiere said that if your investigators came to Hong Kong it would be viewed as a witch-hunt, and he said I can guarantee you Canadian High Commissioner will be screaming at the highest political levels. What did you make of that?”
John Higginbotham, Canada’s senior representative in Hong Kong [Photo: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Jim Puchniak: “My instinct then and still is that if there was nothing to hide, you would welcome a police investigation. So obviously there was something that was going on.”
Don Clark: “Did you feel at any point that there was political interference at the highest levels on this investigation?”
Senior Sheriff Jim Puchniak [Photo: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Jim Puchniak: “It just seemed throughout this investigation and anything to do with the Hong Kong file that there was always some something blocking it, some reason why we couldn’t go.”
In 1996, RCMP officer Robert Reid was sent to take over and follow up the McAdam case. It is reported that he was the fourth police officer transferred by the authorities and the most junior police officer. Reid met with McAdam many times, gradually grasped the facts of the case and related basic knowledge, and became more and more convinced that it was true. He believed that the situation was serious and reported to his superiors one after another, but was repeatedly blocked by his superiors and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
RCMP officer Robert Reid [Photo: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Robert Reid: “It’s kind of like walking through a forest and all of a sudden you find yourself in quicksand.”
Corporal Reid grew up in Regina Saskatchewan, the home of the RCMP. Like any dedicated cop, Read thought that his job was to dig into the allegations and get to the truth. One of the first things he came across was the top-secret Balser Report which laid bare the security breaches. Armed with that he went to his boss.
Robert Reid: “He said this is water under the bridge, why go over this again? And I was very shocked by that. I said this is not water under the bridge, this is evidence of of a major fault.”
The more he dug into the affair, the more resistance he felt. The departments of Foreign Affairs and Immigration blocked their staff from speaking with Reid, something that Reid’s RCMP boss agreed to.
Robert Reid: “I arrived at the opinion that in fact the progress I was making was not pleasing to my superiors.”
Robert Reid believes that the Canadian federal government's immigration department and foreign affairs department, and even the Royal Mounted Police, are obstructing the investigation. In 1999, he chose to disclose his knowledge to the public, and was dismissed on charges of malfeasance.
RCMP officer Robert Reid was repeatedly obstructed in investigating the case and decided to blow the whistle to the media. The Vancouver newspaper The Province reported on the front page many times. [Photo: The Province (1999–8–29)]
圖：The Province(1999–8–29)
圖：The Province(1999–9–16)
圖：The Province(1999–9–3)
Reid appealed this to the Citizens Review Committee, which rehabilitated both him and McAdam, but its opinions were not binding on the RCMP. The committee also criticized that although there were many suspicious signs, the RCMP chose to ignore it completely and prohibit investigations.
Don Clark: “Did you feel that maybe you were getting a little bit too close to a very uncomfortable truth for the Canadian government?”
Robert Reid: “Well I felt that I had discovered a cover-up. At that time I believed that it was Department of Immigration and the Department of Foreign Affairs who were involved in this.”
RCMP officer Robert Reid decided to blow the whistle to the media [Photo: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Don Clark: “Let’s just be clear about this. You’re saying that there was a cover-up conducted by the federal government? By a couple of departments in the federal government? You’re also saying that there was obstruction of justice by the RCMP? Those pretty serious charges.”
Robert Reid: “Yes, yeah yeah yeah.”
RCMP officer Robert Reid [Photo: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
In 1999 Corporal Reid did the unthinkable for a Police Officer. He broke his oath of secrecy and went public about the scandal in Hong Kong. The RCMP reacted swiftly. The force charged the 24 year veteran with professional misconduct found him guilty and fired him.
And that might have been the end of it, but Reid appealed his dismissal to the RCMP s civilian review committee. And out of the thousands of pages of documents and testimony from his disciplinary hearing, came this decision in September 2003: vindication for Reid and McAdam and scathing criticism of the RCMP.
The review committee found that the RCMP was walking on eggshells whenever it conducted an investigation into activities at the Canadian mission abroad and this: “…What is at issue was a deliberate choice made by the RCMP not to pursue an investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing even though numerous examples had been drawn to its attention.” It warned that the RCMP must “not allow itself to be co-opted by government agencies.”
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
圖：CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up(2004)
The retired Hong Kong police believe that the Canadian authorities deliberately conceal the truth. The Canadian Liberal Party Member David Kilgour believes that the police force is sufficiently manpowered. As long as they are willing to proceed with the investigation, it will not be too late even 10 years after the incident. Garry Clement, a retired RCMP superintendent, even pointed out that the police force has failed to perform its duty to protect the police.
Retired RCMP Superintendent Garry Clement believes that the force failed in its duty to protect the citizens of Canada.
Garry Clement: “We dropped the ball. I mean I don’t think we should try and defend it. The bottom line is we drop the ball in this investigation.”
The review committee found that while Corporal Reid made mistakes, he was justified in raising a matter of legitimate public concern and recommended that the RCMP reinstate him. But the question of the cover-up remains active.
Liberal MP David Kilgour: “Nobody’s above the law ultimately. It was the RCMP responsibilities to say if anybody was telling him don’t rock any boats or don’t do this, don’t do that. To say sorry our mandate is to go and see if there’s been a criminal offence committed.”
Don Clark: “Do you think that we will ever get to the bottom of who was truly behind the cover-up in this case?”
David Kilgour: “I don’t know. I would think we had a team of investigators assigned to go and find out. I don’t think I’d be very hard to find out what happened even now ten years later.”
Canadian Liberal Party Chairman David Kilgour [Photo: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Former Hong Kong Police Inspectors Sandy Boucher: “They should have been dealt with and it wasn’t. The way it ended up this story has ended up is staggering.”
Don Clark: “Do you believe there was a Canadian cover-up on this?”
Sandy Boucher: “Sure. If you look at you know what’s happened with the overall picture of the Hong Kong mission, I’ve no doubt as a cover-up.”
But by who, and why? There are a number of places to look. Exposing the corruption of the High Commission would have embarrassed the government. It could have ruined the careers of some bureaucrats, and it would have revealed a woefully inadequate RCMP investigation. As it turned out, no one was embarrassed and no one lost their jobs except for the two whistleblowers, Robert Reid and Brian McAdam, who became the target of a vicious personal campaign.
Later, I saw that the future of the two whistleblowers, Robert Reid and Brian McAdam, was ruined. There were no high-level officials or officials to be held accountable. The felons who absconded in Canada and Hong Kong were still at large.
Garry Clement: “I don’t think in 30 years of being involved in police I’ve ever seen a character assassination that took place by an organisation, first from somebody that really did his job, he was very well-meaning, he represented I think what the public expects of a civil servant.”
McAdam eventually suffered a nervous breakdown and had to take early retirement.
Don Clark: “Do you ever regret having spoken out? Life would have been a whole lot easier, it isn’t?”
Brian McAdam: “No. First day I do not regret it. My ethics are such that I had to do what I did. But it’s not easy being a whistleblower.”
Immigration officer Brian McAdam was not only threatened by death, but also forced to retire early and suffered from severe depression. [Picture: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
The Mounties Creed: they always get their man. In this case the only man they got was one of their own, a lowly Corporal. The findings of the review committee are not binding, and the RCMP has refused to reinstate Robert Reid. He now spends his days volunteering at an Ottawa community center. His policing career in ruins.
The RCMP officer Robert Reid's future was ruined and he was working as a volunteer in a community center when he was interviewed. [Picture: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
And remember the ice queen? Just months after she emigrated to Canada, she disappeared. Today, 14 years later still on Interpol’s list of most-wanted fugitives, last known address, Canada.
In those days, "Ice Queen" Li Qiuping successfully arrived in Canada from Hong Kong and disappeared within a few months, and is still at the top of the Interpol's most wanted list. [Picture: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
The Vancouver residence of "Ice Queen" Li Qiuping is circulating online.
2. Literature at a glance
The only archive material that exposed the red crisis that year was an investigation report written by the Canadian intelligence agency, called Chinese Intelligence Services and Triads Financial Links in Canada (commonly known as the Sidewinder "Rattlesnake Report").
In May 1996, Michel Juneau-Katsuya, Director of the Asia-Pacific Region of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), initiated a large-scale investigation operation jointly with the Royal Mounted Police, using Brian McAdam's data to dig out a larger picture and conduct a case analysis. The preliminary report was one year later. Completed, it was destroyed by high-level immediately.
Michel Juneau-Katsuya, director of the Asia-Pacific region of the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency, used the information of immigration officer Brian McAdam to follow up the investigation and write a report. As a result, he was accused of conspiracy theories, and a batch of background information was destroyed. Juneau himself was transferred and downgraded to two levels in an unprecedented manner. Later, he exchanged a non-disclosure agreement for a "peaceful resignation" in order to set up an international security consulting company as a backstop. It was not until the police officer Robert Reid broke the news to the media and sought reinstatement that Juneau was interviewed, hoping to restore the reputation of Reid and McAdam. For detailed background, please refer to the documentary producer Veronica Alice's website .
The Prime Time Crime website of the retired police officer Leo Knight contained a copy of the report that reported that year . The document hinted that many Hong Kong tycoons took huge sums of money to set up companies in Canada, acquired local companies, obtained Canadian passports, and introduced them as white gloves. CCP spies and the underworld.
The Vancouver newspaper reported that year [Picture: The Province (1999–10–1)]
Photo: A copy of the report from Prime Time Crime on the website of the retired police officer Leo Knight.
Summary of the report:
Since the mid-1980s, a substantial immigration flow from Hong Kong has taken place and Canadian authorities were first alerted when a significant presence of Chinese organized crime elements among this group was detected. Many came through the “entrepreneur and “investor” immigration program and some of these criminals even have succeeded to obtain their Canadian citizenship…Hand in hand with this situation, the ChIS [Chinese Intelligence Service] make very active use of their access to Canadian industries through exchanges of specialists and students, and also set up shell companies to pursue their acquisition of economic and technological intelligence. Cooperation between the Hong Kong tycoons, the triads and the Beijing leadership adds a new dimension to the well known “mass line collection” strategy followed by the ChIS [Chinese Intelligence Service]. This situation substantially raises the level of the potential threat, revealing the effectiveness of Chinese efforts to obtain Canadian technology and their capability to interfere in the management of the country…
By using these alliances, the Chinese government is trying to gain influence on Canadian politics by maximizing their presence over some of the country’s economic levers. To that end, they proceed initially to buy and/or legally set up a company in Canada that, once under their control, buys other companies and so on. An effective domino effect ensues that acts like a well-spun web or network at strategic points. It is estimated that over 200 Canadian companies have passed into Chinese influence or ownership since the early 1980s through the triads, tycoons or China national companies. These businesses are found in various sectors of the economy, ranging from multinationals to banking, high technology and real estate… The triads’ companies are also used to pursue their criminal activities, such as money-laundering and heroin trafficking, as well as assistance to the ChIS.
Being Canadian these businesses are also eligible to receive government subsidies for research or classified contracts from Federal Departments. The risk is that after the research is done, there results can be transferred to China. Other form of risk is with the access gain through classified contract. As an example, a Canadian company under Chinese influence was in contention for a contract to set up and run a classified communications system linking the main agencies of the Canadian intelligence community. A company in Toronto specializing in video surveillance was originally Canadian, but was bought by a Chinese multinational. It is impossible at present to say how many or which Canadian companies are in the same situation. These examples, however, raise questions about the integrity of some companies that have already installed security systems for various Canadian government institutions or Canadian research industries…
The triads, the tycoons and the ChIS have learned the quick way to gain influence is to provide finance to the main political parties. Most of the companies identified in this research have contributed, sometimes several tens of thousands of dollars, to the two traditional political parties, that is, the Liberal and the Progressive-Conservative Parties…In many ways, China remains one of the greatest ongoing threats to Canada’s national security and Canadian industry.
The report quoted western intelligence saying that before 1997, the immigration departments of many countries were suspected of being interfered by Chinese spies and gangs. The business relationship between Hong Kong Immigration Director Liang Mingyan and the red businessman Xu Zhantang reveals a trace.
11. Even before Hong Kong’s official return to the Communists, it was established by several Western agencies that their national immigration systems had been affected by illegal ChIS and triad interference. Laurence Leung Ming-Yen, a former director of the Hong Kong immigration service, is still under investigation after he had to resign under the pressure of allegations of corruption and illegally disclosing confidential information about residents of the peninsula. The controversy surrounding Leung was fed by his business relationship with the flamboyant tycoon Tsul Tsin Tong, well known for his pro-Beijing views and a member of the notorious Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Preparatory Committee. The murder of Leung’s young daughter in Vancouver in 1993 by a crossbow bolt has still not been solved. The Vancouver police suspect the crime was committed by triad members.
The report estimated that more than 200 companies in Canada had a red background, involved in finance, real estate and even high-tech industries. Together with many students and talent exchange channels, they brought various security threats to the local area, including drug dealing, money laundering, theft of technology and other spies. Activity. The most exaggerated example at the time was that the supplier behind the video surveillance system used by the Canadian intelligence agency was acquired by a Chinese consortium, and it is difficult to estimate how much data might be "sent."
28. Semi-Tech Corporation. Semi-Tech Corporation is a Canadian multinational corporation based in Markham, Ontario. It was formed from various public companies listed on several shock exchanges, including Toronto, Montreal, New York, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Frankfurt and Hong Kong, and has revenues of over US $3.5 billion. This corporation, and its chairman James Ting in particular, have business ties with China. Stanley Ho is the principal shareholder through his company Shun Tak (Hong Kong) and sits on Semi-Tech’s board. (UC)
29. This company has concentrated in particular on information technology, establishing Semi-Tech Microcomputers Ltd., Semi-Tech MicroElectronics Corp., Semi-Tech Electronics, Singer and STM Systems Corp. The last of these was established by the merger of Data Crown (Canada) and Canada Systems Group, two companies that count various federal government departments among their clients and some of whose employees are regularly in contract with Chinese diplomatic representatives. Of particular note is the fact that Canada Systems Group had applied to undertake the development of COSICS, the Canadian On-line Secure Information and Communication System that was to link the Department of External Affairs, the RCMP, CSIS and National Defence. The project was suspended by the federal government due to the lack of financial resources...
Suspected of stealing nuclear technology:
46. All areas of the Canadian economy are targeted, but high technology is the one most at risk. Several cases of theft of Canadian proprietary information and/or technology have been reported to and investigated by Canadian authorities. For example, Ontario Hydro believes it was the victim of theft of information in the nuclear technology field by an individual of Chinese origin. This individual sent unauthorized faxes (some containing hours worth of data) to a telephone number in China, associated with the State Science and Technology Commission. In another case, a Chinese employee of a major computer company based in Canada was accused of copying the company’s proprietary information onto diskette, for the purposes of selling the information to China. In a third instance, a Canadian company alleged that one of their former employees, who had previously served in the Chinese military, stole proprietary information regarding energy technology and sold it to the Chinese government.
The report also took the management network of the CITIC Group, a branch in Canada, as an example. In addition to the pro-community business directors, there are also roots of the Red Party members who manage their arms business and produce chemical weapons for Iran.
Wang Jun (left), the son of "the eight veterans of the Chinese Communist Party" Wang Zhen, once followed the "red capitalist" Rong Yiren to form the CITIC Group, and later took over as chairman of CITIC from Rong Zhijian (right), the son of Rong Yiren; Wang Jun was also the PLA and CITIC Cooperation Chairman of the group arms company Poly Company. [Picture: Canadian Sing Tao Daily (June 12, 2019)]
21. Norinco and Poly Technology (Poly Group)[保利集團]. Northern Industrial Corporation (Norinco)[中國北方工業有限公司] and Poly Technologies[保利科技有限公司](a subsidiary of Poly Group) are both owned by China and under the control of CITIC. They have subsidies around the world, including Canada (Montreal) and the United States. Poly Group was until recently head by Deng Xiaoping’s son-in-law, He Ping[少將賀彪之子賀平，鄧小平三女鄧榕夫婿], and is part of the entrepreneurial drive of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Several large quantities of arms manufactured by Norinco have been confiscated on Indian reserves, especially those of the Mohawks. In May 1996, US authorities what they described as the biggest arms seizure on American soil, confiscating 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles and other military weapons from a warehouse in California. The US-based Chinese representatives of Poly Technologies and Norinco were arrested in connection with this affair. Although the final destination of the arms has not been determined, the Amerindians “Warriors” and American militia trails are strongly suspected by US authorities.
22. In another incident, the Rex International Development company of Hong Kong, in which Norinco is the majority shareholder, is currently under investigation possibly subject to prosecution for exporting components for the manufacturing of chemical weapons to Iran. Rex was established in 1982 as a joint venture with Norinco by Tsui Tsin-Tong, a financial partner of Li Ka-Shing. Tsui filed an application to emigrate to Canada in 1985 which has been renewed several times. His case is still not settled because he has never satisfied the Canadian authorities by providing adequate explanations of his contacts with the PLA and the ChIS. Silver City Development Ltd., which holds shares in Rex, has been used for several years by the ChIS and the Chinese leadership as an investment front and cover. (S)
23. Through the power of its multinationals industries and the billions of dollars they generate, China has been able to establish itself in the Western economy. This gave to the country an enormous advantage in the pursuit of gaining influence. In return through these subsidies and influences, they are able to open channels to facilitate access to Western power and traffic of illegal weapons and technology.
In the 1990s, Deng Xiaoping's son-in-law He Ping and Wang Jun founded Poly Group on the basis of Poly Technology Business to operate diversified businesses. [The picture shows He Ping and his wife Deng Rong inspecting real estate projects in Zunyi in 2012, taken from the online forum . ]
During the 1997 transition period, Leader International Development, a subsidiary of Red Hong Kong businessman Xu Zhantang, was forced to liquidate by the Hong Kong government in the name of endangering public safety due to suspected involvement in the arms trade between China and Iran. [Picture: WSJ(1997–7–16) ]
In 2003, an independent producer Veronica Alice had shot television documentary on this theme, but never真箇shelves, her background information, including newspaper clippings and sources listed in its website。圖為網站所載Brian McAdam繪製詳細圖表，作者說：//The triumvirate, we are told, is behind the purchase of an increasing number of large Canadian corporations, bought legally by the first companies the new breed of “immigrant investors” purchased. The first company they buy is demonstrably Chinese owned, but once they buy another Canadian company, and that company buys a third, the actual ownership of the company becomes harder to trace. The scale of the influence these owners now wield, reaching across the globe from China, via Hong Kong, right across Canada, from small “investor immigrant” company to larger companies, to blue-chip Canadian corporations and beyond, is dramatically illustrated by the large, extremely detailed charts McAdam has drawn up over the years.//
Finally, these red capitals directly affect the Canadian social ecology through economic expansion and a considerable amount of funding for major political parties. The report suggests that the authorities should set up a task force to expand investigations and carry out regional operations, and cooperate with the FBI. As a result, all suggestions have fallen to the ground, and the whistleblower who advocated the investigation has been dealt with heavily by the upper hand.
Canadian immigration officer Brian McAdam (right) and RCMP officer Robert Reid were the first to call the red warning. [Picture: CTV W5: Corruption and Cover Up (2004)]
Looking at the trend in recent years, it can be confirmed that what the previous report said was not completely out of nothing. In reverse, it may only reflect the tip of the iceberg.
In 2019, the Legislative Council unblocked the confidential files. The former Director of Immigration Leung Mingyan was ordered to retire immediately in 1997. Part of the story is clear. In addition to the "character issue", it is also notable that his business and personal connections are related to both red and black. . [Picture: Dongwang (March 31, 2019)]
"The Canadian Intelligence Agency investigated the CCP's use of the underworld to infiltrate Canada" Voice of Hope (November 8, 2016):
Macau’s casinos are an important channel for gangs to launder money. After China began to crack down on gangs, the revenue of the gambling industry dropped by 40% between 2013 and 2015. Coincidentally, the housing markets in Vancouver and Toronto, which were found to have loopholes in financial laws by the "Rattlesnake" investigation report, immediately heated up. The market value of the British Columbia housing market fell by 20% in 2012, rose by 12% in 2013, and has not fallen since...
The mainstream Canadian media revealed many stories of how Chinese people transferred funds to British Columbia and invested in the housing market. These include the use of the government policy that multiple relatives and friends can remit US$50,000 each to remit the money to Canada separately, and then combine them together as the down payment for the purchase of a house; someone transfers the money out of China through an underground bank, a typical For example, lending renminbi to a Canadian businessman in China, and then taking Canadian dollars in British Columbia...
Faced with various loopholes in industry management, the British Columbia government decided to abolish the self-regulation power of the real estate industry, and in August this year began to increase taxes by 15% on foreign buyers buying houses in the Vancouver area...the federal government...announced a new tax declaration policy. All owner-occupied property transactions that do not need to be reported must be reported...
Richard Fadden, Director of the Canadian Intelligence Agency [ Photo: CTV News (2011–1–7)]
If the "Rattlesnake" investigation operation did find those 20 years ago, it seems to be in line with the current situation in the housing market...Unfortunately, before the documents were exposed, the operation was suddenly stopped, all documents were ordered to be destroyed, and some were lost. …The Security Intelligence Review Committee determined after this investigation that there were many problems in the report… Nearly 20 years have passed, and the relevant authorities have not seen any explanation for the "Rattlesnake" operation and related findings. However, Richard Fadden, director of the Canadian Intelligence Agency, mentioned the CCP’s penetration of Canada in an internal speech in 2010, which happened to be exposed by the media. Faden said that two provincial ministers in Canada have been infiltrated by the Chinese Communist government. However, Fadden did not cooperate when public opinion asked Fadden to announce the relevant details.
In 2016, an Ottawa newspaper interviewed Brian McAdam. He recalled that he was not only threatened by death when he exposed the problem, but was also squeezed out by his superiors and colleagues, leading to severe depression. McAdam lost his job, and after years of hard work, his life was back on track.
The former diplomat says his whistleblowing cost him his 30-year career, triggering a deep depression that lasted more than two decades. Most of his former colleagues shun him. He says he’s endured surveillance and death threats so alarming that he once spent $10,000 to wrap his windows in bulletproof film.
As McAdam tells it, his troubles began at a Hong Kong racetrack in 1989, when someone handed him and his wife red envelopes stuffed with cash — about $300 Cdn. He refused the apparent bribe but says he soon learned that many other staff at the Canadian high commission routinely accepted the money.“I immediately became hated with a passion,” he says. “They were all fearful that I was going to do something that would threaten their jobs.”
McAdam alleges their animosity only grew after he discovered the immigration computer system at the high commission had been compromised and known members of Chinese Triad crime organization were obtaining visas. He was labelled an anti-Chinese racist and rumours were spread that he was issuing illegal visas — the very thing he says he was trying to prevent.
Some of his confidential reports, warning that Triad members “infest every immigration category,” were leaked to the Globe and Mail and newspapers in Hong Kong, McAdam says. “That’s when I started to get these intense death threats.”The threats from Triad crime figures continued for years, even after he was recalled to Ottawa in 1993, ostensibly to take up a new job that never materialized…
The severe clinical depression came on so quickly he could actually feel his brain chemistry changing, he says. He went on medical sick leave, then retired in 1995. The depression hit hardest in the early years. “He didn’t drive a car for two years, he wasn’t able to think very well, and he was very over-drugged by medication,” his wife, Marie, recalls. “It was very tough.”
…The journey to recovery gained momentum three or four years ago, when he asked his doctor to take him off the anti-depressant drug Wellbutrin…Fellow whistleblower Dr. Nancy Olivieri put him in touch with a Toronto psychiatrist who helped wean him off the drugs over a 2 1/2-year period…
Was it worth it? Would he do it again?“Unfortunately, I probably would,” he says. But he’d be much smarter…“I was writing what I found out, believing that police forces and intelligence agencies would react accordingly and do their jobs. That was the big mistake I made.”
As for police officer Robert Reid, after his dismissal, he appealed to the Federal Court. In 2005, he was condemned by a judge for "lack of loyalty to the government." Reid again appealed to the Supreme Court, and in May 2007 the court announced its refusal to hear his case .
In 2019, veteran journalist Jonathan Manthorpe reorganized the context of Canada -China relations in his book Claws of the Panda: Beijing's Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada , and explored "a little bit of how Canada can become a country," with a special mention of how he missed the opportunity to resist.
Canadian politicians have always been skeptical about the extent of the CCP’s invasion of our country, even if there is strong evidence before them. One of the reasons seems to be that they have long lacked respect for Canada's national security and intelligence work. The past history of these agencies is indeed a lot of problems; as will be mentioned later, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was established after many difficulties in the 1980s and 1990s, during which time the CSIS issued a report. Regarding the CCP's infiltration of our country by the codename "Operation Sidewinder", the incident was severely criticized by Congress. However, the relationship between Congress and intelligence agencies seems to have stabilized in recent years. The respect between each other is increasing...
The fear of being labeled racially discriminates, making discussions about the activities of CCP agents in Canada very limited. It is undeniable that there have been racial discrimination laws and regulations in the history of our country against Chinese immigrants and other Asian immigrants who will be naturalized. The guilt over this period of history produced a wary attitude among public figures... But in this way, the weapon was handed over to the CCP’s influential agent... The CCP’s infiltration of Canada was regarded as racism, not only Mistakes are even more dangerous. This is not racism. This is a story made up by a particular regime for its own benefit during a certain period in its history. The CCP sees overseas Chinese as an asset that can be used and abused. It is not only a threat to Canadians in general, but even more so to Chinese Canadians...
The most convenient field for the CCP to operate is in the Chinese cultural circle that it is familiar with... The best situation for them to operate in a Western democratic society is to find people who can confuse and buy... Canada has provided the CCP with an endless stream of useful products. Idiots [press: the former Soviet Union], including political party and government leaders, grassroots politicians, naive and proud scholars, greedy and deceptive business people, and even some short-sighted and inexperienced reporters. Many of them, in order to make excuses for their greed, told themselves that more contact with the CCP would make the party feel the beauty of Canadian values. Once party members see that a liberal democracy brings freedom and human rights, they will eagerly push China on the road to reform...
Claws of the Panda: Beijing’s Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada(2019)
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