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 China, it's ambitions for Canada [including special focus on the UK, US & Australia]. No more can we trust the legacy media as there appears to be increasing censorship applied to the topic of communist China. I ask why. Here is what I find.
Carson Jerema: Justin Trudeau is the only oneacting like Donald Trump
Feb 28 2023
On the question of China’s interference into our elections, Justin Trudeau is doubling down on a familiar strategy: never admitting anything is wrong, denying he has any knowledge of whatever it is being alleged, and attempting to find a way to bait the Conservatives into doing something irresponsible. In this case, the prime minister seems desperate for the opposition to accuse him of colluding with China.
How else is one to explain that when faced with credible evidence, first published by the Globe and Mail, that Beijing actively interfered in the 2021 election, that Trudeau dismissed concerns as somehow unpatriotic? He has accused the Conservatives, for daring to ask questions, of giving “partisan reasons to mistrust the outcome” of the vote.
Well no, no one, not the Conservatives nor the media (Liberal-friendly or otherwise), has suggested that the “outcome” of the election is in question. And no one has suggested that Trudeau or the Liberal party has colluded with the Chinese government.
But just because the outcome isn’t in question doesn’t mean there are not serious allegations to be investigated and answered for. According to Canadian Security and Intelligence Service documents, Beijing wanted the Liberals to win the 2021 election, and preferred a minority parliament. China targeted multiple ridings by supplying campaign workers and cash donations in support of Liberal candidates, among other tactics. Certain Chinese-language media were instructed to oppose the Conservatives.
China was motivated by its disapproval of the Conservative party’s China policies, and a desire to encourage division in Canada.
Rather than acknowledge the seriousness of the claims, the prime minister’s initial response was concern not with what the CSIS leak revealed, but that there was a leak in the first place. He has also complained about “inaccuracies” in CSIS’s findings and is refusing outright to hold a public inquiry, in addition to suggesting that anyone asking about the security of our elections must be doing so for partisan reasons.
Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell similarly accused the Conservatives of using “Trump-type” tactics and Trudeau’s former principal secretary” as if they ran a front page story about cat videos.
Are Trudeau and his supporters acting so defensively because China’s goals were to return a minority Liberal government to power? Is the prime minister perhaps feeling nervous after years of cozying up to China?
Is Trudeau worried there will be questions about his years of ambivalence towards the threat China poses, be it in espionage, corporate theft, opening police stations in Canada, and de-facto kidnapping our citizens? Or does he fear questions about his government’s refusal to do more than barely acknowledge the genocidal policies being waged against the Uyghurs, the strangling of Honk Kong, and Taiwan’s ever present existential peril?
No doubt, Trudeau is aware of how his affinity for China looks now that it is public knowledge that Beijing has been interfering in elections on the Liberals’ behalf.
Ne
heIt would benefit the government immensely if the Conservatives were lured into saying the election outcome, as opposed to a handful of seats, really was corrupted, because they would look unhinged.
And that is what is motivating the Liberals. It is potential electoral advantage against the Tories, not the integrity of the vote, that matters most to Trudeau. A true statesman would pledge to solve the problem. The prime minister is angling for a lead in the polls.
After Global revealed Friday that CSIS was concerned that Liberal MP Han Dong is a “witting affiliate in China’s election interference networks,” Trudeau remained defiant and gave Dong his full throated support. “We are extraordinarily lucky and happy to have a Member of Parliament like Han Dong,” he said Monday.
Trudeau even suggested that concern about election interference was driven by “anti-Asian racism.”
The prime minister reacted in a similarly defensive fashion when it was reported in the fall, also by Global, that 11 candidates (nine Liberals, two Conservatives) were supported by Beijing in the 2019 election. “We are seeing a little bit, at the moment, people playing games that we have seen south of the border, saying: ‘ah, the elections were not legitimate, we lost because of the influence of other countries,’ ” he said at the time.
But then, as now, no one was claiming the Conservatives lost the election due to Chinese interference, in either 2019 or 2021.
The prime minister is doing his best to portray his opponents as doing an impression of Donald Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 American vote, despite having zero evidence of widespread fraud.
In fact, it is Trudeau who is the one acting like Trump, specifically 2016-era Trump when there was evidence of Russian interference in the U.S. election. Trudeau, like Trump, is pretending interference was not a problem, and Trudeau, like Trump, is attacking media and political opposition for even asking questions. Trump dismisses reporting he doesn’t like as “fake news,” while the Trudeau Liberals often do the same thing but call it “misinformation.”
Hong Kong model's in-laws charged after body parts found
Feb 26 2023
Police in Hong Kong filed murder charges against the former in-laws of a model and influencer whose body parts were found in a refrigerator and a skull believed to be hers in a pot at a rural house.
Hong Kong model Abby Choi's former father-in-law and his eldest son were charged with murder, while her former mother-in-law faces one count of perverting the course of justice, police said in a statement Sunday.
Authorities also arrested the woman's ex-husband on Saturday and will charge him with murder on Sunday night, said Superintendent Alan Chung. The four will appear in court on Monday.
The grisly case came to light when police on Friday discovered Choi's body and documents after she had been missing for several days. The body was dissected and the remains stored in a refrigerator in the rural village home in Tai Po, a suburban part of Hong Kong closer to the border with mainland China.
Sunday's news briefing, Chung said authorities found a young woman's skull believed to belong to Choi in one of the cooking pots they seized, alongside several ribs, hair, and human issues. In another pot, forensic pathologists also discovered a small number of human bones, he added.
"There's a hole on the right side rear on the skull, so the pathologist believes that that should be the fatal attack on the victim," he said.
Chung said Choi was believed to have been attacked in a car and was unconscious when she arrived at the house. Police were still trying to find out the exact time of death and locate her hands and torso.
On Sunday, police also arrested another woman they believed to be the mistress of the ex-husband's father for allegedly assisting the other suspects. Chung said she had rented the house together with the father, as well as another place to hide the ex-husband.
Choi, 28, had financial disputes involving tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars with her ex-husband and his family, Chung said earlier, adding that "some people" were unhappy with how Choi handled her financial assets.
Choi was a model and influencer who shared her glamorous life of photo shoots and fashion shows with more than 100,000 followers. Dressed in a tulle floor-length gown, she had just attended a Dior show at Paris Fashion Week.
Her last post was a week ago, featuring a photoshoot she had done with L'Officiel Monaco, a fashion publication.
China offers to join forces with Russia to ‘defend national interests’ as Xi’sMoscow visit confirmed
Thursday, February 23, 2023
(Natural News) A global shift in alliances similar to what occurred before World War I and II is again occurring, which is likely to preface World War III if things do not change, and fast.
Despite repeated warnings from Washington against strategic or military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow, China has pledged to “join forces” with Russia, a “like-minded” partner, to defend national interests. The statement was made at the end of the first day of Wang Yi’s trip to Moscow. Wang is the director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee.
“The People’s Republic of China is ready to join forces with Russia to decisively stand up for national interests and promote mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas,” Wang said Tuesday during a meeting with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev,according to Russian state media Tass. On Wednesday, Wang met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in what appeared to be a warm and cooperative visit.
“During a virtual meeting at the end of last year our leaders [Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin] came up with a plan for further development of bilateral relations. We are ready to join forces with the Russian side, in accordance with the high-level agreements, to decisively stand up for national interests and virtues and promote mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas,” the Chinese diplomat’s statement said.
The Chinese diplomat also said China will “together with all like-minded partners further promote the development of the international order in the direction of equitable development.”
“It’s necessary to unlock the potential of this mechanism, and it’s also necessary to develop new steps of strategic interaction in accordance with the changing situation in order to provide the necessary guarantees for national development,” Wang added. “I want to fully join your appreciation of the strategic cooperation between the two countries.”
The warm statements made during Wang’s visit to Moscow are significant given the timing of the visit, as Russia seeks support from a powerful ally with a seat on the national security council. With the war in Ukraine approaching its one-year anniversary since the start of the invasion, Russia is in need of political backing.
The Kremlin praised China’s stance on Ukraine, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressing his appreciation for “China’s balanced position on the Ukraine issue” and claiming that Russia and China share a vision regarding the crisis. However, it remains to be seen whether China will offer any specific support or take a more ambiguous stance, as Wang has stated that China will maintain an “objective and impartial stance” on the crisis and has expressed appreciation for Russia’s willingness to negotiate a resolution.
Recently, Beijing has shown its interest in a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine through negotiations, according to Zero Hedge. This will likely be the focus of Xi’s upcoming trip to Russia. While news of the future trip was reported on Tuesday, Putin confirmed on Wednesday that it will take place, marking a significant symbolic event since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.
“We are expecting the president of the People’s Republic of China to visit Russia. We agreed on this earlier,” Putin said as he welcomed Wang to the Kremlin. The Russian leaders also offered praise for the “new frontiers” that both countries are reportedly forging in an alliance, according to US News.
“We understand that [China] has a domestic political agenda, but we assume that as we tackle all the issues related to this agenda – with the National People’s Congress, which is made up of Chinese deputies, who must also resolve serious personnel issues – we will implement our plans for personal meetings as well, which will give an additional impetus to our relations,” the Russian president added.
How Chinese gangs are laundering drug money through Vancouver real estate
2018-2023, still going on....
Canada's best seller about Chinese Organized Crime and its influence on Canadian economy and politics..."Willful Blindness" by Investigative Journalist, Sam Cooper
Criminal syndicates that control chemical factories in China’s booming Guangdong province are shipping narcotics, includingfentanyl, to Vancouver, washing the drug sales in British Columbia’s casinos andhigh-priced real estate, and transferring laundered funds back to Chinese factories to repeat this deadly trade cycle, a Global News investigation shows.
The Triads have infiltrated Canada’s economy so deeply that Australia’s intelligence community has coined a new term for innovative methods of drug trafficking and money laundering now occurring in B.C.
It is called the “Vancouver Model” of transnational crime.
LISTEN: Investigative reporter Sam Cooper explains the “Vancouver Model’ of transnational crime
Details of the Vancouver Model are outlined in a November 2017 report obtained by Global News from B.C.’s provincial government, in a freedom of information request. The report, by John Langdale of the department of security studies and criminology at Macquarie University, was presented to Australian intelligence officers and Austrac, the country’s anti-money laundering agency.
B.C. Attorney General David Eby has reviewed the report, and recently travelled to Ottawa to inform a federal committee of his concerns. His message was blunt. Eby testified that Canada’s anti-money laundering system has completely failed. He told the committee that gangsters have been openly carrying hockey bags stuffed with hundreds of thousands in drug cash into B.C. casinos, and there has not been a single prosecution.
In an interview with Global, Eby said the Australian report shows “that Vancouver is now recognized internationally as a hub of transnational money laundering.”
“I was stunned,” Eby said, “by the scope and the scale of the transnational crime that is alleged in this presentation. I know that B.C. is in the grips of an opioid crisis that is costing hundreds of millions of dollars. And it is costing hundreds of lives.”
Langdale’s report explains how Chinese criminals exploit “weak links” in global regulation. In one example, Triads deal with the state of North Korea, and Latin American drug cartels, to run a shadow economy based on the trading of narcotics, counterfeit goods, and illegal migrants.
Similarly, the regions of Vancouver, Hong Kong and Macau have formed a black market financed by intricate Chinese underground banking networks. According to the Vancouver Model report, the underground banks are at the heart of Chinese drug trafficking crime.
These secret banks have developed for centuries on China’s southern coast, police intelligence reports say. They consist of family members spread across Chinese communities worldwide. They can move money, drugs and commodities around the world, without having to send funds across national borders. The banks maintain reserves of various currencies at locations worldwide, taking deposits in one area, and paying out withdrawals in another.
In order to function, the underground banks need financial facilitators, and the Triads have used some lawyers, bankers, casino operators, and gambling junket operators in Hong Kong, Macau and Vancouver, Langdale’s report says.
LISTEN: B.C. Attorney General David Eby responds to money laundering concerns
The junket operators are organized crime lenders. Traditionally, the junkets have laundered Asian heroin money and facilitated capital flight from China, by extending loans to Chinese high-rollers to purchase chips in Macau casinos.
The VIPs can cash out chips to buy global real estate. They pay back gambling loans in China, with small interest fees, allowing them to illicitly send legitimate wealth abroad, or launder ill-gotten gains. The junket lenders have migrated from Macau to Vancouver casinos, B.C. government documents show, bringing many VIP gamblers with them.
Langdale says that Australia’s government is worried about Chinese capital flight, because Austrac can’t differentiate between legitimate and criminal money pouring into Australian assets. His report outlines a worst case for Australia: “Possible scenario. Sydney as a regional hub for Chinese transnational crime (the Vancouver Model.)”
The model’s criminal elements, according to the report, are:
“Traffic illegal drugs from Guangdong and Latin America”
“North American illegal drug dealing networks supplied by Chinese methamphetamines and precursor chemicals”
“Launder money into high-end real estate (funded by Chinese) capital flight, and launder money through the high-roller tables in casinos”
“High rollers used Canadian casinos, junket operations, and investment in Canadian real estate”
“Use banks, money transfer businesses to shift money to and from China and other countries (including) Mexico and Columbia.”
WATCH:B.C. Attorney GeneralDavid Eby explains how transnational crime groups target Canada
The world’s factory
Langdale’s research focuses on the global supply of illegal drugs and crime from Guangdong, a province that faces the South China Sea, and borders China’s special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau.
Guangdong is China’s most populous province, with 100 million citizens, including about 30 million migrant workers, and the most billionaires in China. The province’s economy is powered by the industrial Pearl River Delta region, which includes cities such as Zhuhai and Shenzhen. And with massive shipping infrastructure that connects with major international ports, Guangdong is known as the “world’s factory,” Langdale says.
Guangdong is known as the ‘world’s factory’. Source: Global Newshttps://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/DEA_GOV_DIR-008-20%20Fentanyl%20Flow%20in%20the%20United%20States_0.pdf
“Guangdong is a good location for production and trafficking of illegal goods and services,” the report says, with its proximity to Hong Kong and Macau, and their “well-established networks of facilitators skilled at shifting money overseas via offshore banking and finance.”
“You have a confluence of a major financial market in Hong Kong beside this seething mass of capitalism,” Langdale said in an interview.
“Guangdong is a very tough world. The whole place is barely regulated. It’s a kaleidoscope of subcontractors that the Chinese government doesn’t have a handle on.”
Command and Control
According to U.S. and Canadian law enforcement, illegal shipments of fentanyl from Chinese factories and fentanyl overdose deaths in North America are multiplying at an exponential rate.
Last October, the U.S. Dept. of Justice announced a major drug-trafficking and money-laundering investigation against two Chinese men, who are alleged to have had “command and control” of numerous chemical factories and labs in southern China, used to ship “massive quantities of deadly fentanyl and other synthetic opioids to communities throughout the United States.”
It was the first time the U.S. labelled Chinese nationals as top priority international crime targets, on a level with Colombian drug cartel kingpins.
In a separate case last December, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that Chinese police arrested 19 suspects accused of manufacturing fentanyl from Guangdong factories and sending the drugs to North America.
And Canada Border Services Agency documents say seizure amounts of fentanyl from China have surged since three years ago, with 7.2 kilograms seized in 2014, that rising sharply to 58 kilograms in 2015, and 20.5 kilograms seized in the fiscal year of 2016-2017.
In his 34-year policing career former RCMP superintendent Garry Clement served as director of the Proceeds of Crime program, an undercover investigator, and from 1991 to 1994, as liaison officer for Canada’s Hong Kong embassy.
He is a certified consultant on financial and organized crime, and has been an expert witness in numerous money-laundering trials.
In fact, Clement investigated and reported on this same criminal blueprint, in 1994. In Canada’s Consulate General in Hong Kong, Clement and an immigration control officer uncovered a Triad immigration fraud that they say allowed the gangs to gain a foothold in B.C.
“Sadly, it’s the truth. The Triads were a multinational crime syndicate back in the ’90s, and we have allowed them to expand, using Canada as a base,” Clement said. “It is phenomenal what the Triads can do.”
To grasp the Vancouver Model of Triad crime, Clement says, some Chinese economic and historical understanding is needed.
In his 1994 report, Triads and other Asia-based Organized Crime, Clement writes that prior to China’s communist revolution, the Triads had deep connections to military and political leaders. A Chinese president himself, Chiang Kai-Shek, was a Triad associate who staffed his army with opium-trading gangsters, Clement’s 1994 report says.
When Chairman Mao and the communists seized control of Mainland China in 1949, many Triads fled to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Hong Kong was substantially built on British opium trading fortunes, Clement’s report says, and provided many business opportunities for the Triads.
Meanwhile, Mao and the communists claimed to have cleansed Mainland China of drug vice. But the Triads were allowed to return. In the 1980s, a new Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, ushered in economic liberalization, with a strong focus on factories and global exports in Guangdong.
Deng’s model of reform tolerated corruption between state officials and business tycoons for the sake of rapid job growth.
According to Clement, famous sayings credited to Deng — such as “it doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice,” and “not all Triads are bad” — explain how crime syndicates gained control in Guangdong.
“When he said that, I knew that it meant that Triads would get to set up factories,” Clement said.
Vancouver Model real estate laundering
After establishing a strong base in Vancouver, Clement says, the Triads forged a criminal trade loop with Triad factories in Guangdong.
Clement’s 1994 report explains how the Triads have used “quasi-legitimate” real estate development, construction, and financial companies to launder drug cash in Vancouver real estate. In one method, Triad companies send drug funds to offshore bank accounts, and use these deposits to secure mortgages for purchasing and developing B.C. land.
Another method involves falsified contracts used to make drug cash appear to be legitimate real estate wealth. The buyers pay artificially high prices for property, recording transactions in B.C.’s land title system. But a much lower actual price is paid to a Triad-linked seller, in an offshore bank account transaction.
Clement says these offshore transactions have likely had the effect of artificially inflating prices across Metro Vancouver housing markets, and leaving swaths of empty homes.
“What we see in Vancouver real estate is heartbreaking,” Clement said. “I saw the same thing in Panama, with the empty homes.”
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Vancouver-Sydney
Langdale’s report says that transnational criminals in Mainland China and Hong Kong play different roles in the Vancouver Model. The Guangdong Triads specialize in large-scale production of chemical narcotics, as well as counterfeit products. They are also involved in wildlife smuggling and human trafficking.
The Hong Kong Triads specialize in financing drug shipments, as lenders and insurers. They are involved in loan sharking, stock market manipulation, and criminal money laundering services. These Triads show some of the same characteristics as suspects named in B.C. Lottery Corp. investigation documents.
The Hong Kong syndicates also re-route shipments of counterfeit products from North Korea, such as tobacco, Langdale’s report says. CBSA documents say that counterfeit tobacco from Chinese and Hong Kong ports often ends up in B.C.
A review of B.C. government documents obtained by Global News shows that a Chinese man linked to Vancouver casino junket lenders was cited in a major tobacco trafficking investigation.
The man, who is allegedly involved in criminal real estate lending networks in Vancouver, has defaulted on $196,000 in payment of “taxes, penalty or interest,” under the Tobacco Tax Act, a 2010 B.C. Supreme Court filing says.
Meanwhile, some of the Chinese VIP gamblers identified in B.C. Lottery Corp. documents obtained by Global News, are alleged to be involved in B.C. wildlife trafficking cases. B.C.’s Ministry of Environment would not disclose documents about these cases, citing potential harm to police investigations.
The Mainland China Triads also have the ability to trade illegal migrants around the world, Langdale says. CBSA documents obtained by Global point to a case of forged documents that likely is connected to Triad schemes, Clement said.
The documents say that in April 2016, border agents at a Montreal airport seized about 5,600 counterfeit foil holograms from China, designed to authenticate Quebec health insurance cards. This case concerns the CBSA, an intelligence brief says, because the forgeries could facilitate immigration frauds that threaten Canada’s national security.
In an interview, Langdale said that in the Vancouver Model, Triad crime money will ultimately flow back into Chinese factories that produce deadly narcotics, and the export cycle will continue. But the Triad money will also taint economies worldwide.
“The recycling (of dirty cash) may take place in Australia, Vancouver, Hong Kong’s offshore money market, or Shenzhen, depending on where they see the greatest opportunities for their money,” Langdale said. “It could also go into legal enterprises. Overall, the economy becomes totally corrupted by a web of licit and illicit activities.”
Fintrac loopholes
Kim Marsh, a former international organized crime unit commander for the RCMP, now consults with international governments in efforts to detect corrupt officials and criminals seeking money laundering havens.
Marsh says that he agrees with Attorney General Eby’s conclusion, that Canada’s anti-money laundering system has failed.
Fintrac, as Garry Clement puts it, is a “Rolls Royce, without an engine.” He means that Fintrac’s reporting requirements are stringent, but reports rarely lead to investigations and enforcement.
The system requires that Canada’s financial professionals, including bankers, casino operators, realtors and currency exchange owners, report suspicious or large cash transactions. Fintrac receives extensive reports from casino operators and banks, especially.
However, Eby says that in the casino industry, ample reporting only means that operators can claim they have fulfilled their regulatory obligations. And meanwhile, he said, VIPs have the green-light to wheel suitcases stuffed with $20 bills into high-limit betting rooms.
A major problem, Marsh says, is that Canadian privacy laws block police investigators from working with Fintrac agents, and accessing Fintrac’s valuable cache of evidence.
Another problem, is Canada’s gaping lawyer loophole.
A 2016 report from Transparency International said that almost 50 per cent of Vancouver’s most expensive properties are owned through legal mechanisms, such as trusts and shell companies, which are used to hide true ownership.
Canadian lawyers won an exemption from Fintrac reporting in a 2015 Supreme Court ruling.
In 2016 the Financial Action Task Force, a partnership among international governments, recommended that Canada amend Fintrac laws to bring lawyers into the system. The task force reported that money laundering in Vancouver real estate is linked to trust account services provided by some lawyers.
When organized crime is mentioned, what comes to mind for most people is the Italian Mafia. But one of the most powerful and dangerous criminal groups is the Triads, a centuries-old Chinese crime gang that has a strong and ubiquitous presence throughout the world, including Canada.
Triad societies, with their secret initiation rituals and code of loyalty, have long overshadowed Chinese communities around the globe. As with other Asian gangs from countries such as Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea, they prey upon their own, often using fear and intimidation tactics as well as outright physical violence.
Thought to be the world’s largest criminal fraternity, the Triads, or Chinese Mafia, have a long history in Canada. They initially established operations there in the 1850s, when the Chinese began arriving in North America to build the railroads and work in the goldfields. Many of the migrants—desperate to escape China after the horror of the 1850 Taiping Rebellion in which 20 million died—were brought in illegally by the Triads.
The Triads provided passage to Canada, and those who came had to work for years in low-paying jobs or as prostitutes to pay off their transportation debt, just as the many illegal aliens who have been smuggled into the country do today. Many used Canada as a jumping-off point to enter the United States, again just as they do today. Because the predominantly male Chinese population at the time was either barred from mixing with local women or did not wish to, the Triads brought in women and girls from China, some as young as 12. They also imported opium, the use of which was legal at the time, and ran gambling and prostitution houses. Before long, crime and drug addiction began to spread across the country.
In modern times, in addition to human trafficking and drug smuggling, the Triads are involved in such unsavory practices such as arms dealing, economic espionage, counterfeiting, and money laundering. Hong Kong, home to more than 50 Triad societies totalling hundreds of thousands of members, is a key transit point for the large amounts of Golden Triangle heroin and methamphetamines that flow into North America. The Triads controlled most of the drugs’ transportation.
A 2004 Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) report stated that Asian organized crime presents a major threat in Canada because of its many widespread and well-run criminal operations. CISC said Asian-based street gang violence is on the rise in several cities, and that the street gangs have connections with more sophisticated Asian organized crime groups—in other words, the Triads. At a local level, Asian gangs are involved in a long list of criminal activities: credit card fraud, luxury car theft, prostitution, home invasions, staged vehicle accidents, contract killings, assaults, welfare and employment insurance fraud, drug trafficking, software piracy, loan-sharking, and illegal gaming. While scattered from coast to coast, Asian gangs are most active in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto, the CISC report said.
Former diplomat and organized crime specialist Brian McAdam says the Triads often form an alliance with other Asian gangs, such as the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese gangs now largely control marijuana growing-operations in Canada and sometimes collude with Hell’s Angels, thought to be British Columbia’s largest organized crime group. The Vietnamese gangs, known for their extreme violence and preference of automatic weapons, often take on the dirty work at the street level for the Triad, McAdam says. “Within each Chinese community, there’s usually a strong Triad presence controlling and extorting money from the businesses, and if there’s drugs, they’re bringing them in,” says McAdam.
In addition to setting up legitimate companies in Vancouver and other Canadian cities as a front for their activities, McAdam says the Triads have in many cases been successful in compromising members of the police force as well as politicians at the federal and municipal level. He says the leaders of the benevolent societies and the Chinese Masonic temples in various Chinatowns are often Triad leaders, who may contribute large political donations as well as promise the vote of the Chinese community.
In 2003, the Asian Pacific Post reported that veteran police Superintendent Garry Clement warned Ottawa in an internal memo of shocking success by the Chinese Mafia having made connections with Canadian politicians.
In its International Crime Threat Assessment report, the U.S. government said Asian organized crime in Canada poses a security threat to the United States. The report details how Chinese criminal organizations from Hong Kong, China, Macau, and Taiwan have exploited the country’s immigration policies and entrepreneur program, and are using Canada as a base for their operations in the United States. “Canada has become a gateway for Chinese criminal activity directed at the United States, particularly heroin trafficking, credit card fraud, and software piracy,” the report stated.
James Dubro, author of Dragons of Crime: Inside the Asian Underworld, says many organized crime gangs smuggle their illegal booty through the native reserves that straddle the Canada-U.S. border in Quebec and Ontario. He says it’s difficult for police to do anything about it since those reserves have their own police force which is itself often corrupt. “Everyone uses [reserve land]—the mafia, the bikers, the Triads, the Vietnamese gangs. They all use it for people smuggling, drug smuggling and everything else.”
Worldwide, human trafficking is one of the biggest money makers for the Triads. In 2004, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) estimated that 600 to 800 people are brought illegally into Canada each year, and another 1,500 to 2,000 are trafficked through Canada into the United States. While some trafficking victims are pressed into forced labor, most women and children are trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
Dubro says that because many Hong Kong nationals who moved to Vancouver in the 1980s after Hong Kong was returned to China had links to organized crime, Asian gangs have become the “dominant criminal force” in British Columbia. It was in the 1980s that the Big Circle Boys, a gang largely consisting of former Red Guards who moved from China to Hong Kong after the Cultural Revolution, set up shop in Vancouver.
The Vancouver RCMP said last year that they were shifting their focus to going after the gang kingpins rather than the minor players, and to that end have compiled a list of B.C.’s 20 top crime bosses. But Dubro says when it comes to Asian gangs, because they often have connections in high places and because their most powerful members do not operate at the street level, nabbing the key players is easier said than done. “The big guys are very hard to get.”
Epoch Times Victoria Staff Dec 06, 2006
Garry Clement
March 1st, 2022 President David Taylor of Versabank engaged Garry Clement to become their Chief Compliance Officer. Additionally, Garry became a member of the Board of Directors for a new financial institution in Barbados where his financial/compliance background is being relied on.
Financial Crime Prevention expert and advocate Garry Clement joined the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists team in 2016 as the Executive Vice President and helped lead strategic changes until April 2018 at which time he transitioned back to a Senior Advisor to the Chairman of Barbri (ACFCS) until April 2019.
Following this he and again took a hands-on role with his company Clement Advisory Group. Garry has over 34 years of financial crime experience.
Garry Clement relies on his 34 years of policing experience, having worked in roles as the National Director for the RCMP’s Proceeds of Crime Program, working as an investigator and undercover operator in some of the highest organized crime levels throughout Canada. During Garry’s policing career, he received numerous awards and commendations for his investigative abilities, inclusive of recognitions from the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the CIA.
Garry has authored and/or co-authored several papers in national and international publications on organized crime and money laundering. Garry’s experiences make him an excellent, highly entertaining speaker for conferences, seminars and training programs.
Garry began working in the anti-money laundering arena in 1983, and was one of the pioneers of the RCMP’s proceeds of crime program. Since 2007 he has worked as a consultant with a focus on financial crime and independent money laundering reviews for the money service business industry, credit unions and securities firms. These roles provided Garry with experience in the areas of organized crime, drug trafficking, international smuggling and money laundering.
