Two-decade-old report foretold the prominence of Chinese in Canadian real estate

A joint program by the RCMP and the CSIS nearly two decades ago offered eerily accurate predictions of the current state of Canadian real estate—predictions that pointed at the nearly irreplaceable role that wealthy Chinese now play in the nation’s housing markets.

In a piece by Toronto-based journalist Tiffany Greene for real estate portal Better Dwelling, the fruits of a clandestine investigation codenamed Sidewinder revealed that elements of the Chinese government in the guise of triads, tycoons, students, and shell companies have already been quite eager to penetrate and influence the Canadian financial system as far back as the ‘90s.

At the time, such a proposal might have appeared to be a product of overly paranoid xenophobia, which contributed to its summary dismissal by the federal government, Greene mused.

“As you can guess, this report didn’t sit well with anyone in government. It alleges a powerful country is conducting a spy mission, using influential Canadians. They even scrutinized a company whose board Prime Minister Chretien’s son-in-law sat on. The company was China’s state-run CITIC, but still. Right or wrong, it wasn’t going to sit well,” Greene said.

“All documents were ordered destroyed, and buried in 1997 by the Liberal government. Turns out we were as anxious to build ties with China then as we are now. Despite our national spy services advising the government that, well…this would happen to real estate.”

“[The investigation] alleged that the Chinese government is using legal and legitimate businesses to gain control over the economic levers of Canada,” she explained, adding that the report warned of “legislative loopholes governing finance and the concentration of financial power in the hands of few.”

Espionage conspiracy theories aside, the warnings now appear to be less far-fetched that they might have seemed before, considering the significant presence of Chinese money in Canadian markets.

Greene hastened to emphasize, however, that the investigation deemed a “great majority” of Chinese immigrants legitimate. What the task force warned about was the possibility of subversive elements hiding among those who genuinely want to make good lives for themselves in Canada.

MBN

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