Thursday, September 15, 2011

They should have been selling whoppers instead of telling whoppers...

From the Globe & Mail: RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency to investigate allegations of fraud and bribery in a PEI immigration program

The federal government is calling in the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency to investigate allegations of fraud and bribery in a PEI immigration program that allowed hundreds of primarily Chinese nationals to buy their way into Canada.
In less than three weeks, Islanders will vote on whether to re-elect Robert Ghiz’s Liberal government. His party is leading in the polls, but has been on the defensive since 2008 because relatives of the Premier, along with cabinet ministers, deputy ministers and several MLAs, benefited financially from the immigrant investor program.

“Although there are clear political motivations behind these allegations – which have been raised repeatedly in the past and shown to have no substance – government will co-operate fully with any formal inquiries into these matters,” Mr. Ghiz said in a statement to The Globe. “I would also note that it is not overly surprising that those making the allegations waited three years to do so, and that their actions coincide with a provincial election.”

While some deals have been confirmed – immigrant investor money went to a Burger King owned by Liberal MLA Bush Dumville that later went bankrupt, and the deputy minister in charge of the file was asked to pay back funds that went to businesses connected to his family – the government has never released a full list of companies that got investments.