Ex-PM, Jean Chretien, and His High-Powered Business Associates & Several New Excerpts
Note Before You Begin:
Since this is an extremely lengthy post, if you are pressed for time, simply read to the first set of black lines -- everything before Article #1. You will get the general idea and many of the most important points. For those who read further, after the first set of double black lines is a note on what follows.
Introduction:
Jean Chretien and his son-in-law, Andre Demarais (See his connections to CITIC, below.) have been visiting Li Ka Shing who is connected with Hutchinson Whampoa, CITIC and COSCO (article extracts on these, below), and Li Ka Shing has connections to the Communist Chinese government -- of interest to the US, as well. Li Ka Shing is the father of Victor Li who seems about to obtain a large share of Air Canada (There are posts on this below).
For Canadians, there are questions still lingering concerning an investigation into visas for Canada missing from the Canadian Embassy in Hong Kong, "entrepreneur" and "investor" class immigration of Chinese with huge amounts of money, and the entry of Chinese triads to Canada. However, the investigation into the visa issue and immigration by the CSIS and the RCMP appears to have been ended by someone very influential and powerful in Canada -- although there were and are unanswered questions concerning serious security issues -- similar issues involving the same players which the US has been investigating, as well. Then, there was the dismissal of the whistleblower, RCMP Corporal Robert Read -- and there is much more.
What follows is a series of articles which may be disturbing to the equanimity of Canadians. Exactly how does Canada's ex-Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, figure into all of this? Read and come to your own conclusions.
A list of the links to these articles and some quotations worth noting appear first. Please note that, while I usually indent quotations, in this case, because this is so lengthy, I have not always done that. In some cases, I have surrounded each quotation--which may cover more than one paragraph--with *** and *** so they stand out.
Also, please note that the links for two of these articles referred to, Articles #3 and #4 have disappeared from the National Post website but may be obtainable through the National Post archives or the like for a small fee. NJC ]
© News Junkie Canada
1. Background: Sidewinder-Echo scandal smoulders, Sept. 6, 2000
*** Following what could only be called political interference by the Prime Minister's office, the investigation was prematurely closed and the report sanitized by CSIS under the new code name, "Echo." The shutting down of the investigation infuriated investigators with both CSIS and the RCMP. ***
Links to these sources:
*** [Ex RCMP Corporal] Robert Read Asian Triads***
*** Grits thwarted Asian crime probe: Alliance*** From how high in government did the directive to stop the Sidewinder probe filter down?
2. Chretien builds links with Chinese conglomerate -- CITIC, February 6, 2004
Some very informative links from a Google search
*** CITIC, Li Ka Shing, Victor Li son of Li Ka Shing who just acquired a large chunk of Air Canada***
*** Established in 1979 and accorded the status of a ministry, CITIC began moving into global ventures in the mid-1980s. With assets of about $48-billion (U.S.), it has close links to the commercial interests of the People's Liberation Army and its leadership answers directly to the State Council, China's supreme executive organ.
Mr. Chretien is expected to hold meetings with CITIC's top executives, [. . . . ] He'll be accompanied by his son-in-law, Andre Desmarais, the president of Power Corp., who is a director of CITIC Pacific Ltd., the Hong Kong affiliate of the CITIC group.***
3. Air Canada - the price isn't right -- Victor Li's winning bid is built from knowledge of his rival, Cerberus' bid. [Note the date when this information was published, the week before Christmas. This article by Kedrosky has disappeared from the National Post website but may be obtainable through the National Post archives or the like for a small fee. NJC]
4. Air Canada confirms acceptance of Victor Li's investment in insolvent airline, Dec. 22. 03 [This article has disappeared from the website but may be obtainable through the National Post archives for a small fee. If you do a Google search, you will find several articles on this, particularly Li buys 31% stake in Air Canada for 486 million Kenneth Wong, Bloomberg, International Herald Tribune, Nov. 10, 03. NJC]
*** Li, a son of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, holds Canadian citizenship and is not restricted by federal guidelines that limit foreigners to 25 per cent of an airline.***
[What follows is from the second article mentioned. NJC]
***Air Canada has accumulated losses of 2.6 billion dollars in the past three and a half years. . . .
Milton and the executive vice president Calin Rovinescu will each receive 1 percent of Air Canada over four years, the airline said. Their stakes will come from [Victor Li's] Trinity's holdings after Air Canada emerges from bankruptcy.
Trinity will appoint five out of the 11 directors on Air Canada's board.***
5. Sidewinder -- Secret RCMP-CSIS Joint Review Committee Draft Submission -- J.R. Nyquist's Introduction
*** These "corporate" figures have become an influential presence on the political and economic landscapes of Toronto and Vancouver and at the provincial and federal levels. The triads, the tycoons and the ChIS [Chinese Intelligence Service] 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.***
6. Communist Chinese Heavily Penetrating Canada -- And People Thought I Was Nutty,
***Chinese spies were successful in infiltrating the Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., (AECL) and making off with plans for their Slowpoke nuclear reactor. The AECL has recently been forced to shelve it's own plans to sell the reactor abroad because China's stolen copy is much less expensive. [. . . ] "What they didn't buy, they stole." (Globe, January 24, 2000). Sound familiar? ***
7. Grits thwarted Asian crime probe: Alliance, Stewart Bell and Tom Blackwell, National Post, September 19, 2003
8. Fired whistleblower, ex RCMP Corporal Read's site -- Robert Read Asian Triads: list of articles related to Sidewinder, Cpl. Read, the RCMP, Political Parties and Canada's security
9. 3,500 Chinese spy companies identified in Canada and U.S., August 8, 2003
*** In Canada, intelligence reports indicate the number of Chinese front companies to be between 300 and 500.
But unlike the Americans, China experts say the political climate in Ottawa is not conducive to cracking down on this significant threat.
"Virtually all the recent prime ministers and Paul Martin who is likely to be the next have strong connections to China on the personal, business and political fronts," said an intelligence analyst specialising in East Asian affairs.***
10. RCMP rejects recommendation to reinstate whistleblower, (Robert Read) Jan. 24, 2004
*** The Board ruled that the Force [RCMP] mishandled its investigations into corruption at Canada's High Commission in Hong Kong in the '90s.***
11. A Canadian scandal made in Hong Kong, Oct. 2, 2003
*** This time they again stated that there was no evidence to lay charges but recommended that action be taken against some 30 Canadian embassy officials for accepting cash and gifts from wealth Chinese families.
None of the 30 were charged.
Other than minor reprimands many have been promoted within Immigration Canada and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
At least one of the officials is now an ambassador.***
12. What's missing from Cox report? 1 Jun 1999 -- This relates peripherally to security in Canada, though the article concerns the Cox Report in the US concerning security during the Clinton mandate. The article explains implications and why this is important to Canada.
*** According to the Cox report, "In 1996, Hong Kong Customs officials intercepted air-to-air missile parts being shipped by (China National Aerotechnology Import and Export Company) CATIC aboard a commercial air carrier, Dragonair. Dragonair is owned by China International Trade and Investment Company (CITIC), the most powerful and visible PRC-controlled conglomerate, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China." ***
13. The Financial and Commercial Impact of the Panama Canal Treaty Dec. 7, 1999, an investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Committee on Banking and Financial Services, Washington, DC.
[ Note that #13 and #14 below are investigations by the same committee. There is some overlap in the information but I have tried to extract just the pertinent and different parts. NJC ]
*** The chairman of Hutchison Whampoa [Li Ka Shing] is the subject of a parliamentary investigation in Canada, according to reports published by Canadian newspapers. The investigation, code named Operation Sidewinder, targeted powerful Chinese businessmen to determine if they were facilitating the purchase of Canadian companies with funds provided by the Chinese mafia. In its latest report, Transparency International ranked China as one of the most corrupt countries and classified Chinese corporations as willing to pay bribes. ***
*** In mid-1996 the Clinton Administration accepted the results of a corrupt bidding process for Panama's premier ports even though the deal was defined by State Department officials as: ''lacking transparency'' and, ''highly unusual.'' This corrupt maneuvering enabled the Hutchison Whampoa Company, whose chairman, Li Ka-Shing, is a close associate of the inner circle of Beijing's ruling elite, to be awarded the ports on both ends of the Canal and the adjacent strategic properties.***
*** At the same time, I am very concerned that the Canadian government is [was, at the time this was written] investigating Mr. Li Ka-Shing. You can't have this type of thing. The chairman of the company is being investigated, because the Canadians have something called Operation Sidewinder and have indications that organized crime, Chinese mafias, are commingling the funds with Chinese investors and buying up Canadian corporations. The result of this scandal in Canada has been they have set up a parliamentary investigation that is going to go all over the country for a year looking into organized crime in Canada.***
14. The Financial and Commercial Impact of the Panama Canal Treaty Dec. 7, 1999, an investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Committee on Banking and Financial Services, Washington, DC.
*** The chairman of Hutchison Whampoa is [was] the subject of a parliamentary investigation in Canada, according to reports published by Canadian newspapers. The investigation, code named Operation Sidewinder, targeted powerful Chinese businessmen to determine if they were facilitating the purchase of Canadian companies with funds provided by the Chinese mafia. In its latest report, Transparency International ranked China as one of the most corrupt countries and classified Chinese corporations as willing to pay bribes. ***
*** This corrupt maneuvering [in Panama] enabled the Hutchison Whampoa Company, whose chairman, Li Ka-Shing, is a close associate of the inner circle of Beijing's ruling elite, to be awarded the ports on both ends of the Canal and the adjacent strategic properties.***
*** In the game of influence, several of these important Chinese entrepreneurs have associated themselves with prestigious and influential Canadian politicians, in turn providing them positions on their boards of directors.
One of these politicians happens to be Prime Minister Chretien, [. . . ] From 1986 to 1990, during a four-year hiatus from politics, Chretien served as senior adviser for the brokerage house of Gordon Capital. According to the spiked report, Richard Li bought 50.1 percent of Gordon Capital in 1985.***
*** CITIC, as it turns out, is the parent company of China's Polytechnologies, an agency that oversees Beijing's acquisition and sales of weapons. It operates under the general staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which perpetrated the massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989. The president of CITIC and chairman of Polytechnologies is Gen. Wang Jun -- one of the Communist Party "princelings" implicated in the illicit shipment in 1996 of 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles to gang members in California.***
*** In Canada, it is estimated that CITIC has invested nearly $500 million to buy Canadian businesses in strategic areas, such as Celgar Pulp Mill in British Columbia, Nova Corp. Petrochemical in Alberta and selected prestigious hotels and other real estate. Eventually, CITIC also developed close business links with Power Corp., which grabbed attention in Canada, in part, because Chretien's son-in-law, Andre Desmarais, is the company's president and shares the role of chief executive officer. Desmarais also is president of the Canada-China Business Council, whose directors include the president of CITIC Canada.***
What follow are:
A. More Extensive Background on Key Players
B. Additional Excerpts from the Original Articles (originals - even lengthier)
Note that the excerpts below are numbered; they support the excerpts above and can be linked by number to each section above.
posted by News Junkie Canada at Sunday, February 29, 2004
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