the UGLY Chinese Canadian

Of the many Chinese Canadian politicians, this blogger has had the pleasure of writing to, and irritating… Conservative MP, Inky Mark, has been one CC politician the UGLY Chinese Canadian has some real respect for.

One of my first dealings with Mr Mark, was on that whole historic Chinese Head tax fiasco. You know, that “Apology show” pimped out by the Martin Liberals, and then later by the Harper Conservatives. It was here, on this Head tax effort that our white politicians really showed their yellow bellied vote entrepreneurship.  It was mainly about getting votes from the Chinese (note, I didn’t write Chinese-Canadian).

Yes, the whole apology effort by our government was a thinly veiled opportunistic show of “recognition” by various seat warmers in Ottawa.

Now that I reminded you all of how I really feel, I must admit that the email exchanges I had with Mr Mark were sincere and intelligent.

It really was refreshing to have had dialogued with Mr. Mark (or staff at his office).  Contrast this to some of the other dimwit Chinese Canadian politicians I have had the agony of trying to communicate with.

So yes, the UGLY Chinese Canadian, will be sad to see Inky Mark retire from political office.

It’s a real shame to see one of the last true real Chinese-CANADIANs step down from the public limelight. I only wish other Chinese Canadian politicians had the guts and wit like Mr Mark.

The Chinese speaking community in Canada is really tired of the usual marble mouthed, butt-kissing Chinee houseboys and housegirls who sometimes get elected into office.

Sometimes I believe there is an inverse proportional relationship to the size of a Chinese Canadian politician’s penis to his uncanny ability to bow down and scrape on the floor – the lower he can bend over, bow down and kiss ass, the smaller his penis.

Yes. There had been a lot of Chinese Canadian politicos with tiny penises of late.

So, to Mr Inky Mark, farewell and bon chance… you’ve made many of us proud of your independent thinking ways and for your intelligence.  Thankfully, your presence have saved face in the CC community in a sea of mediocre Chinese politicos.

Here is a partial posting from today’s National Post:

[…]The day he announced his retirement from politics, Manitoba MP Inky Mark took a veiled stab at the centralized power in the Prime Minister’s Office, suggesting members of Parliament needed to stop toeing party lines and work for their constituents so that “people actually do have a say.”

The veteran Conservative is considered a maverick among his party for speaking out on issues in which he disagrees with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s direction.

Yesterday, the retiring representative for Manitoba’s Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette riding suggested Parliament had lost credibility because members vote along party lines, not as their constituents would desire.

“There is no check and balance,” Mr. Mark told the National Post. “The tone of the country is based on the leadership of the political parties. The way the leaders operate sets the mood of the politics in Parliament.

“And until we establish some checks and balances in the system so that people actually do have a say in the House, there really [are] free votes and that people can really represent the people who send them to Ottawa, nothing will change.” […]

Well, a few of you had written to the UGLY Chinese Canadian, and wondered why there had not been any blog postings of late.

Our detractors are probably hoping that the UGLY Chinese Canadian had been arrested and put in the Pokey… you know, the big House aka the Slammer.

No such luck.

As was written last year, it was a bit tiring, whining all the time … so we’re off to bigger and better things.

When I get around to it, I’ll repost back the earlier archive of 3 or so years of blunt observations back onto this blog.

Got to admit, it was a heckalot of fun. And again, it was really swell meeting so many of you on-line.

Good luck all, and to all those clowns who were offended and insulted by the contents of this blog… we hope it opened your eyes. Tolerance begins with acceptance and involvement in the greater community around you.

Don’t be insular.

Stop having such a closed mind. It’s time for you now, to start up your own blog and start soap boxing.

It’s very therapeutic.

‘Till next time… thanks again. Yes, I’ll be back.

tUCC

Our appreciation to SN and the Chinese in Vancouver Blog for giving the UGLY Chinese Canadian permission to re-post a reply from alleged smuggler Lai Changxing. See our earlier post “Chinese Fugitives and Blogs” on the blogger who calls himself “Fat-Xing”.

Newspaper caricature of Lai reading
Canadian real estate & jobs news 

From CIV:

Lai Changxing has broken silence on the recent Internet hype about a blogger implicating to be him writing articles. He denied he has been writing anything online and said he even didn’t know how to type. And he made note that smuggling is illegal but what he did in the past wasn’t smuggling.

When reached at the phone yesterday and asked about whether he’s been blogging, Lai was confused at first and didn’t sound to understand what blog is.

“What are you talking about? Blog? I don’t understand.”

He asked a friend by his side at the time, who explained to him blogging is that people write articles and others leave comments.

“I don’t write any blog. I don’t have any website. I have not written anything. I don’t know where are these come from. That’s strange.”

However, he said he wouldn’t be surprised that people are doing things using his name. “There are lots of people out there posing as me.”

Lai was then very concerned what this blogger has been writing. When told there was a post talking about smuggling being not illegal, he rejected it.

Here’s the translation of part of the original article:

Let me talk about smuggling. My understanding is that smuggling is just to bring the good things from abroad to China. Nobody wants bad things. About a decade or two ago, all that is smuggled are of high quality.

“No. Smuggling is a criminal offence. Breaking the law is breaking the law. How can one say smuggling is not illegal?” He said.

“But what I did before wasn’t smuggling,” he commented. Lai has been saying he was trapped and being politically prosecuted.

Lai added that he’s yet finalizing on a job. “I’m too busy in finding a job. I don’t have spare time to write.”

“I don’t know how to type at all.”

“If I write anything, that would need someone to scan each of word into the computer,” he giggled.

Politicians. What a bunch of two-faced whiners.

The Ontario New Democrat MPP, Peter Kormos is making a flap over the Provincial flag of Ontario. He learned that the symbol of provincial pride on their Leg building is now being made in China. Here’s the TorStar article on it.

We guess “anything” that shows a Chinese involvement is ‘bad’… according to Kormos and other protectionists.

Like Nortel. A number of years back, a Chinese telecom company had wanted to buy the old Canadian telecommunications company. But nope. Not in the hands of foreigners was the battle cry of the day. It may have saved this Nortel, which is now being unplugged from life support.

We wonder, had the “foreign” company been American or perhaps, from the UK… could we have heard another, perhaps more acceptable spin?

It’s always the same protectionalist battlecry. The evil foreign owners killing local (Canadian) jobs. And it seems if the “foreigner” is China, the political rhetoric gets notched up a bit more.

So when the Americans mentioned “buy USA”, we wonder if Mr Kormos said anything intelligent. Or if he rallied for the workers of Quebec, who have their provincial flag, the fleur-de-lys outsourced to Ontario, where it is made (see outsourcing outrage).

This reminds us of the old parable of two Chinese monks observing a flag flapping in the wind.

The first monk mentioned to the second, “see how the flag flaps, we see how an inanimate object moves in the wind”. To which the second monk declares, “it is not the flag that flaps, it is the wind, for it is that which makes movement for the inanimate”. So as these two argued all day on the essence of flapping, a third monk strolls along and mentions, “it is neither the flag nor the wind that is flapping, but your mind that flaps”.

For some of Canada’s politicians, it’s a sad way to waste tax paid dollars arguing and flapping about it.

Back during the 70’s, Asian Canadians complained about a media bias. A bias against Canadians that were of an identifiable ethnicity – based on their skin colour, usually.

The headlines back then often associated the words “Asian” and “Gang” in the same headline or within the same story.

Nothing really has changed.

A few years back, the local media bantered about “Indo-Canadians” and “Gangs”, even though a number of the criminal elements showed a true diversity - gang members that included South Asians, Chinese and Caucasian kids and adults. It agitated the South Asian community to the point of seeing leaders from their identifiable community speak out.

But that sort of media bias isn’t what our life’s mystery question is today.

It’s: why does the media continue to highlight and present a long parade of dipshit Chinese-Canadian “politicians“?

image pinched with
big honourable apology to National Lampoon

Politicians all share one common trait. Get elected. And here, in Vancouver and in other major metropolitan centres, politicians pander to the so-called ethnic vote. They visit ethnic enclaves during electioneering efforts for photo ops and the like.

And the media, they’re not the scrutinizing eyes anymore. They often follow along and get embedded into a select few politician’s campaign. They choose their favourites.

Why is this?

To exacerbate the problem, Vancouver is full of narcissistic, marble mouthed newly arrived Chinese-Canadian wannabe politicians who know little of this city, little of this province… and almost nothing of our nation, thus many of these political wannabes have no clue on how to form intelligent relationships with main stream media.

The english language media would often not receive much information from Canada’s Chinese politicians.

So we’re thinking… perhaps, the ineptness of media relationship building, media handling and an ability to speak the English language reasonably well by recent Chinese-wannabe-politicians is to blame.  And the media, when looking for a sound bite, would contact one of these Chinese-Canadian talking heads. Which usually leads to a sadder the perception of this identifiable ‘monolithic’ community.

We sometimes feel it’s a self-fulfilling cycle. The foot-in-mouth disease highlighted by many of Vancouver’s newly Canadianized Chinese politicians offer much material to Vancouver’s time challenged news reporters.

Could this be a reason for Vancouver’s media bias? A bias of often highlighting flaws in one of the city’s identifiable ethnic communities… or is it because this community does not scrutinize the quality of candidates who jump out in front of the limelight and make us all look like jackasses?

One of life’s difficult questions.

Yup. We got to say it as it is. It’s difficult to be the UGLY Chinese Canadian.

Some had warned that the current crop of Vancouver civic politicians lack common sense. Actually, that was a lack of business sense.

An interesting thought was presented by a former city councilor today: “why is our current civic politicians so fixated on past events (eg. election costs, donors, leak scandals), when there is something much more horrid and pressing on the horizon”. Former Vancouver councilor, Alan Herbert called up a friend wondering why our elected officials had not even given a moment’s thought to an upcoming headache.

The closing down of city streets as a result of security concerns during the 2010 olympics.

Vancouver sees the province’s former finance minister, Carole Taylor in court today, courtesy of affected business owners along the rapid transit route along Cambie Street. These poor sods, saw the disruption of street closures, sidewalk closures, detour of traffic, lack of parking, noise and many other inconveniences to their business efforts.

Can you imagine what will happen to those businesses already struggling on the many kilometers of roads that is scheduled for closure during the olympics?

How will customers reach them? No vehicular traffic on some of the city’s major streets. Remember, this isn’t a complete pedestrian nor bicycle friendly city yet.

How will these businesses be serviced? What becomes of the delivery of goods and removal of refuse…

Does the city have an economic plan in place for this event? Apparently not. Calls to the City’s Engineering department led to nowhere.

If the City thinks the class action lawsuit by suffering businesses along Cambie Street is a minor inconvenience, one wonders what the scenario is when a similar closure is multiplied many times.

So what is our city Council doing?

Canadian born Chinese civic politician, Raymond Louie disclosed documents indicating his campaign spent around $240,000 in an effort to secure his party’s nod to become the Mayoral candidate. The civic party he helped found, Vision Vancouver, saw instead, an outsider, Gregor Robertson capture that nomination.

Gregor Robertson at that time, was the left of center, New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Vancouver riding of Fairview. He stepped down to join in the contest to secure the civic party’s nomination, spending around $180,000.

Although publicly the two were seen as congenial buddies before and after the leadership nominations, one wonders if there may have been some wafts of animosity. Afterall, most politicians know how to behave in front of the limelight… and would probably receive Academy Awards for their abilities. So who knows what the real feelings are.

Even leading up to the Vision Vancouver nomination race, former Mayor, and co-founder of the civic party, Larry Campbell, had touted Councilor Raymond Louie as a potential Mayor. It was also not a secret that the former Mayor did not appreciate the appearance of Robertson slipping in to run.

In an August 2007 Georgia Straight article:

Former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell, now a senator, says he is not overly excited at the prospect of Gregor Robertson becoming the city’s next mayor… “There’s a big difference between being an MLA and being a mayor,” Campbell told the Straight in a phone interview. “When you’re mayor, you have to understand all of the intricacies of the city, and you have to be able to take a look at the big picture for the city. And you have to be able to work with the council.”

in contrast, Campbell had this to say about Raymond Louie:

“Louie has been described by Campbell as a future mayor of Vancouver. Campbell added that he still holds that view, but wouldn’t say if Louie should run for mayor in 2008. “That would be up to Raymond,” Campbell said. “I just know that someday he’ll be mayor. I don’t know when that will be.”

Robertson gathered the most ballots at the nomination, and thus selected as VV’s choice to represent them for the upcoming civic election.

To patch things up, Robertson made the public gesture of reconcilliation by making Louie his “top advisor”. That translated to Louie opening up all the doors in the Chinese community - both in the social/ community organizations and in businesses. Robertson could not at the time, reciprocate the same, as he did not have much of an established support base.

One thing coming out of the media lately, is the ink on “the Chinese financial backers” for “Louie’s campaign”. Mentions of Chinese development company names, Chinese businesses, Chinese individuals, and we’d bet, a Chinese Chow Chow dog too, if one had thrown in a bone of support for Louie. Why wasn’t the same level of information disclosed for Robertson?

A large percentage of Robertson’s financial support originated from individuals and organizations that are based / from the U.S.

A quick count through this week’s Vancouver Courier article links Chinese names and Louie on about 30 lines of print, and only one line of print linking Robertson and US donors.

The one thing Robertson was more successful in than Louie, was in his ability to win over people who earned a living working in the media, especially those that covered the civic media,

That was the key. Media coverage and infatuation is what you need to win.

So even with support from the Chinese community, as evidenced in the backgrounds of some financial backers in Raymond Louie’s Mayoral bid campaign, it could only grab so many eyeballs. The issue was the ability to get out the numbers on nomination day, and to have the media shining on you.

And we all know, that Vancouver’s Chinese community can’t be bothered to show up for voting. So what if you signed up for party membership?

Imagine that, getting off your duff and disrupting a day watching Chinese soap opera or a Chinese variety show and for what? … for some Chinese guy running for office? More important things to do… likee watchee celebrity gossip.

But Vancouver remembered Louie. He easily got re-elected in as a city Councillor again.

Now that most of this is history, the UGLY Chinese Canadian wonders what has now happened to Councilor Louie. The once vocal and feisty scrapper in city council, has been out of the spotlight lately. Why?

To find that out, now that would be newsworthy.

The chatter about the CIA behind that highly successful social networking site, Facebook, has been making the rounds over the past few years.

We wonder if there is any truth behind it.

People love conspiracy intrigues - like the 9/11 homegrown plot, the new one on “the Obama conspiracy” (this one is too spooky to be true), and of course, Facebook and the CIA.

Here’s a snippet from an August 2007 New Zealand Herald article on the CIA and Facebook:

[…] The story starts once Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had launched, after the dorm room drama that’s led to the current court case.

Facebook’s first round of venture capital funding ($US500,000) came from former Paypal CEO Peter Thiel. Author of anti-multicultural tome ‘The Diversity Myth’, he is also on the board of radical conservative group VanguardPAC.

The second round of funding into Facebook ($US12.7 million) came from venture capital firm Accel Partners. Its manager James Breyer was formerly chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, and served on the board with Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm established by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1999. One of the company’s key areas of expertise are in “data mining technologies”.

Breyer also served on the board of R&D firm BBN Technologies, which was one of those companies responsible for the rise of the internet.

Dr Anita Jones joined the firm, which included Gilman Louie. She had also served on the In-Q-Tel’s board, and had been director of Defence Research and Engineering for the US Department of Defence. […]

And the article goes on with more intriguing information. Want more? Join Facebook and sign up on one of the many conspiracy groups for more gossip.

The following Youtube vid on non-existent car sales reflect the sad state of the world economy. It was filmed in Long Beach, California.

What is interesting about this vid is that the announcer, the Mercedes car salesman and some others on the clip all speak not with an American accent, but with an English accent. Kind of interesting when you think about it.

What happened to all the Americans?

Do you believe everything you read and hear in the media?

What if the story came from a feature cover story from TIME magazine? Now that’s got to be believable, afterall, it is from “TIME”, right?

We found this 2002 feature article from TIME magazine while researching some recent material regarding the Chinese fugitive Lai Changxing:

One of Burnaby city’s early crown jewels (built in 2000), the Crystal complex anchored by HSBC banking corporation, contains over 300 shops, multi-level underground parkade, 4 star Hilton Hotel, luxury condos, neighbourhood police station, and many more other amenities, had been intimated as a “dismal strip mall” by TIME Magazine.
(A strip mall is defined as an open shopping area where the stores are arranged in a row and a sidewalk in front; typically developed as a unit with large parking lots in front. They face major traffic arterials and tend to be self-contained with few pedestrian connections to surrounding neighborhoods)

This ugly description of the Residences at the Crystal (6088 Willingdon Drive) was used in the opening paragraph of a cover story in TIME Magazine. The Asian copy of the magazine cover showed a photo of Chinese fugitive Lai Changxing.

Mr Lai has been accused of corruption charges in China.

This four square city block project, facing a manicured public park, garden and public library received a number of design awards, and was designed by VIA Architecture, a respected international design firm for one of Vancouver’s more renowned developers, Mr Stanley Kwok.

So what is it about this TIME magazine article that linked this complex as “a dismal strip mall” and next to “XXX sex shops”? Reading further into the article, a feeling of pity and compassion falls upon the reader… empathizing with the unfortunate person of whom the story is all about. The thorn in the backside for the Chinese government, a smuggler by the name of Lai Changxing.

To further reinforce the dismal quality of the strip mall and home for the fugitive Mr. Lai, the TIME story went on to state about seeing a “cheap plywood door” upon visiting the residential unit of Mr Lai. How touchingly sad. Paints an image of a seedy and impoverished facility.

Here is a portion of TIME magazine’s opening paragraph (October 7, 2002):

To get an audience with China’s most wanted man, you drive past Mr. Kim’s Kimchee Emporium, Chan’s No. 1 Chinese Language Tax Accountancy and the One-Stop XXX Adult Shop. Eventually, you pull up at the Crystal Palace—a deceptively named apartment complex in Burnaby, a dismal strip-mall suburb of Vancouver full of Asian immigrants. The elevator takes you to the 17th floor. You disembark and a cheap plywood door opens…

from TIME magazine

And the photo? It shows the unfortunate man seated next to a baseboard heater with *gasp* barred windows behind him (!). This photo along with TIME’s written material, appear to suggest that Lai has lost his freedom, and is living the life of a pauper. Documented public records state otherwise… and we’ll save that for another blog post.

Here is another shot of the “barred” window, but with a bit more context:

note the “bars” on left side of photo (where Lai had sat)

So, it appears that TIME magazine exercised some creative freedom in preparing this story.

Anyone who lives in metro Vancouver will tell you that there are no bars on any windows on the clean, slick, steel and glass luxury condo. Those “bars” are part of the balcony handrail (a “juliet” balcony) that breaks up the rhythm of the building’s fenestration. Look at the TIME photo more closely. Pretty clever photo composition… with venetian blinds dropped to frame the balcony guardrails, making them appear as if they were prison bars or something.

balcony bars (at left of center) help break up facade

And the “cheap plywood door”, is actually a carefully crafted designer door that is beautifully stained and varnished to accentuate wood grain and texture.

Shame on TIME magazine for fabricating these misleading statements. So begs the question… if the first few paragraphs of the feature story is phony, what about the rest of the story?

A quick search on real estate sales and listings for “Crystal residences” in Burnaby will find condo units listed for around half a million dollars each. Not the dawdy, tired and seedy place the magazine article implies. Check out some listings for yourself, have a look at the sumptuous amenity and exercise facilities, with lap pool and all.

Here are a few web captions gleaned from a few recent real estate websites selling units in the same complex as the one Mr Lai currently resides in. None of the following descriptions fit the TIME magazine article describing it as “cheap”, “dismal” or “strip mall”:

from http://www.condoadvisory.com/item.php?item_id=111

The Crystal Residences at 6088 Willingdon Avenue is comprised of the high rise tower and the low rise residences. The high rise is one of the most unique looking condos in Burnaby with it’s round and silver appearance.

The Crystal Residences are located right on top of the Crystal Mall shopping centre and right across the street from the Library. Skytrain, and all the shops and services of Kingsway and Metrotown centre are only steps away as well.

The Crystal Residences also features views from the suites range from Vancouver, the North Shore mountains, Central Park and more.

…The building is nice inside as well, feels a bit like a hotel, the suites are a good size and bright with lots of windows, finishings are modern and seems to be a very quiet place. […]

Features of this mall include:
Probably the largest Chinese-Asian mall in Burnaby - with stores, public market, professional health and education services - all in addition to - the new HILTON HOTEL and convention facility which anchors the east side of the mall.

and from http://www.metrotown.info/canada-burnaby/mall-crystal/index.html

[…]Other features include such facilities as the Crystal Dental Clinic and:

• Central location on the corner of Willingdon Ave. and Kingsway… west of the SAVE ON FOODS and Station Square Mall, and to the immediate North of Burnaby’s Civic Square which is part of the MetroTown Branch of the Burnaby Library.

view from residential unit

• Hilton Hotel and Convention Centre (probably the largest hotel & convention service in the MetroTown area) opens right into the malls shopping areas and large Asian Food Court
  [see www.hiltonvancouver.com ( American Auto Association AAA 4 Diamond rated hotel)
• Bedrooms: 3
• Full Bathrooms: 3
• Floor Area: 1,493 SqFt
• Year Built: 2000

Description
Residences at the Crystal - Very well … with spectacular view of Deer Lake, Mt. Baker and Georgia Strait. Spacious & functional layout with open den in the livingroom, floor to ceiling windows. Amenities include indoor lap pool, hot tub, exercise room, garden patio. Live-in resident manager. Located in the heart of Metrotown, shopping in the Crystal square, Save-on Food and Metrotown Centre, steps to Burnaby Library, Central Park and Skytrain station.

Spectacular views of Deer Lake, Metrotown, Mt. Baker and Georgia Strait.

—
And from the Award winning architects’ website, of the complex:
http://www.via-architecture.com/projects/thecrystal/index.html

The Crystal was a ground-breaking project in the Greater Vancouver region, symbolizing Transit Oriented Development at a scale never before seen prior to its 1999 completion. Comprising 750,000 square feet in five linked strata developments and covering an entire city block, the complex includes retail, office, restaurant, hotel, conference center and residential uses. It was the first development in Metrotown to have a pedestrian-oriented urban streetscape as its core concept and was recognized by the City of Burnaby as a model for a new direction in the maturing development of the area. The dynamic architecture of The Crystal creates uniquely memorable indoor and outdoor places in a high street alternative to the adjacent big box retail and chain-oriented shopping malls.

[…] high-rise and low-rise housing, offices, two levels of retail and restaurant units, and four levels of underground parking. In addition, our work included the design of the four-star Hilton Vancouver Metrotown on the southeast corner of the site, and the RCMP Community Policing station on the southwest corner.

***

So what does all this mean?

Simple.

Don’t believe everything you read in the media. Now if we can just figure out what TIME magazine’s motives were for crafting such an interesting story on a Chinese fugitive and the nasty people chasing him, we’d get a Brownie point for it.

And there’s more.

We’ll later prepare some more comparative notes on what the TIME magazine article stated and compare it to what public records show.

Bloggers can be criminals too. Now isn’t that a novel idea?

It appears that there is a person who appeared on the Chinese blogging scene a month ago, who is insinuating himself to be that fugitive Chinese criminal, Lai Changxing, who is now currently residing in Burnaby (part of metro Vancouver).

Whether the blogger is the real McCoy – that of the criminal, or a pretender, the blog has attracted a number of groupies. The groupies appear to have taken a shine on the crook.

The blogger calls himself “Fat Xing”.

is this “Fat-Xing”?
image courtesy of Chinese in Vancouver blogsite

We guess these Fat-Xing groupies view this fugitive criminal as some sort of underdog. But in reality, if one reviews the charges assessed against him, one wonders why decent Canadians put up with this sort of nonsense, and why Canada maintains a reputation as being a haven for other nations’ undesirables.

According to a March 15, 2009 article by Aileen McCabe, the Canwest News Asia correspondent,

[…] The Chinese government maintains Lai ran a $10 billion US smuggling ring in Xiamen, one of the coastal cities chosen to be a laboratory when China began to experiment with capitalism. One step ahead of the Chinese police, he fled to Canada in 1999 and has used the legal system to remain there ever since.

In February, Lai was even granted a work permit.

Lai’s defenders, however, have long argued that his business practices only reflected the wild west atmosphere prevalent in Xiamen in the heady years after Deng Xiaoping declared: “To be rich is glorious.” Fat-Xing seems to want to make the same point in his blog. […]

Perhaps some of these Chinese groupies should have a read on what happen to the victims of the smuggling ring Lai has been allegedly been involved with. Google Fujian and smuggling, it may remind some of you why Lai is the poster boy for the corruption that’s ailing China.

Interesting article today in today’s Globe and Mail, regarding Canada’s dirty little secret. Canada’s own subprime mortgage - the untold story.

It’s an interesting read, especially in light of the warm and fuzzy reports coming out this week stating Vancouver’s real estate sales “picking up”. These optimistic reports remind us of that old saying “there are lies and then there are damn lies… like, statistics”.

The uplifting real estate numbers are being interpreted by some as a “real estate turn around in Vancouver”, then, there are those who say this is the end – “it is absolutely bleak and dismal”.

We guess a healthy dose of skepticism is prudent when one receives advice from those with a vested interest.

No one knows how much more this market will drop, but there is one thing we all feel for –  those first time purchasers in the market. Virgin property buyers who bought into all the hype in the past inflating market. Fueled by greed, fright and speculation.

Now, with rising unemployment rates, one should be concerned on how many of the earlier buyers had been pre-qualified, and based on dual incomes. It will be interesting to see how payments will be met when one’s income and employment circumstances change.

Here is a part of today’s Globe and Mail article:

Canada’s Dirty Subprime Secret

GREG MCARTHUR AND JACQUIE MCNISH
Saturday’s Globe and Mail

March 14, 2009

[…]

Inventories of unsold homes are building in Canadian cities – and the ripple effect hits everyone, depressing the value of houses owned by people who haven’t overextended themselves.

Unlike the United States, where foreclosure statistics are routinely published because they are a key barometer of economic health, detailed numbers in Canada are hard to come by. Alberta and British Columbia are two provinces where private companies collect the data from the courts, where it costs about $10 to view a single file. In Ontario, mortgages in default are usually resolved through a process known as power-of-sale, which has effectively removed the issue from the courts and shielded the scope of the problem.

Since the subprime mortgage meltdown in the United States, Canadian leaders have assured the public that a similar tidal wave of foreclosures can’t hit here. They have cited the prudence and market dominance of Canada’s five most prominent banks, the conservatism of Canadian consumers and the tiny, 7-per-cent market share of subprime lenders, which is much lower than their 22-per-cent market share in the United States. Just four days ago in a speech, Prime Minister Harper said: “We have avoided the extreme of the unregulated, or barely regulated, financial and mortgage industries that has caused such grief around the world.”

However, The Globe’s investigation shows that while Canada’s real estate sector hasn’t suffered as much as its counterpart in the United States, the Prime Minister and others have grossly underestimated the impact of that small portion of subprime lenders. Until recently, companies who touted their low standards with slogans such as “We Say Yes When The Banks Say No!” and “No Income Verification” proliferated here.

“We have a subprime problem in Canada. Lenders dramatically reduced their lending standards in the past five years,” said Andrew Bury, British Columbia’s foremost expert in foreclosure law, who has been practising for 29 years. Mr. Bury, who practises with Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, said that since August he has had to extend his work day to 15 hours to cope with a caseload that has tripled. Vancouver courts are so overwhelmed with the flood of foreclosure applications that it now takes six weeks to process a written order compared with one day six months ago, he said.

“The subprime lenders trashed the market. They were doing loans that no one else would do and people were shaking their heads saying, ‘What are these guys doing?’” The data also revealed that scores of wealthy individuals dabbled in subprime lending at a time when many believed the real estate market was on a never-ending ride. Doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers and former bankers offered high-interest-rate mortgages to debt-laden homeowners, many of whom are now facing foreclosure proceedings. In one instance, a holding company for a Vancouver entrepreneur and philanthropist, Abdul Ladha, issued a $150,000 mortgage to a couple at an interest rate of 40 per cent. The mortgage agreement included a clause to ensure that additional fees and commissions should never add up to an effective interest rate of 60 per cent – the “Criminal Rate,” as defined in the Criminal Code of Canada. (One of the borrowers, Vid Wadhwani, said in a brief interview that it was “a rate that I was willing to accept, given that it was supposed to be short-term in nature.” He also said the 2007 foreclosure application did not proceed and that the matter was resolved.) […]