In the MEANtime, my wife cannot visit me!

I don't know many cuntries (sorry, not all the people, but some programs) that allow mafia members and criminals because they have money and assets to come and live here, and my wife whom I wanted to come to visit me (because unusual circumstances made it impossible for me to come live in her country) was prohibited to come since she was a thread! My wife has no criminal records, but she does not have hundreds of thousands of dollars! I suggested to the custom's officers to subject her to a polygraph test, but no that is not part of their analysis! SHE absolutely has NO interest of coming to live here! NONE! I know that for some brainwashed Canadians that is hard to believe, but it is true! And, after what happened to her, She has less than no interest to live here, if that is possible! Me too!

sorry ... a threat ...

Oops!

More than a few

"Entrepreneur investors" category immigrants have no intention of settling in Canada. They expose just enough of their off-shored money to open a front business so they qualify under Canadian rules and work frantically in the background to enter their real destination; the USA. Easy to spot them by small concerns like customer-less restaurants and small time import/export outfits with minimum inventory.

We have few problems, it seems

with allowing persons to put their money offshore whenever it conveniences them; or with corporations following the opportunity for gain to foreign lands.

Hell, now we sit here all indignant that some folks with money are trying to work the system to gain citizenship when it goes on in a massive scale as a matter of routine.

In Canada or the US there is the constant complaint of the foreign invasion. Meanwhile, McDonalds and KFC boast of making inroads into SE Asia and effectively overturning the Asian culture with the most toxic and dangerous foods in the world. Similarly, Mr Harper is paraded around as the world's leading political diplomat for his work in selling off the farm to the bidder of his liking....

It's not that this story isn't important, it is simply that the atrocities are so much larger in scale at the state and corporate level. Yet most of us continue to routinely support both the corporate Giants and many of us consider our political involvement is crystallized in the complicit voting process.

reality_check, I 100% hear and understand your complaint. It is a complete affront to the family values rhetoric about the sanctity of marriage. Alas, it is driven home when one in your position realizes by the school of bureaucratic hard knocks just how completely one is considered an asset to state, either in the other country or your own.

One simply has to ponder the reason we are all "registered" at birth not unlike a motor vehicle.

When the bottom line is the bottom line

When making money is the priority, money becomes your boss, your leader, your government. In Canada we are ruled by money.

No surprise

In the PRC (like many other countries, especially "Communist" or "ex-Communist" states like the PRC or Russian Federation) almost no one with a lot of money made it legally. Why? Because there is no way to make lots of money legally in those states, as there is no solid, impartial rule of law, ability to get permits without bribes, or even ways to borrow money other than (as mentioned in the article) through "illegal" lenders. The kleptocratic rulers, their families and friends grab everything they can. Others who are able go along for the ride, in the same way. There is a reason all the "Communist" Party Central Committee members and their families are incredibly rich. As for fraud charges and the resulting show trials and executions, those are laid not because someone committed a crime (which as noted is true of almost everyone with lots of money, including those making and enforcing the rules) but because they fell out of favour somehow.

My point is: Someone having been accused of a crime in the PRC does not necessarily bother me, since the entire economic system there is based on cronyism, black marketeering and corruption. Obviously, most wealthy people in the PRC got that way through some inside pull or other supposedly illegal means. Frankly, I am more concerned about whether they follow the law once in Canada, which I imagine many will since we actually have at least some basis for achieving success through legal means. Of course, others will probably not follow the law, and it is those I say we should focus on, based on Canadian law rather than what passes for it in the PRC.

yup

Give us your scammers, your scum, your insolvent masses yearning to hide ill gotten funds.

Doug Park

Despite the local game is rigged to benefit the psychopathic, you think the people here who make fortunes are earning an an honest? My gawd, it is the same everywhere. Your best chance of success, there or here, is to be born on third base and raised to believe you hit a triple.

What you consider 'legal means' is entirely subjective. You don't condone open gifts or bribes, despite their more relative openness elsewhere, yet most of the dealings going down here are still quid pro quo. You simply do not recognize it most likely because you are not in the loop nor invited to join.

The rules are for the underclass, mate. :)

igbymac

This is worthy of framing.

"Your best chance of success, there or here, is to be born on third base and raised to believe you hit a triple."

"Strength of character is trumped by loads of money', must be from "Thoughts of Chairman Harper".

We're hooked on their cash

Immigrants are speculating on Vancouver RE with money we have no idea how it was made. We are now the #1 money laundering capital of North America. But never mind. Just readjust blinders and take the money.

pure food and clean water trumps money

Never lose sight of what we actually have of value in the world here. No one in China can put anything in their mouth with any confidence unless they are so rich they can import it through reliable means. And even then they fear counterfeits.

The richest, most bloated high Party official is lower than the homeless on the street in Vancouver in this regard. Wonder if that makes them hate us?

cost of coming here

so the corrupt "businessperson" and spouse and children can all have permanent resident status in Canada for a single payment of $125,000. No doubt cheap by their standards. I wish it was true they were all on their way to the US. Our governments, federal and provincial, must seem laughably naive.

Customerless restaurants

Haikun, the one I wondered about was an instant takeout Chinese restaurant at Cambie and West Broadway (SW corner). Is about two years, I only ever saw one customer in it. I concluded it was a deliberate money loser to launder money. However, the immigration angle makes sense.

The Americans are much tougher - if your business fails, you lose your green card. Not much incentive here in BC.