It couldn’t happen here, they said.
Fortunately, we’ve top people looking out for our interests.

A B.C. Supreme Court ruling will send shock waves through the arm of the Canadian real-estate market that is powered by foreign capital, say immigration lawyers. […]
The B.C. decision is a stark warning to real estate agents, notaries and lawyers who fail to ensure that sellers of properties are truly tax residents of Canada, said David Lesperance, a tax and immigration lawyer based in Toronto.
“This truly is a game changer,” said Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland.
“It’s a precedent. Real estate agents can now get a knock on the door from the taxman, asking for the (capital gains) taxes that should have been collected by Ottawa, because the agent failed to make adequate inquiries.”

National security officials were particularly concerned about O-Net, according to a source familiar with the 2015 assessment, because they considered the Hong Kong firm effectively controlled by the Chinese state. A corporate presentation prepared by O-Net in 2015 indicates more than 25 per cent of its shares are owned by a company that is a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned China Electronics Corporation.

Canada can have Trump address our supply management or Maxime Bernier, which would you prefer?
Their second letter to PEOTUS Trump.

In a letter to President-elect Donald Trump, US dairy groups said that Canada’s “protectionist” trade policies are intentionally designed to block imports from the US and are in direct violation of commitment made under the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization.

Have fun on the Tim Hortons circuit, Mr. Trudeau.

Now, what does this remind you of?

“We didn’t realize the LCBO considered this a licensee sale,” Korberg explained in an interview with CTVNews.ca. That means the LCBO charges the vineyard as if it has sold the bottle to the LCBO for distribution, then charges them to buy it back. “This is a bottle of wine that has never left the property. The wine in the bottle is made 100 per cent by the grapes grown by our own property, by us, and I have to give half the cost of that bottle to the LCBO in order to sell that wine by the glass on my own property,” he said.

China CITIC Bank has filed a lawsuit in Canada to try to seize the assets of a Chinese citizen the bank claims took out a $10 million loan in China then fled to Canada.
In a first of its kind attempt at intercontinental repossession, the bank is looking to seize numerous Vancouver-area homes, valued at at least $7.3-million, along with other assets, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver on Friday.

h/t Colonista

This is a interesting article on the politics, economic and military realities regarding the nations in and around the South China Sea.
Grab a coffee.

Colby Cosh;

Vancouver is becoming more prominent on all our constitutional tiers because of the pervasive sense that Canadians are being driven out of the most prestigious, picturesque parts of the city by fast-rising prices. Which could just be a matter of Vancouver transitioning to the status of an expensive global alpha city like London — a hemispheric capital, a new Hong Kong to replace the now communist-dominated old one.
I say “just,” but not everyone wants Vancouver to be an offshore Chinese city.

In total, the City of Edmonton has a $9.4-million stake in the building, equipment and other assets leased to Greys Paper Recycling to run its recycling operation.
(…)
“We wanted them to be successful but we never became an investor so we don’t have investor’s risk,” Iveson said.

CKNW: Xun “Sunny” Wang ran an immigration fraud ring from his Richmond office, helping wealthy Chinese businessmen buy their way into Canada

May you buy in interesting times;

I have read so many stories about Vancouver homes selling above their listing price over the years that I find myself completely numb to the phenomenon now. Of course every once and a while I’ll read a story of some house selling at an astronomical price, and I’ll try to comprehend the logic and fundamentals behind these moves. But after so many years of seeing these stories, I find the shock and confusion fades quickly and I get back to my day as if everything was normal. But I think it doesn’t take a real estate specialist or an international monetary watchdog to see that things in the Vancouver real estate market are far from ‘normal’.
Some news articles have made an attempt to explain the drivers behind the market’s incredible jump. In this link, a real estate agent explains that the premium paid on the home he sold recently was simply the result of a very successful marketing strategy.

Yeah, that must be it.
h/t Melinda Romanoff

OPM crack in context.

You Have Come To The Attention Of The Authorities. . .

“Who’s there?”
“Reserve Currency.”
“Reserve currency who?”

Hong Kong blowing up.