Financial Post;

If the Canadian housing market crumbles, Costa said, the banks will be the ones “holding the bag.”
 
“We think the housing sector is the poster child for all the problems and imbalances we see in Canada today,” Costa said. “It’s pretty clear to us that the financial sector … when the economic cycle turns, are the ones that take the most hits.”
 
Costa would not speak about individual names Crescat is shorting, offering only that the firm has positions in “all the big liquid ones.”
 
Costa is also concerned that, according to his figures, 80 per cent of Canada’s non-financial stocks are not cash flow positive. Those numbers are in stark contrast to the economy reaching full employment.

h/t Buddy

Continued… John McCallum has resigned as ambassador to China at the request of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. […] the move comes after the former ambassador was quoted in StarMetro Vancouver on Friday as saying it would be “great for Canada” if the United States drops an extradition request against a Huawei executive detained in Canada.

“McCallum’s remarks, made exclusively to Chinese-language reporters …”

Chinese ambassador accuses Canada of ‘white supremacy’ in Huawei case

(new link)

Halls of Macadamia;

So, correct me if I’m wrong, but the Feds dropped charges against these folks… because they feel they’re capable of murdering Crown witnesses? Just spitballin’ here, but that seems like a terrible precedent.

Thirteen Canadians have been detained in China since the high-profile arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on Dec. 1, according to a Canadian government official.
 
A Global Affairs Canada spokesperson, Guillaume Bérubé, confirmed the detentions in a statement to The Globe and Mail. Until Thursday, only three Canadians – Michael Kovrig, Michael Spavor and Sarah McIver – were publicly known to have been detained in China since Canada’s arrest of Ms. Meng, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.’s chief financial officer. They were picked up after China promised retaliation for Ms. Meng’s arrest.
 
“Global Affairs Canada is aware of 13 Canadian citizens having been detained in China, excluding Hong Kong, since December 1, 2018. Of those, we can confirm that at least eight have been released,” Mr. Bérubé said in an e-mail.

But don’t you worry, assures the Globe and Mail. It’s all completely normal.

According to a government official who was not authorized to speak publicly, a total of about 200 Canadians have been detained in China for a variety of alleged infractions and continue to face ongoing legal proceedings, and many of them are out on bail or serving probation. The source said the number of detained Canadians has remained relatively stable, without a marked increase or decrease in recent years.
 
For comparison, the source said almost 900 Canadians are detained in the United States.

For “comparison”, mind you.

This is what you are facing when you deal with any Chinese Corporation,
 
“All organizations and citizens must support, assist with, and collaborate in national intelligence work, and guard the national intelligence work secrets they are privy to.” (Article 7 of China’s National Intelligence Law)

h/t rd

I often ask my anti-pipeline friends in BC, “What do you plan to do for an economy after you’ve run out of real estate to sell to Chinese money launderers?

Ok, so they’re not my friends anymore.

The Vancouver Sun published an article on the amount of “dirty money” that has been used to purchase real estate in Vancouver. According to the article, the amount is paltry.

The thing is, is the article and the study it was based on, remotely true? According to commenter, Michelle Lee, it’s not even close:

As we all know, the $100 million dollar figure German quoted is exceedingly low and has already been proven to be low in another casino story which quoted at least $600 million dollars going through one casino.

And given that the criminals were blatantly able to launder $200,000 to $600,000 or more at one time, in plastic grocery bags no less, it’s apparent that a reasonable person would conclude that since this was allowed to go on for over a decade, more than $100 million dollars was laundered.

You can continue to argue that $100 million dollars wouldn’t make a dent in the Vancouver real estate market, but you can’t argue that we have an effective or efficient system of stopping any money laundering occurring within our real estate market. This was proven in a recent story where the sale of a luxury West Vancouver home was denied due to the US stopping a money transfer to Canada because of money laundering concerns. Canada did not stop nor investigate the incoming laundered funds. Canada did not investigate the home builders or the realtor who was involved in the failed deal.

Whitby Estates in West Vancouver…

The area, developed between 2009 and 2014, was marketed to investors from China. Two-thirds of the names on titles in the B.C. Assessment database are non-anglicized Chinese names. Some of those names are familiar to court watchers in B.C.

I’ve friends who bought a house in the lower mainland, surrounded by empty mansions. Some were “staged” with playground equipment to provide the lived-in look.