Eve vs. Mary for Mother's Day

Mosaic of Mary
St. Michael's Hospital Chapel in Toronto
[Photo By: KPA]

Fareed Zakaria, "host of CNN’s flagship foreign affairs show," interviewed writer "and I'm not even a Christian" (what is he, Jewish?) Bruce Feiler on CNN on mother's day. The topic was "Eve and modern motherhood" to discuss the book that Feiler wrote: The First Love Story: Adam, Eve, and Us.

Feiler explains his choice of a female biblical character to represent Mother's Day by saying:

Being a mother...

"...in some ways is the main goal of the story. The first commandment - it's NOT the Ten Commandments. That comes in the Book of Exodus. It's in the book of Genesis where God says to them 'Be fruitful and multiply." This is the story of Genesis, of generations. In order for the story to succeed, we need this relationship to succeed. And that's in some ways one of the great discoveries of this journey that I've been on."

He's talking about Eve of course.

I say: This is the mother who was kicked out of paradise for seducing her husband into betraying God! How about the purest of mothers, Jesus' mother?!

Fareed of course will never want to discuss that. And I'll bet Feiler has no sympathy for Christians despite his long trek through the Biblical land:

When I did “Walking the Bible [Fieler's travels to find the places the Old Testament stories took place]” it was a very personal journey...Were these stories real? Could I find the places where they took place?

Turns out the CNN conversation was between the Muslim Fareed and the Jew Feiler. I had them both pegged.

Christianity is being debunked in such sophisticated and subtle ways these days that only the seasoned warriors can tell when it is happening.

Here is Laura at The Thinking Housewife writing on Mother's Day and her prayer to Mary:

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of the Infant Babe of Bethlehem, and Our Mother, enkindle in our hearts the spark of youthful innocence. We know of thy great love for little children. It was to innocent children that thou didst deign to appear, revealing the Message of Fatima, and charging them with its propagation. We know no better way to show our regard for them, dear Mother, than to offer our prayers for all children, everywhere. Therefore, O Mother dear, we ask thee to watch over all children in all parts of the world, to guard and protect their homes, to preserve the schools wherein they learn, and to keep them from being tainted with Godless education. Direct them in their play and in all their works, that they may grow in age, wisdom, and the love of God. Grant too, Blessed Mother, that the prayers of our children may hasten the end of all wars of carnage and devastation, and grant unto this world an era of just and lasting peace. We pray that the world may return to Jesus, thy Son, through Reparation to thy Immaculate Heart.

Our Lady of Fatima, we beseech thee to inflame our hearts with the love of Reparation.

[Source: St. Gertrude the Great Sunday bulletin, Mother’s Day, 2017]

Below is Zakaria's interview of Feiler on the CNN program GPS.

The Eyes of the Lord Preserve Knowledge

Dunkirk Aviation, View From Cockpit
Photo By: KPA

Proverbs 22:12:

The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge

"Where is all the money coming from?" Update

"Where is all the money coming from?" update:

It is already happening.

Where is all the money coming from?

First, China faces significant overcapacity in its steel and construction sectors. Building roads, ports, rails and other infrastructure will help deploy some of these otherwise idle human and capital resources. Investing abroad might also strengthen the economies of nascent trading partners, thereby securing future demand for Chinese goods and services. There’s also the issue of rising domestic labor costs; better trade networks would help Chinese firms offshore manufacturing more efficiently.
China's "One Belt One Road" Momentum Going Forward

By: Ruston Bazzarre*
Liknedin article
October 14, 2016

This seems to be the analyzed reason for China's modern "Silk Road:" to establish cheap labor centers in its African and Middle Eastern country targets who will produce those products that will enrich China's coffers to start its modern Silk Road trade loci and materialize its regional hegemony.

All that has to happen is for these cheap labor centers to refuse to play along.

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China's "One Belt One Road" Momentum Going Forward
Ruston Bazzarre*
Liknedin article
October 14, 2016

Two weeks ago, a 32-container train from Wuyi, China arrived in Tehran, Iran. You might think the arrival of cargo by rail would be no big deal, but in this case you’d be wrong. This was the first journey of its kind between the two cities, and it shortened the typical ship-based travel time by 30 days. This new connection is among the first visible signs of a massive trade network that China is currently constructing across Eurasia. The Silk Route is being rebuilt.

Known as One Belt, One Road, China’s plan to build veins of trade over land and sea into Europe and Asia — announced in 2013 — may be the most significant global economic initiative in the world today, and it’s not getting the attention it deserves in Western media.

The initiative is gigantic, with future investments of almost $1 trillion already announced. In comparison, America spent an inflation-adjusted $130 billion on the Marshall Plan following the World War II. China’s web of trade would span over 60 countries that are home to 4.4 billion people — more than half of the world’s population. Further, the initiative would interact with economies representing more than 40 percent of the world’s GDP. It’s a massive program that has the potential to affect global trade patterns.

The initiative is broken into a land component, known as the Silk Road Economic Belt, and a sea component, called the Maritime Silk Road. The “Belt” will consist of a number of corridors connecting China to the far reaches of Eurasia by road and rail. The “Road” will involve the development of ports and shipping routes connecting Chinese harbors to Europe and the South Pacific.

Funding this massive program is not a trivial undertaking. There are a number of institutions on hand to support the funding of China’s grand vision. First, Beijing started a $40 billion “Silk Road Fund” that has already helped fund a hydroelectric power project in Pakistan and invested in a liquefied natural gas project in Russia. Second, there’s the newly created, $100 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in which China controls 26 percent of the votes. It’s logical to assume it might finance some of these projects. Lastly, the China Development Bank announced in June that it would invest a stunning $890 billion dollars in over 900 One Belt, One Road projects across 60 countries.

So why would China want to deploy capital in this way? After all, doesn’t it face a massive domestic slowdown and potential debt crisis that warrant financial prudence? Why invest abroad aggressively when there are potential domestic needs?

There appear to be two main reasons: one related to the Chinese slowdown and economic vulnerabilities, the other to geopolitical ambitions in the region.

First, China faces significant overcapacity in its steel and construction sectors. Building roads, ports, rails and other infrastructure will help deploy some of these otherwise idle human and capital resources. Investing abroad might also strengthen the economies of nascent trading partners, thereby securing future demand for Chinese goods and services. There’s also the issue of rising domestic labor costs; better trade networks would help Chinese firms offshore manufacturing more efficiently.

It will also foster greater trade and energy security. The current maritime trade routes, which Chinese goods flow through, are deeply vulnerable — in a time of war, a blockade could crush the economy. The Silk Road initiative will keep markets open for Chinese goods, but also secure China’s access to energy. Last spring, China announced it would support over $20 billion worth of infrastructure projects in Kazakhstan, a potential energy partner. It is also planning a 2,000-mile, high-speed railway from western China to Tehran, in part to gain easier access to the growing supply of Iranian oil.

In addition to bolstering its economic strength, One Belt, One Road will also generate significant geopolitical clout for Beijing throughout Southeast, South and Central Asia as well as the Middle East, parts of Africa and Europe. Just consider the influence China will have in Pakistan. Beijing has already launched a $46 billion infrastructure program in Pakistan, which will double the energy-poor country’s electricity supply. In return, China will secure access to the port of Gwadar, minimizing the time for goods to transit from inland Chinese cities to global markets. Investing in Pakistan will help develop western China.

The Pakistani alliance is particularly useful, since China can use it as a counterweight to India’s influence in the region, and controlling instability in Pakistan through investment might lessen the risk of it spilling into China. Beijing already has growing concerns of restive minorities within China and wants to minimize the likelihood of domestic instability gaining momentum from external sources.

Despite the clear benefits the Chinese strategy seems to offer, it’s not without risk. The Financial Times pointed out that the sheer ambition of the project is part and parcel with the fragmented and often contradictory process of economic policymaking in China. How implementation goes is anyone’s guess.

Further, Chinese inroads abroad could produce international tensions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signaled openness to cooperating with the initiative, but it remains to be seen how far he will tolerate Chinese influence in Central Asia.

And the countries that are part of this new Silk Route are not without significant credit risks and political risks. Local instability could undermine investment projects in countries like Pakistan, which is deploying thousands of troops to safeguard China’s investments. The private-intelligence firm Stratfor also points out that the flip side of stronger connections is that they will “provide new routes for the illicit movement of goods and people into China.” Could major Chinese cities emerge as terrorist targets, as New York, Paris and London have in recent years?

Despite this uncertainty, it is particularly unwise to ignore the One Belt, One Road initiative. It just might shape the 21st century as much as the Marshall Plan did the 20th.



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* Ruston Bazzarre 威廉
Lets Connect | Business Development | Re-engineering Change management | IT | Consultant | Supply Chain
Shanghai, ChinaManagement Consulting
Current
Skeleton Technologies, Tekresell
Previous
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Victoria University Switzerland, Hangzhou China, Master Kong Holdings Co. Ltd.
Education
Purdue University

The Vogue Demographic

Right: Autumn/Winter 2016
Left: Spring/Summer 2017
Limited edition designs by Juliana Cho

Thank goodness I stopped buying Vogue several years ago.

Juliana Cho of Annelore...worked for Catherine Malandrino before launching her line and opening her boutique in 2002. Juliana's clothes have been featured in Vogue, Elle, New York Magazine, Lucky, Marie Claire and Harper's Bazaar just to name a few. Her designs have been seen on Gretchen Mol, Stella Tennant, Julianna Moore, and Liv Tyler as well as many other women with great taste. Her unique approach to her collections and her business model make her a valuable resource for designers trying to find that elusive way forward. [Source]

The Spring/Summer 2017 dress above sells for $595.

I couldn't find anywhere online to buy the Autumn/Winter 2016 combination.

But Cho's Annelore website does tell me:

The line is never more than 30 pieces per season, and every piece is curated to be the best in design, make, and fit. ANNELORE is the antithesis of mass-produced fashion.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Cho's West Village store...

became the destination for women looking for something original and beautiful to wear.

And her demographic?

The ANNELORE customer is smart, confident, and chic. She does not follow trends or labels. She is successful in her own craft and thus appreciates our craft as dressmakers. The ANNELORE collection is a tribute to our customers.

Spring Highrise

A combination of block printing
and painting on cloth
[Design By KPA]

A Good Conscience

Lake Simcoe, Barrie
[Photo By: KPA]


1 Timothy 1:18-20King James Version (KJV)

18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;

19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

The Magnificent Chinese Flying Machine

China's C919 narrow-body jet during its first high-speed taxi test
at Shanghai Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, April 16, 2017

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First Chinese-Built Airliner Flies for the First Time
By: Jay Bennett
May 5, 2017
popularmechanics.com

The Comac C919 is China's first step to competing with Boeing and Airbus in the commercial aviation sector.

China's very first home-built passenger airliner took flight on Friday, soaring over Pudong International Airport in Shanghai for about an hour. Chinese government officials and aerospace industry leaders gathered to watch the C919 narrow-body jet make its maiden flight. The state-run manufacturer of the of the jet, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), declared the test a success after landing.

The flight represents China's ambitions to become a world leader in aviation and start not only manufacturing jets for its own airlines, but also exporting passenger aircraft to other countries. The C919 is designed to accommodate 158 passengers or more, putting it in a class of aircraft with the Boeing 737 and Airbus 320.

The first flight of a large passenger plane is a good start, but China's aircraft manufacturers still have a long way to go before they can compete with established plane builders. The C919 is still "years — if not decades — behind aircraft made by Airbus and Boeing," writes The New York Times.

Although the aircraft was designed and built in China, it uses a number of Western components and technologies, including CFM International Leap-1C engines developed by GE and French aerospace company Safran Aircraft Engines. Honeywell also supplied critical components of the jet, including power systems, fly-by-wire controls, navigation equipment, wheels, and brakes.

It will be some time before the C919, or a future aircraft built by Comac, will be as cheap to fly and as easy to maintain as proven aircraft from Boeing and Airbus. Before western airliners could even operate the twin-engine jet airliner, safety regulators in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere would need to sign off on the plane.

[Source:The New York Times]

Ivanka's Roles: Part Deux Aka:You've come a long way....

Ivanka, author, working mom and all round multi-tasker...

...made ALL of the agents watching her family some sweets that were hand-delivered by Jared and their two oldest children, Arabella, 5, and Joseph, 3.

It is wonderful to see her come out and do something like this for the secret service. The left has been attacking Ivanka in a relentless fashion and it is NOT OKAY. We have had people saying that her family does not deserve to be protected. It does not make ANY sense.

Be sure to add to her coffers by purchasing her book.

Transformation

Full report here.

Trudeau, the Lisping Liberal

Trudeau, the lisping liberal, won the federal elections.

Trudeau had surpassed Bono as the biggest star in Davos.

Above is another pair from Trudeau's sock collection which he wore in Davos, Switzerland last year, in January 2016. He scrapped this year's trip.

Trudeau is not as stupid as he seems.

The skull and crossbones seems to have been used as an emblem first and foremost by esoteric and heretical groups as a symbol of rebirth. It later became the battle flag of the Knights Templar (and a nasty rumor about the Templars claimed they chose it because of a horrific necromantic ritual) and, in the 17th century, the "Jolly Roger" flag of British and French pirates.

“Most mysteriously, it is the emblem of the secret society Scull N’ Bones at Yale, which George Bush and so many other members of the American elite have been initiated into. (Yale’s graduating classes, according to some authors, seem to have provided the rich white young men of distinction which formed the early OSS and, later, the CIA.)

“What are the connections here? Did some of the post-dissolution Templars eventually turn their naval skills toward the service of pirate fleets? (We know many in Portugal eventually joined the Knights of Christ who, with Prince Henry the Navigator, circumnavigated the world’s oceans.)

“Why does the secret society S & B use a skull in its ceremonies which supposedly belongs to, of all people, the Native American Geronimo? Is it to commemorate, in some sinister ritualistic way, the "piracy" and plunder of Native lands in the U.S.? Is there a link between Scull N’ Bones and the (less secretive) academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa? [Source]

But maybe he is:

The skull and bones was once a fearsome image, warning us of deadly danger on poison containers, waving fearsomely from atop pirate ships. Now it’s just trendy.

Transformation to Evil

Here is a post I wrote last February 2016 which I didn't publish.

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Transformation to Evil

"The liberating thing about being dead is you're not bound by social constraints, monetary value and well being. Somewhere in my challenge to keep the dead walking I forgot these few beautiful and freeing rules of being dead and got caught up in survival...human survival."

Thea Munster (Faulds)


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Here is Thea, a smart and intelligent woman. I went to school with her at Ryerson University, in Toronto. I liked her. She was quiet, pensive, and she usually said intelligent things (of the few things she said).



But something strange happened when she was doing her final year thesis, where we are left on our own to produce a graduation-worthy project.

I worked consistently, never leaving the campus, using the various production suites of film, video, photography and printing. My final year, I produced five projects:

- a short film (manual editing with film strips)
- a photography presentation (with real dark-room processing)
- a video piece, which ended up being a large, looped installation
- a silk screen piece, with messy chemical processing
- and a website, which incorporated all my projects both for viewing, and for reviewing in a new manner

My film eventually was viewed in various venues, including in Paris and Prague.

My photographs were displayed in two venues, the university's image gallery and at the Allan Gardens Conservatory in Toronto.

My video was screened at Trinity Square Video in Toronto.

What did Thea do, this intelligent, apparently artistic, student? She made an excuse! She said that she doesn't like people looking at her work, and could she show her pieces privately to the professors!!!

That was when I began to realize her strangeness.

Later on, she would spend three years working on a short film. Even for procrastinating artists that is a long time. She does have some films that she's submitted to various programs, but she hasn't listed her work in any coherent manner, so I would assume she doesn't have much regard for them.

She did make a documentary film with a group about HIV, which won an award at The City of Hamilton Arts Awards (a city about half an hour south of Toronto). The film criticizes the attempts to make HIV people accountable for their sexual behaviour by saying that it "criminalizes" them. I suppose the blood in HIV discourse fits Faulds' vampire/ghoul/zombie lifestyle.

Her "artistic" energy eventually went into various arts management positions, including as the founder of the Toronto Zombie Walk.

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Thea used to look like this when I went to school with her, with a face completely covered in white makeup cream, bright red lipstick outlined in a pout, shaved eyebrows with drawn-in lines, heavy black mascara on her lashes, and what I think was bleached blonde hair, although that could have been her natural color (most goths/vampires/zombies dye their hair pitch black).



The photo above is from around 2010.

Below is a photo of her around 2001, which is closer to what she looked like when I knew her.



Her final project never materialized. I think she got her degree, and kept her job at the campus video center for several years after that where I used to run into her (I was at one time editing video pieces for a presentation at Trinity Square).

A while later, I saw her downtown somewhere, still in her ghoulish make-up and black dress, and I couldn't bring myself to greet her.



Below are photos of Thea which she has posted on her Facebook page. It shows a narcissistic side of her, which I should have recognized earlier. The photos show her morphing into into evil.

The devolution into evil:











A "cemetery field trip" as is the title of this photo in her Facebook:



When you look closer at these photos, you begin to notice strange things.

Like tattoo all over her arms in the top photo, which is clearly visible here.



And the glint in her eyes in the second photo becomes this, when fully exposed.



And the sophistication that she seems to convey in some of her photos is covered with sores and scabs.



And she transforms into a flesh-eating creature



a "zombie"



who slithers out of the netherworld



to join us mortals



in a carnivalesque celebration of "the dead."



And the dead have only one standard to emulate: that of the living, where, for example, weddings are performed and zombies get married. Faulds talks, without the slightest irony, of "my husband."

Here she is with her husband, in their wedding gear.



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The transformation is complete.

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat

Ivanka's Roles

The Super Mom/Super Adviser

Is Ivanka Trump, shoe designer, and recently named Executive Branch Employee/ Informal Adviser to the President, so smart as to sit as her father's "Informal Adviser-in-Chief?"

I doubt it.

Behind every Executive Branch Employee/Informal Adviser to the President, there is a Senior Adviser.

“A lot of their real interactions happen when it’s just the two of them,” says her approving husband, Jared Kushner, who was officially named Senior Adviser to the Trump administration in January.

I doubt that. Kushner gets to hear all about the "informal advising" prior to his wife's meeting with her Dad, as he gives her his Senior Adviser's advice.

The Super Mom/Super Busy Ivanka, Executive Branch Employee/Informal Adviser to the President, has a "list for connecting with each of" her three kids before they go to sleep. I doubt this is a daily schedule.

“I put real thought into coming up with ideas for memorable moments I can create with each of them,” she writes. “Right now, I play with cars with Joseph, on the floor, for twenty minutes each day. Arabella loves books, so I make a note to read at least two per day to her and plan ‘dates’ to the library. With Theodore, I commit to ensuring that I can give him two to three of his bottles each day and rock him to sleep at night.”

"We've Come a Long Way..."

Chinese House Flipping in Canada

In this post:
- Quote from Globe and Mail's September 12, 2016 article
-Vancouver real estate developer seeks to set record straight
- Real estate board is the landlord of exposed real estate speculator’s company
- In the housing market, foreign buyers are given a different set of rules



Documents shown to The Globe and Mail reveal that one-time developer Kenny Gu
buys and flips homes in deals that are financed with investor money from
China and mortgages issued to those investors by Canadian banks.

Photo: Ben Nelms for The Globe and Mail
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From a September 12, 2016 article (posted below) in the Globe and Mail,

Mr. Gu came to Canada in 2009 under Ottawa’s now-defunct immigrant-investor program, which gave permanent residency to applicants who agreed to lend a significant amount of money to the federal government. He started out here as a developer, but the documents show that his business evolved to buying homes – using other people’s money– and then flipping them. His deals are financed with investor money from China and mortgages issued to those investors by Canadian banks.

The papers that Mr. Lazos [a former employee of Mr. Gu] provided The Globe paint a fascinating picture, revealing a network of players – local and foreign – who are parking money in Canadian real estate. They also show how loopholes and lax oversight make it easy for the speculators to play the system – and profit tax-free – by obscuring their ownership and earnings, all the while treating the properties as commodities, not homes.

Back to top

The Globe and Mail
Vancouver real estate developer seeks to set record straight
By: Kathy Tomlinson
September 20, 2016

Kenny Gu (also known as Jung Gang Ju) sat down with The Globe for an exclusive interview because he said he wanted to clear his name after allegations of possible fraud and tax evasion in connection with flips of residential properties. “I want to show you I am a good guy. I am not that kind of guy,” Mr. Gu said. “My family is here. My children are here. They will live in this country forever. For a long time. So, I don’t want them to see or to look at me as if I break the law or don’t want to pay the taxes to the country.”

Mr. Gu said he came forward after his ex-employee Demetre Lazos persuaded him it was the right thing to do. The Globe investigation was based on a large cache of documents from Mr. Gu’s operation supplied by Mr. Lazos. The paperwork showed millions of dollars have flowed through Mr. Gu’s personal and corporate bank accounts in recent years, while he claimed personal income of $45,865 on his 2015 tax return. Mr. Gu initially did not respond to The Globe’s requests for interviews. Mr. Lazos said he met with CRA officials in Vancouver on Tuesday to show them the same documentation.

Mr. Gu has now provided The Globe with more details on his finances. He said if anything reported on his taxes was incorrect, it was unintentional, because his books are handled by professionals he hires. He said he is also prepared to meet with the tax agency to set things straight.

“I am open. I don’t fight. Any time, I will meet with them,” Mr. Gu said. “Because I don’t want to do anything to break the law here or to avoid the tax, so everything I am giving to the accountant and the lawyer and they help me to do these things. Maybe they do something not so good. But from my side, I don’t know.”

According to Mr. Gu’s documents, companies that he owns designed, built or renovated 32 Vancouver-area properties since 2011. In addition, he and several clients also flipped five homes in the past two years for $4-million more than they paid as prices in Vancouver skyrocketed. Mr. Gu’s family now lives in one of those houses in West Vancouver. His wife bought it for more than $2-million, with no mortgage. The family’s vehicles include a BMW and a Mercedes.

Mr. Gu explained that lifestyle is possible even though his reported income is low partly because he and his wife brought about $3-million into Canada from China after they came to Vancouver under the immigrant investor program in 2009.

First, he said, he started a prefab construction business and lent money to it, but it failed. Mr. Gu explained that after his companies began making money in real estate in 2014, some of those profits went to his family, tax-free, to repay the loan. His documents show Mr. Gu’s wife, Min Tang, also made $1.17-million in gross profit buying and selling six more residential properties since 2010. Mr. Gu said the family lived in three of those homes, so the sales were classified tax-free under the principal residence exemption.

However, he indicated his tax bill is about to go way up.

“This year, I will have big income. Big income,” Mr. Gu said. “Which I will report to the taxes.”

Financial statements provided to The Globe by Mr. Lazos show Mr. Gu’s companies recorded deficits until early 2015. However, new CRA notices of assessment from Mr. Gu show two of his companies now owe almost $42,000 in taxes on newly reported income. Those notices are dated four days before The Globe’s initial story was published. “The documents you had are only part of the reality,” he explained.

As The Globe first reported, Mr. Gu said his real estate deals were financed with money from China, provided by investor clients. “They trust me. That is why we do business together. They invest the money. I invest my knowledge and the work. Then after we finish the project, we share the profit.”

Mr. Gu said he understands why Canadians are upset about real estate speculation driving up home prices. He said he would rather develop properties than flip them, but that he sold recently because the gains were huge and development costs and delays were prohibitive. He said he would also like prices to stabilize because his business would suffer “terribly” from a crash.

“The policies from government need to be careful,” Mr. Gu said. “I want the business to keep going – a long business. Not just the price go very high and then go down.”
---------------------------
Read the rest here

Back to top

Business Vancouver
Real estate board is the landlord of exposed real estate speculator’s company
By: Bob Mackin
September. 12, 2016

The Gukan Construction office in the complex at Spruce Street and West 8th Avenue where the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver is located | Photos: Bob Mackin

A real estate speculator who was alleged in a national media report to have used loopholes to avoid paying taxes is a tenant of the association for the region’s real estate agents, BIV has learned.

Provincial company records show Jun Gang “Kenny” Gu is the only director and officer of 2013-incorporated Gukan Construction Ltd. Gukan is located in the same complex at Spruce Street and West 8th Avenue in Vancouver as the headquarters of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, the trade group for more than 13,000 real estate agents.

REBGV president Dan Morrison said he had never heard of Gu before the weekend. Morrison said that Gukan had already given notice to end its tenancy by the end of September.

“We do a due diligence process where we do a credit check and make sure that they’re a legitimate company and that seemed to be the case here,” Morrison said.

The Globe and Mail reported September 10 that Gu, a former government employee from China, had come to Canada under the federal immigrant investor scheme in 2009.

A former executive who worked for Gu provided documents showing Gu sold several houses that he had never lived in, but still claimed the principal residence tax exemption. The Globe story did not mention the names of Gu’s companies.

Finance Minister Mike de Jong issued a statement on September 10 that called on Canada Revenue Agency to “diligently enforce the law.” NDP critic David Eby said de Jong and the BC Liberal government had failed to hire enough auditors to battle tax evasion and fraud in the Lower Mainland real estate industry.

“When we hear allegations that somebody might be operating outside of the law, obviously it’s very concerning to us and it ought to be investigated,” Morrison said.

Gu is also the only officer and director listed for Royal Columbia Development Corp. and was one of the nine founding directors of the Chinese Construction and Renovation Association of Canada in 2014. The CCRAC’s Chinese-only website says that Gu was elected a vice-president and is on the membership committee.

Gukan and Royal Columbia were both named as defendants in an August 19, 2015-filed B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit by Mingfei Zhao, who is purported to be a retired billionaire developer from Beijing.

Zhao bought the 1913-built, Rosemary heritage mansion at 3689 Selkirk Street in Shaughnessy for $11.01 million in 2014 and hired Gukan and RCDC to work on the exterior wood and stucco. Zhao’s statement of claim alleged the quality of work done and materials supplied “fell below” standards and were not in accordance with heritage conservation standards or civic requirements. Zhao sued Gu’s companies for breach of contract and negligence, seeking $120,500 plus GST and general and special damages.

Gukan and RCDC denied the allegations and filed a counterclaim against Zhao on September 25, 2015, seeking $39,375 in unpaid bills. The statement of defence blamed Zhao for the breach of contract when work was halted in February 2015. The mansion was assessed at $13.5 million in 2015.

None of the allegations has been proven in court, and the Court Services Online database does not show any hearing dates.

Back to top

In the housing market, foreign buyers are given a different set of rules
The Globe and Mail
By: Gary Mason
September 14, 2016

It has long been suspected that Canadian banks were playing a less-than-honorable role in the foreign investment rush taking place in the country’s real estate market. Now, questions about precisely how they have been helping fuel the obscene rise in house prices in places such as Vancouver and Toronto have been partly answered.

It would appear the Big Five banks (and likely others) have been doing this by giving foreign clients preferential treatment when it comes to qualifying for loans – a level of banking bias the likes of which Canadians have never witnessed.

A Globe and Mail investigation into Canadian real estate practices revealed on Wednesday that banks use a different set of loan requirements for foreigners than they do for those who work and pay taxes in this country. So, if you are from mainland China, for instance, and have no credit history in Canada but are looking to buy a place in Vancouver, you can likely borrow large sums of money from a Canadian bank without having to verify your income – this would include foreign students attending university here.

Related: Canadian banks’ mortgage guidelines favour foreign home buyers

According to internal documents obtained by The Globe, loans officers at Bank of Nova Scotia, for instance, have been told they do not need to verify the incomes of new immigrants if they have a loan down payment of 35 per cent. For foreigners, the no-verification threshold jumps to 50 per cent. At the Bank of Montreal, it’s 35 per cent for both; the bank also requires that foreign clients have the equivalent of 12 mortgage payments on hand at the time the loan is issued.

So much is wrong about what is taking place one hardly knows where to begin. But let’s start with the now-evident role the banks have been playing in the vicious, inflationary upward spiral in house prices. Although a federal regulator has warned all of the banks that income verification for foreign clients has been lacking, the practice continues. As long as one bank is doing it, they all will – especially if there is no punitive price to pay beyond a mild reproach. Meantime, there are ample data to underscore the role of foreign purchasers on the price surge in markets such as Metro Vancouver and Toronto.

At the same time, economists for most of the big banks have been warning about the economic perils represented by a potential housing bubble, and the corollary debt bomb it could set off. Yet they never mention the role their institutions are playing in creating these dangers.

There is also the not-so-little matter of what this lack of income verification could facilitate: money laundering. If foreign clients do not have to document and prove the source of their income, it opens the door to those looking for a haven for ill-gotten gains. Real estate is the perfect vehicle in which to invest illicit funds. And it would seem our banks are more than happy to accommodate people with this intent.

What the recent mayhem in the real estate market has confirmed is that many people take Canadians for dupes. Look at the shady practices (such as shadow flipping) that were taking place before they were uncovered by The Globe: Realtors and others using the most unscrupulous means possible to take advantage of unsuspecting buyers, right under the nose of government and regulatory bodies.

On the weekend, The Globe revealed that a network of house speculators was flipping homes for profit and dodging taxes in the process. The person who blew the whistle told The Globe he had earlier approached the Canada Revenue Agency and the police and got nowhere. This is what passes for consumer protection in this country.

But it is the banks’ role in all this that is especially infuriating. It was not the foreign clients they now seem to prefer who helped them become what they are today. It was families in big cities and small right across this country. It was parents opening accounts for their kids, who would later open ones for their own children. It was plumbers and electricians, school teachers and nurses. These are the people who helped make five, once small Canadian banks into global players.

Well, it would seem gratitude does not go as far as it once did. Today, when Canadians walk into a bank to negotiate a mortgage, they will wonder if someone in the next room is operating by a different set of rules. And if so, why?

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English as a Second Language Teacher

Here is an article which I didn't publish, which I wrote in 2006 when was teaching advanced ESL to "newcomers" to Canada.

Usually at my local supermarket, I read the price off the cashier and repeat it out loud to make sure I’ve got it right. Almost every time, when an "English as a Second Language (ESL)" employee is at the booth, the price is almost always pronounced (or even read) wrong.

Me: Two dollars twenty eight?
Cashier: Two dollars twenty two.
Me: Twenty three?
Cashier:Twenty two.

And I have to strain my neck to verify for myself what if what I heard and what I see correspond. Usually, I have to strain my ears too, since as well as the indecipherable accent, I get such a low pitched response, with face partially turned away, that even hearing the correct figure is difficult.

Now, I’ve been an ESL teacher for a number of years. I’ve also worked alongside immigrants, as what was termed an “education counselor” mostly trying to familiarize them with the Canadian education system, both high school and post-secondary. And I think I understand where this lackadaisical approach to the English language comes from.

While I was teaching advanced ESL to “professional” Chinese, who were supposed to have at least a high level of writing and reading abilities in the English language, I quickly realized that one of the obsessions, if it may be called such, by the Chinese students was to learn as much as possible about the “Canadian culture” from the English classes. Therefore, our classrooms became mini cultural centers, where we enacted Canadian holidays on a regular basis. We had movie and popcorn days. We visited nearby farms to pick apples in the fall and strawberries in the summer, and to cull maple syrup in the spring. There was one teacher who would bring her whole family as examples for some her classes. That, to me, was approaching libel.

What surprised me, and I don't doubt part of the problem was time and perhaps money, was that few of these students took the time out for themselves to frequent and experience this Canadian culture.

These many years later, I doubt this approach to teaching ESL has changed much, and that Chinese and other "new comers" have changed their approach to learning about Canada.