Editor:
The numbers are disgraceful, nauseating, immoral. Thousands of people dying in the street, 100,000 people in the current generation priced out of property ownership. What happened to doing the right thing and creating opportunity for everyone? Do we live in a democracy, or not?
For years, the previous government told us overseas money into housing was coming in small amounts - barely enough to make any difference.
With that having been thoroughly debunked, and frankly impossible, we are now discovering that a large portion of the money has arrived via the fentanyl trade. So when I walk with my son past a person who could very well be lying dead on the street from a fentanyl overdose, am I supposed to be grateful for the small possibility my future is more secure because I’m a property owner? That is not the type of equity I want.
Money laundering is not a victimless crime. Drug trafficking is not a victimless crime. Prostitution is not a victimless crime.
Pricing a generation out of property ownership is not a crime, but it does have many, many victims. These are the connected crimes that our government is somehow not capable of protecting us from.
As we are seeing with the recent stayed charges in recent high profile money laundering cases, it is lucrative to launder the proceeds of fentanyl trafficking into Vancouver real estate, with zero risk. But the largest crime could still be happening. Is our democracy under attack by criminal elements? These are very serious times on the west coast, and require a serious response.
For 18 months now, the prospect of a public inquiry has been staring the BC NDP in the face. Allowing money laundering into the real estate market was apparently government policy for years. Allowing fentanyl traffickers to clean their money through our casinos was apparently government policy for years. Local taxpayers are not only faced with reduced economic opportunity because of it, we are faced with the prospect that we are, in fact, subsidizing it.
According to the latest Ipsos Research poll commissioned by Global News, 76 per cent of British Columbia citizens want a public inquiry into casino money laundering. The City of Vancouver wants one, the City of Richmond wants one, the largest public service union, BCGEU, wants one, and the Green Party of B.C. wants one.
So what’s the hold up?
Attorney General David Eby and Premier John Horgan are faced with a difficult dilemma, I’m sure. They know it’s likely people within their own political party will be exposed through a public inquiry. But this is what democracy is about, telling the truth.
For me, this has always come down to my son. I want to set the best example for him, and I want to raise him in a place where his leaders set the best example for him too.
That’s why I decided to launch a federal e-petition, with Don Davies - NDP MP for Vancouver Kingsway - as the sponsor, towards criminal justice reform and the goal of launching a public inquiry into money laundering, with federal support.
Our democracy is at stake, and my son’s future is as well.
Raymond Wong is a member of HALT - Housing Action for Local Taxpayers. His petition can be found at https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-2073
