A monk surveys the construction site at the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society in Heatherdale, P.E.I. in April, 2023.DARREN CALABRESE/The Globe and Mail
Prince Edward Island Premier Rob Lantz is urging the RCMP and Canada’s anti-money-laundering agency to probe long-standing allegations concerning a Buddhist organization that has significant land holdings in the eastern part of the province.
Earlier this year, the province launched a review into whether a Taiwan-based religious organization called Bliss and Wisdom is exceeding provincial limits on foreign ownership of property, as part of broader scrutiny of legislation intended to protect farmland.
PEI Premier Rob Lantz at Government House in Charlottetown on Feb. 21.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
On Thursday, Premier Lantz’s office released two letters sent to RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) CEO Sarah Paquet. He said their agencies need to address allegations of money laundering and foreign interference connected to the group.
“We ask the RCMP to give this matter prompt attention. Allegations of this nature – whether found to be substantiated or not – have the potential to erode public trust and confidence in our democratic institutions,” the Premier’s letter states.
A 2023 investigation by The Globe and Mail showed that companies and individuals affiliated with Bliss and Wisdom bought thousands of acres in the province’s eastern region that were used for a network of religious schools, farming schemes and development projects. The province’s Lands Protection Act is supposed to limit ownership to 1,000 acres per person, 3,000 per corporation and five acres per non-resident.
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The Globe’s reporting demonstrated how Bliss and Wisdom used a complex web of corporate entities, run by a small group of senior members, to build a new global headquarters on the island. PEI residents complained that many of the groups’ land holdings are registered individually to its nuns and monks allowing the organization to get around limits on real estate ownership. At one time, some landowners were offered suitcases full of cash in exchange for their properties, a practice that Bliss and Wisdom said has been discontinued.
In August, Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former CSIS intelligence officer, and Garry Clement, a former national director of the RCMP’s proceeds of crime program, published a book about the group called Canada Under Siege.
Monks at the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society's campus in the community of Heatherdale, PEI, in April, 2023.DARREN CALABRESE/The Globe and Mail
In a statement, a spokesperson for one of the group’s religious schools – the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society – said the organization “welcomes the provincial government’s request for a transparent investigation by the RCMP and FINTRAC.” It said the group has “endured groundless and harmful allegations” for years and its members are relieved to see steps being taken that can finally end speculation over its presence on PEI. Another Bliss and Wisdom affiliated school, the Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute Inc., issued a similar statement saying it supports any investigation “deemed necessary by any Canadian authorities.”
The RCMP did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lori Blair, a FINTRAC spokesperson, said the agency was committed to combatting money laundering and threats to national security.
In February, Steven Myers, PEI’s Minister of Housing, Land and Communities, launched the province’s continuing review, directing the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission to investigate land holdings both directly and indirectly linked to the Bliss and Wisdom schools.
At a press conference in Ottawa last week, the authors of Canada Under Siege, and former federal solicitor general Wayne Easter, alleged that Bliss and Wisdom has links to the Chinese government and the group’s predominance in PEI constitutes a national security threat.
PEI launches probe into Buddhist organization’s extensive land holdings
In his letter, the Premier said those allegations need to be probed responsibly and in a transparent manner.
“Equally troubling are suggestions, made by the same individuals, that Prince Edward Island has been used as ‘a forward operating base for the Chinese Communist Party,’” his letter reads.
Bliss and Wisdom has acknowledged its land acquisitions are made in consultation with its spiritual leader, a Chinese-Canadian woman known to adherents as Master Zhen-Ru. But it has consistently denied any link to the Chinese Communist Party.
The organization, which began buying land on PEI in 2008, has said in a statement in 2023 that its arrival in the province “developed organically,” after two monasteries were established there. It insists there was no co-ordination among lay followers who came afterward.
The Decibel: How a group of Buddhist monks bought up a chunk of PEI
The Coalition for the Protection of PEI Lands, a volunteer advocacy group, brought the issue to the attention of the province in 2018 after receiving letters from angry residents and holding public meetings about large swaths of land and chunks of small communities being rapidly purchased in Kings County, a rural eastern part of the island, said spokesperson Boyd Allen.
The coalition began gathering materials and in 2023 called on the province’s Progressive Conservative government to launch a public inquiry, a call that he says was ignored.
Mr. Allen commended Mr. Lantz for calling on the Mounties and Canada’s financial intelligence unit to investigate potential money laundering but he questioned the timing.
“Why now?” he asked. “The opportunity has been there to unravel this mess for a number of years and there has not been the public will to deal with it.”