That’s how I began my final Monkileaks article, published almost exactly 4 years ago, on February 19, 2021.
I have since learned that it was 5 corporations, and many individuals, but we’ll get to that in a bit; however, I want to start with an announcement from earlier today asking IRAC to undertake another investigation into the Buddhist land holdings.
Minister Steven Myers knows the truth about Buddhist land acquisition fraud, just as he knows the truth about the egaming fraud) but won’t tell Islanders, so his call for another investigation looks like a convenient political play that strategically will serve his goal of continued ‘cover-up’ of the truth in the long run. We’ll see in time I suppose.
Keep in mind that IRAC has NEVER released any information, or any report, from their first “alleged” investigation, which I’ll have a lot more to say about later in this articlel. So why would the government again ask them to do it all again, with the hopes that this time around (presuming that their first investigation was thorough and accurate) they will release the results to the public, or at least the MLAs?
That was my final Monkileaks article for a reason, despite having additional and important material to share, that reason being that I had already presented far-more evidence of fraud and wrong-doing by the Buddhists than would normally be necessary to bring about an abrupt halt to land purchases indefinitely, and a process whereby land purchased fraudulently, (i.e., “approved on the basis of false information,” whether over the land limit or not), yet there was neither any (1) political will to expose that fraud with a full revelation of the truth at that time – although it looked like it would happen for a while with Cory Deagle heading up the Standing Committee, a betrayal I’ll discuss in detail in a subsequent article – and (2) little interest to organize locally to confront the silent take-over of PEI land being orchestrated through subterfuge and lies.
It’s not hard to see some obvious “can’t hide” lies now exposing how the initial promise of becoming an integrated part of Island society, such as all the initial talk of being a part of our diverse Island community.
Our naïve “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)” culture gobbled up that vision for their future with us uncritically, seemingly satisfied to have flowers passed out to them by smiling monks and nuns once a year, while at the same time totally ignoring many (any) red flags, mocking as racists those raising simple questions like “why are praying monks in a monastery needing so much land?” or, why they were buying up whole, segregated ‘blocks’ (subdivisions) of property, yet leaving houses abandoned, and doing so during a housing crisis that continues to cripple Islanders.
The Three-Rivers council members have recently approved an application for what will essentially be a ‘gated community,’ where the monks will essentially run things like their own ‘reserve,’ a far-cry from that integrated vision of diversity!
Critics rant about such lines of thinking as “conspiracy theories,” a position that also foolishly ignores completely the reality of the Communist “Belt and Road” strategy, and how Bliss and Wisdom Inc. is playing a key role in that globally, with PEI now its global headquarters.
The province has known from the get-go that all the different newly-formed (once in Canada) corporate entities were all subsidiaries of (or otherwise connected to) the same Bliss and Wisdom corporation registered in Taiwan, but has supported the lie as each entity purchases land with an expectation that each corporate entity has a ‘ceiling’ of 3,000 acres. The province knows this because when they registered their already incorporated entities in PEI that status of being a ‘subsidiary’ of Bliss and Wisdom Inc. was part of the registration.
When GEBIS registered in PEI in 2016, it was explicitly noted on the registration form filed with Government (the last sentence on the above form) that:
“It [GEBIS] is an overseas operation of Bliss and Wisdom Monastery Corporation (BWMC) in Taiwan.”
That important detail was conveniently left out of the corporate listing available to the public in the Corporate Registry, identifying it as an independent Canadian organization first registered in British Columbia.
Don’t for a second fall for the “bait and switch” pretentious calls for IRAC to do another investigation coming from the Greens, it’s all show if they are operating true to their nature. If the Green Party was interested in justice, they’ve be asking why nothing has been done to date, given all the evidence available regarding lies and corruption that has been made public already, i.e., was put on the public record with the Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute (GWBI) appeared before the Standing Committee on Natural Resources when an email was read into the record about their secret strategy to “evade IRAC” by buying through their lay associates and family members, then having them give or sell that back when the coast was clear so to speak.
Don’t forget the millions wasted to get to the truth in the Brad Mix “deleted egaming record” fiasco where UNCONTESTED, CONCLUSIVE evidence was presented that Brad Mix (or someone he gave his password to to gain access to his emails) DELETED, INTENTIONALLY those emails. That was another time when the heat got turned up on government corruption with the damning Order from the Information Commissioner that was met with a move by the Greens, a joint-effort by all parties in a special committee, then a surprise discovery they obviously weren’t expecting giving them the answer they were seeking which they covered-up entirely!
It was the Greens who made all the bluster to “get to the bottom” but, when it was reached, the “bottom,” had the audacity to stand on the steps of the Coles Bldg. to say: “Brad Mix says he didn’t delete his records, and I believe him.”
If this new investigation is to have any merit it must somehow circumvent or supersede the legislative constraints that kept IRAC from staying completely MUM during the first investigation, for if we want to learn anything from this “independent” body, if what Scott MacKenzie told the Legislative Committee looking into the matter previously is accurate, the legislation must first be changed!
When the heat rises on an issue directly involving government cover-up and corruption, normally what happens is a “long waiting for answers while doing nothing” process is put into place to cool things down, with the result being nothing gets done or accomplished, and sometimes the wait is so long the matter is just forgotten and disappears from the landscape. Even the Green party calling for this new investigation by IRAC noted the obvious psychological ‘cooling’ effect as worthy of pursuit:
A new investigation “would help lower the temperature of the rhetoric, what we are seeing down east in that community, some of the challenges that the municipality of Three Rivers is dealing with,” MacFarlane said, adding that results of all investigations should be available to the public. [See: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-committe-land-holdings-feb-6-2025-1.7452845 ].
The committee members wanted to know a lot about the Brendel Farms IRAC investigation, which it was known publicly IRAC was asked to undertake by the Minister of Agriculture at the time, Bloyce Thompson, but learned little.
Regarding the Buddhist Investigation allegedly commenced years earlier in 2015 by IRAC of which nothing had been said or heard, the committee Members were shut down sternly, and were not only not given any answers by either Scott MacKenzie or Doug Clow (the two individuals running IRAC, both appointed by former Liberal Premier Wade MacLauchlan, both appearing before the standing committee) but couldn’t even get a confirmation whether an investigation into the Buddhists had ever even took place!
MacKenzie’s precise, rehearsed, wording in perfect legalese when asked that first critical question by Green critic for land and agriculture, MLA Michelle Beaton:
Now that there are calls for IRAC to come clean on what happened with that investigation, and to produce a report, it’s a good place to start by Monkileaks-The Sequel series. Any such call is pointless, as I’ll explain in this first episode. But getting into that, I want to lay out a few things about my return to using my website to post material, and what you, the reader, can expect with this this series in the following preamble.
I am going to reproduce the entirety of the last short section of my last article later in this post because – despite the 4-year gap – it is both the perfect segue into my new writing on the subject, but bang-on relative and a perfect launching pad as well, seeing that that the issues left idle at the time remain the same, as does the evidence and analysis I made public at that time regarding the alleged IRAC investigation, for which I do believe they did some preliminary work, but for which I don’t believe they ever wrote a report; but rather, abandoned it and cover-up the information of fraud that should have triggered immediate action far beyond what was taken by IRAC upon learning of the fraud.
With all the commotion afoot lately over Buddhist land holdings and whatnot these days, three-river councillors threatening legal action against citizens expressing frustration at their seeming compliance with a direction for development involving the Buddhists that many, (perhaps the majority, if a democratic vote was to be held among three river residents) are very concerned about, and feel helpless to have any legitimate say in the future shape of their own lives and communities.
We have the mainstream media involved again [who have to-date viewed the “land” concerns of the local residents as some kind of front for racism] again making the “claims and counter-claims” of individuals the main story, not what’s really the MAIN story.
What needs to happen is a few deep breaths, and a sober, rational look at the facts that provide VERY legitimate grounds for great concern for local residents and all Islanders.
Those facts have already been published in research I undertook over 4 years ago. Those facts remain relevant, but have not been the focus of discussion, likely because most people are simply unaware.
There weren’t that many people interested in the issues, or not nearly as many as now, so not many even likely read my articles. To those referencing them now, well, I have an unfortunate tendency to bury the “gold nuggets” in “paragraph 88” in a 40 page article, so I can forgive people that are now keenly interested in the Buddhist land issue for their ignorance of those crucial facts.
As noted in my preamble, to precise those “nuggets” in a far-more concentrated and concise manner is now the plan in this series, now that the appropriate groundswell of interest has taken place in the passage of time, and that critical (but also ‘voluminous’) foundation of analysis, insight and crucial supporting documentati0n and evidence has been laid down as reference supp0rt for claims, i.e., I d0n’t have to spend pages and pages to get to those “nuggets” in my new articles, but make sure you get them up-front and often, tied together to paint more potent pictures of what really has happened and is happening, and to make more powerful cases for many of the same VERY strong claims that should have prompted major response from our provincial government at the time, but didn’t. Perhaps they will now if used strategically, and by “stratiti9cally,” I don’t mean in a sit-down meeting with anyone in government, which I’ll have more to say about in subsequent articles.
The two top-dogs at IRAC appearing before the Standing Committee to discuss both the Brendel Farms and the Buddhist controversies alive at the time were both appointed to run the organization by Wade MacLauchlan in 2016.
Clow was really an administrative side-kick sent to help the real power at IRAC MacLauchlan was putting into place on behalf of the real powers that run this province – Stewart, McKelvey law firm and their main corporate clients (i.e., Irvings, PEI government, etc.). Scott was top boss on the corporate legal ladder at the firm, as his current bio mentions (he’s now with Key-Murray law firm since recently leaving IRAC).
As noted in the extensive overview highlighting Mackenzie’s past legal experience adjudicating complex corporate matters (they focus on “energy” not “land”, but it’s on his LinkedIn account we get a real picture of the Stewart-McKelvey background MacLauchlan was interested in when he placed him at IRAC), describing himself in the “third-person” in the ‘About’ section of his LinkedIn page, we read:
“Scott is a lawyer with over 30 years of experience as a Partner and Chair of the Charlottetown Office Corporate Commercial Law Practice Group at Stewart McKelvey, an Atlantic Canadian law firm.”
Before I jump into the main theme of this first article in the series, I want you to first read what a former government insider knowledgeable about what he speaks said back in July, 2017 about the law firm Stewart, McKelvey in an Eastern Graphic article titled, “ One stop political shopping, the same Charlottetown law firm at the helm of both major PEI political parties,”
“What does trouble me, however, is that Margaret Ann Walsh is part of the Stewart McKelvey law firm, and just down the hall in the same law firm, the president of the Island Liberal Party, Scott Barry, hangs his professional hat. That’s right, the presidents of both major political parties work for the same law firm, blending their partisan responsibilities with the firm’s collective goal of attracting clients and making money.
As already stated, there is a legitimate and necessary connection between law and politics and the administration of government, but that relationship also produces great financial benefits for the lawyer, through securing ongoing legal work from government departments, representing government in court actions, and acting on behalf of businesses and organizations dealing with government at various levels.
A successful Island law firm will maintain connections with both major political parties by financially contributing to both parties, and by ensuring someone in the firm has influence within the two party leaderships. This means regardless of which party forms the government, lucrative files can be retained, and simply moved from one office to another, and the gravy train can keep on rolling.
It’s not the first time the Charlottetown firm of Stewart McKelvey has harboured the presidents of both the Liberal and Conservative Parties, or exercised inordinate influence over the political affairs of the province. The alumni of the firm, in its various iterations over the years, includes several party executives, as well as former and present politicians.
For instance, when lawyer Joe Ghiz became Liberal premier in 1986, founding partner of the firm Alan Scales, a close friend of Ghiz, was the gris eminence of the rival Conservative Party. Since then, Murray Murphy, Geoff Connolly, and Jim Travers, all Stewart McKelvey lawyers, have served as senior officers of the Conservative Party of Prince Edward Island at one time or another, along with Keith Boswell, who is a judge of the federal court.
Now joining those ranks is Margaret Ann Walsh.
On the Liberal side of the political fence, the party executive involvement is no less impressive. Former senior partner Gordon Campbell, now Acting Chief Justice of the PEI Supreme Court, was once president of the Liberals, as was the current MP for Charlottetown, Sean Casey. Other former Liberal Party executive members have included the late Brendan Curley, Spencer Campbell, Scott MacKenzie and of course Scott Barry. Moreover, it’s just a matter of time I believe before the firm’s current rising star, Jonathan Coady, ascends to a position of party executive authority. He will have to choose blue or red.
The important point to be made here, is that when it comes to Stewart McKelvey as a law firm, there is only one side of the fence, and partisan politics is played out as a zero-sum game, with party allegiances kept for one purpose, to harness and maintain government business and influence within the firm.
In my opinion, such control and influence by a single Charlottetown law firm is not at all in the democratic interests of Prince Edward Islanders. It creates a professional oligarchy that can exercise inordinate power, secretively and without accountability.”
m
Now Margaret-Ann Walsh is alleged to be involved in the Gamesys proposal scandal, with the documents filed in the PEI Supreme court in the lawsuit against Dennis King et. al., claiming she was at both the meeting at Simms, and at the key meeting that allegedly took place in a cottage in Rustico.
******************
Note: The following section in red was the opening section of my last Monklileaks article on Scott MacKenzie’s presentation to the Standing Committee:
Scott MacKenzie and Doug Clow appeared at the Committee yesterday with one goal in mind: say not a single word about that investigation into the Buddhists, not even acknowledging that it ever even took place. And that’s what happened: Mackenzie pleaded the 5th degree, to the 9th degree!
I first broke the story about IRAC’s Buddhist investigation last November and December in two successive episodes of my Monkileaks investigative series, however, I didn’t provide a lot of detail about it at that time, focusing on how the nuns had circumvented the Lands Protection Act while under investigation by IRAC, and the failure of IRAC to make anything of that investigation public knowledge:
“When IRAC began an investigation into GEBIS and GWBI in 2015-16, there was a ‘freeze’ on any further land purchases. GWBI purchased a large property in Brudenell during that time with the names of 5 parishioners (laypeople) to avoid IRAC application, which was explicitly stated as the purpose of purchasing that way…to evade IRAC.” [Zhenru: Master of Bliss and Wisdom Buddhists, November 13,2020].
“If IRAC hadn’t stopped making the reports from the investigation public some time ago, Islanders like me would be able to get more information that might shed some light on exactly what IRAC investigated about the Buddhists, why they investigated the Buddhists in the first place, and what the outcome of that investigation was….I don’t recall any Guardian or CBC story, nor Eastern Graphic coverage; however, can’t say I read enough to be sure I didn’t miss it.” [Monkileaks: “Putting Down Roots,” December 6, 2020].
I provided a significant amount of additional detail in a more recent article, a section of which I reproduce in the summary of this article.
I believe the evidence that spurred that 2015-2019 IRAC investigation was information that multiple corporate entities were being used by one corporate entity – Bliss and Wisdom Inc. based in Taiwan – to acquire land acreage FAR EXCEEDING THE CORPORATE LAND LIMITS stipulated in the Lands Protection Act.”
This was a slide in a slide presentation made to the PEI government (never made public) showing what they were planning to build.
Note: The following section in red was the last section of my last Monkileaks article, but was a section first published in an article about a giant statue the Buddhists were planning to build on the Brudenell river which I had published a few weeks earlier. I had put that section in red at the end of the final Monkileaks article on Scott MacKenzie’s presentation to the Standing Committee, introducing it like follows:
“I’m going to reproduce the section of my last Monkileaks article titled “Is this GUAN YIN Statue Still Part of the Buddhists’ Plan for PEI?,” published on January 28, 2021, to again present evidence supporting my belief that IRAC is currently engaged in a cover-up of a massive scandal regarding the Buddhists, and no one in Government apparently cares! Note: Still amazed that our “media” hasn’t considered Buddhist plans to build a statue of Guan Yin that’s more than 50 ft. higher than the Statute of Liberty plunked in the Buddha-nell River as newsworthy!]”
“I had mentioned in a previous article that the “General” was one of the powerful “three amigos” running the entire Bliss and Wisdom Inc. corporation and that he owns Master Zhenru’s PEI residence, as well as that huge complex that serves as the main headquarter offices for GEBIS and the hub of Bliss and Wisdom Inc.
I had also mentioned that it was the General who had issued that single cheque to pay the property taxes for those 5 Buddhist organizations and undisclosed number of Buddhists nuns, monks and followers, however, I didn’t offer any further details. I since learned that my earlier statement and claim was not entirely accurate. I’ll explain.
A good researcher never assumes anything, and I foolishly did exactly that when I said it was a single “cheque” that covered all those property taxes. They were paid with “cash”!
The following email from a lawyer to 2 of the 5 Buddhist corporations under investigation [Grain Essence and Splendid Essence] outlined 4 potential “options” as a legal strategy to respond to IRAC’s request for documentation relating to that tax payment incident.
IRAC had ordered the Buddhist corps under investigation to cease purchasing properties. The monks and nuns and lay Bliss and Wisdom followers soon found a work-around (illegal mind you) that I’ll have a lot more to say about in subsequent episodes in this Monkileaks series.
The email to Grain Essence and Splendid Essence from their lawyer resulted in instructions to go with option #2, the significance of which I’ll not get into here.
That decision was made for those two Buddhist corporation by a GEBIS monk, who apparently made the same decision and choice of legal response for all 5 of the Buddhist corporations, notwithstanding the different lawyers involved to maintain the appearance of independence.
It should also be pointed out that Master Zhenru was the owner of Splendid Essence and Director of Grain Essence at the time the IRAC investigation began in 2015, but for obvious reasons, removed herself at some later point and no longer appears as the owner and/or director now of either corporation now.
It was in that email to Grain Essence and Splendid Essence that I learned the payment was made using cash:
“As payments were made by cash, and the Order [from IRAC] requested copies of cheques, copies of confirmed cash payments are not being provided.”
Perhaps that’s part of the explanation IRAC might eventually give us as to why they took no action against the Buddhists when they closed the file on the investigation – maybe they went along or agreed with the Buddhists’ lawyers that it (IRAC) did not have the legal right to obtain the tax information documents, and without that information, could not show on paper what they knew in their heads.
The fact that the folks at IRAC who were involved [likely Doug Clow and Scott Mackenzie] had already learned what they needed to know to take action in accordance with the Lands Protection Act seems not to have been considered important since no action was taken.
It seems such ethical considerations are not part of what lawyers get paid to provide their clients, even when their clients are working to undermine and/or circumvent PEI’s laws.”
I’m going to reproduce the section of my last Monkileaks article titled “Is this GUAN YIN Statue Still Part of the Buddhists’ Plan for PEI?,” published on January 28, 2021, to again present evidence supporting my belief that IRAC is currently engaged in a cover-up of a massive scandal regarding the Buddhists, and no one in Government apparently cares!
[Note: Still amazed that our “media” hasn’t considered Buddhist plans to build a statue of Guan Yin that’s more than 50 ft. higher than the Statute of Liberty plunked in the Buddha-nell River as newsworthy!
Will the Green Opposition members be asking Government what they intend to do about this situation regarding the illegitimate land purchases of thousands of acres by the Buddhists? And IRAC’s failure to properly deal with the matter when it was investigated, but then kept secret?
As I estimate it, Bliss and Wisdom Corporation [through it’s various “children” organizations, nuns, monks and laypeople] owns somewhere in the vicinity of 7,000 acres over the limit established by the Lands Protection Act, and I believe that’s something our closed-lipped CEO and Chair of IRAC, Scott MacKenzie, knows!
When the CEO and Chair of IRAC can throw a temper tantrum and shout down an MLA for simply asking why IRAC didn’t investigate a situation that should have been investigated (Brendel Farms) or whether an investigation ever took place (GEBIS, GWBI), the system is clearly broken and needs a major overhaul!
Why IRAC – MacKenzie and Clow – kept the Buddhist investigation under wraps and did nothing to remedy the problem, despite what I believe is clear evidence of fraud and the wanton circumvention and abuse of our law, remains a mystery to me.
Regarding the Brendel Farms fiasco, however, some Islanders believe IRAC never initiated an investigation on its own because Scott MacKenzie was a long-time senior partner of Stewart McKelvey, and Stewart McKelvey [Geoff Connolly] was acting as Irving’s legal counsel on the deal (notwithstanding also being the PEI Government’s main outside legal counsel [e.g., CMT lawsuit]).
In retrospect, with the appearance of a conflict of interest, Scott MacKenzie may not be the best person to be deciding on how much public concern is sufficient to “trigger” an IRAC investigation when it comes to Irving land purchases.”
It has been a long=time since I promised the “Monkileaks – the Sequel” series, and even detailed what I would do in the first few articles. There was, frankly, over the past 4 years, no justification that I could see to put the effort into any further writing on the subject.
I’m not really sure there’s much reason now either, notwithstanding a groundswell of concern that was, sadly almost completely absent 4 years ago when it certainly would have had a better chance of impacting the direction of things.
I’m an eternal optimist, and tenacious in pursuing every avenue to bring about positive change; however the tools and means of those becoming aware of just how big the problem is underlying the secondary problems associated with the “Buddhists” aren’t readily available to bring about the desired social changes, and the political will is not only not likely to be found anywhere in this quantum dimension, but if the truth was known by those seeking change, they’d realize that there is organized, committed collusion ensuring continuation of what is happening.
I’m not sure there’s any point presenting more “evidence” from research into the Buddhist fraud and illegalities, because there’s neither any political will nor publicly-evident strategy to do anything about what is transpiring, and has been on a steady, well-planned trajectory for many years.
There is not only no willingness to do anything within government, but dedication to covering-up the truth about the illegal entity under which all-things “Buddhist” in PEI are subsumed corporately, i.e., Bliss and Wisdom Inc., and all the lies, many of which I have already provide extensive documentation in my initial series, which, again, resulted in zero action being taken by government or anyone in the official opposition.
When solid evidence of fraud and illegal activity is uncovered and there is no interest, what’s the point of trying to “get a meeting with the Premier”?
That’s where we’re at here in PEI -i.e., the problem isn’t a “Buddhist” problem, it’s not even a “land” problem. Land is suffering because of the real problem, as are we!
And again, the real problem is the selfishness and/or cowardice of our leaders who will not confront those who wish to own and control the land, and have many years ago gained control of the levers of government, and IRAC, to ensure agricultural and land laws, policies and practices serve their vision and selfish corporate profit motives.
They promise farm banks and kill them once elected.
They promise to release information on poisons being applied to support corporate farming but haven’t now in 8 years! Why not?
And when the heat gets turned up about land, they call for another “look at the matter” by IRAC, those very agents who both (1) hid everything in the first place; then (2) refuse to disclose any information at all to our elected MLAs.
Further articles in this series will always have this real “problem” in mind providing the framework for critical analysis and strategic thinking and planning.
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