That’s easy. Democracy is when 97 per cent of the people agree. Take the Nisga’a deal. When frustrated communities held their own referenda: “7,200 Prince George residents (covering the area of three provincial ridings) voted on the Nisga’a treaty and more than 97% cast their vote against it. Residents of the northern region of Vancouver Island (containing the towns of Port Hardy and Campbell River) also said no to the tune of 97%.

A poll in Ladner-Tswassen found 93% of 3,400 voters against the treaty.” (National Post, October 25, 1999) Similarly, when Victoria radio station CFAX polled listeners about this summer’s arrival of Chinese boatpeople, 97% of them said ‘send them back’. Democracy in Canada is living proof that human beings can put up with anything. Tellingly, whenever someone steps forward to speak for that disenfranchised 97% Majority, that person is promptly denounced as an extremist. “Factoring in a salary and a tax-free allowance, MPs earn the equivalent of about $100,000 a year,” (Toronto Sun, October 24, 1999) to “represent” you?

Elinor Caplan: Is She Okay?

Just how severe are Immigration Canada’s delusions of adequacy? In suggesting an increase to immigration numbers, the minister implies that backlogs matching projected intake levels from one year to the next, do not exist. As a matter of fact, the everlasting logjam actually exceeds the number of immigrants expected this year. Although the figures are not yet finalized, it looks like Canada made room for another 180,000 — but “379,000 immigrant applicants have yet to be processed.” (Globe and Mail, November 3, 1999) Of course the way to handle this, and all bureaucratic incompetence is to bemoan Canadian hard heartedness

“The government now allots more — $81.2-million versus $79.2-million — to handling refugee claims than it does for more normalized immigration.” (Globe and Mail, November 3, 1999) “Canadian taxpayers face a potential bill of $52-million — or $123,000 a person — to cover the costs of housing and feeding more than 420 illegal Chinese migrants who have been detained. … In total, the government estimates the cost of handling the migrants as they go through Canada’s refugee-determination process to be $12-million more than the $40-million it hopes to spend on integrating legal immigrants into Canadian society. … If denied refugee status, they have the right to appeal to the Federal Court.” (National Post, November 2, 1999) Does Ottawa — does anyone — remember when immigration represented a net gain to this country?

The Grasshopper And The Ant

“Together Europe and North America, which contained more than 22 percent of the world’s population in 1950, will contain less than 10 percent by 2025.” (Atlantic Monthly, December 1994) More than one-third of humanity now lives in just two countries: India and China. The same government that desperately wants you to believe that newcomers will cheerfully support us in our dotage is already telling unhappy tax payers to move to another country. The quaint Canadian term, “visible minorities, as designated in the Employment Equity Act of Canada, are ‘persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour’ (Employment and Immigration Canada, 1987, p. B-3). Ten groups are officially designated as visible minorities in Canada – Blacks, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Latin Americans, Other Pacific Islanders, Indo-Pakistanis (or South Asians), South East Asians, and West Asians and Arabs. In 1991, these visible minorities represented close to 10% of the adult population of Canada, double the 1981 percentage. The majority of these individuals were immigrants to Canada, with over a third having arrived between 1981-1991. … Whereas Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants comprised only 3% of immigrants who came to Canada before 1961, they made up 48% of immigrants who arrived between 1981 and 1991.” (Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, Volume 28, July 1996

[See our Anti-German Propaganda Section]

Deadbeat “Sponsors” Burden the Taxpayers

As the smell grows stronger, some of the worst abuses of the immigration and refugee system are beginning to attract attention. Ontario recently confronted Ottawa over a contemptible system that permits virtually anyone to sponsor relatives who end up on welfare just as soon as the sponsor reneges. “Ms. Caplan was quoted as responding that the federal increases to the Canadian Health and Social Transfer included funding for immigration. … Ontario Social Services Minister John Baird said yesterday that the federal government ‘demanded a crystal-clear commitment that all restored funding would go to health care. We gave it to them, and now they’re trying to spend the money twice.’ … Prior to the February federal budget, Prime Minister Jean Chretien demanded, and the provincial premiers pledged, that all increases to the CHST were to be directed to health care.” (Globe and Mail, October 30, 1999) “Deadbeat sponsors cost municipal and provincial taxpayers in Ontario about $140 million a year in social service costs. … Although Ontario could take the province’s 17,000 deadbeat sponsors to court, it would cost an estimated $170 million in legal fees, [Baird] said.” (Toronto Sun, October 28, 1999)

Down The Rabbit Hole With Immigration Canada

What happens when people who spit on such things collide with people who are hog-tied by the process of “due process”? Absolutely nothing. “It’s becoming doubtful that charges will be laid against those people who smuggled the first boatload of Chinese. … RCMP spokesman Grant Learned says a special prosecutor has determined there’s not enough evidence for charges at this point.

The migrants are said to be too intimidated by the smugglers — known as Snakeheads — to talk to Canadian authorities.” (BCTV, October 12, 1999) There’s a nice little old defence strategy — innocence through intimidation. The tax gobbling fun continues: “Several groups helping Chinese migrants with their refugee claims are accusing Canadian authorities of bias [in addition to] denying the migrants adequate legal representation. … The [refugee] board has settled 76 refugee claims — all either rejected or abandoned. In all those cases, the panel members didn’t believe the stories the migrants told about facing persecution at home in China. … The B.C. legal aid system has asked lawyers to bid on contracts to represent 25 migrants at a time, a move [immigration lawyer Zool] Sooleman calls ‘treating these people like cattle.’

‘It’s an auction bid. They’re being raced through the bottom of the system. It’s discriminatory and should be stopped right now.’ [Might the fees also be higher if each individual case could be lingeringly agonized over?] … Colleague Victor Wong’s group worries that panel members who rule on the claims aren’t taking enough time to make their decisions — often giving a verbal ruling within 30 minutes. Add it all up, say the critics, and it appears the Canadian government is trying to deny the migrants due process. …

Critics are unlikely to be satisfied until the immigration and refugee board starts handing down some decisions in favour of the migrants.” (CBC Newsworld, November 6, 1999) On the other hand, those least likely to make a fortune dragging out the process — the boatpeople — evidently feel they are not being “raced through the system” fast enough: “some of the Chinese migrants who are being held at the Burnaby Correctional Centre began a hunger strike this weekend. Forty-five women are refusing to eat. … They are frustrated at the slow progress being made toward their release.” (CBC Newsworld, November 7, 1999)

No, Honestly, It’s Yours!

“‘The Toronto of 1948 is the Toronto of today,’ Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic told more than 1,900 people at the 19th annual Cardinal’s Dinner last night at the Toronto Convention Centre. He said tolerance here is amazing as different languages and cultures move into established areas — and churches. ‘Those whose parents and grandparents had sacrificed enormously to build and maintain very impressive churches did not cling to them,’ he said.” (Toronto Sun, October 22, 1999) Take a little credit — the churches hardly gave them any reason to.

[Human Rights Industry is out of control — Read all about it here]

Immigrant Investors: Giving Canada The Business

Within the abuse plagued Immigrant Investor Program, there is a proud tradition of concluding frequent soul searching sessions by asking just a little less of everyone concerned next time. “A National Post story recently reported that failed business immigrants are free to stay even if they fail to meet their pledges … even the hundreds who have been caught using phoney documents or so-called ‘revolving businesses’ to defraud the immigration department. Between 1994 and 1998, 7,000 entrepreneur immigrants — 40% of the total — passed the two-year deadline for opening a business. Only 10 were deported. Many have simply disappeared or been caught flipping an existing business like a corner store. Others never even made any attempts to start a business.” (National Post, October 16, 1999) “Immigration officials report that about 20 percent of the investor immigrants have ‘disappeared.’

One immigration consultant was found guilty of providing false documents for 104 entrepreneur immigrants. The consultant’s lawyer argued that he should be given a modest fine because the same Quebec case worker monitored all 43 of the sham businesses, but never questioned why they shared only eight home addresses.” (Migration News, November, 1999)

This pattern of setting the lowest possible standards and consistently failing to meet them was established over thirty years ago, when the Liberals decided to turn Canada into a multicultural parking lot. At the time of the ruinous revisions, 25 points automatically accrued to any immigrant “entrepreneur” savvy enough to merely express interest in starting a business here. By 1978, new regulations were imploring owners to take an active role in managing a business that was then expected to employ at least five Canadians (excluding owner and dependants). And yet, four years later, the program was undergoing a full-scale review — oddly — seeking to “promote economic activity and create employment for Canadians”. The 1984 special Orwell edition expanded the definition of “self-employed” to include those contributing to “the cultural and artistic life of Canada,” processing was expedited, and creation of one job for one Canadian was good enough.

The resulting shambles led to calls for provisional admissions and closer scrutiny, but what 1986 actually brought was an increase in projected business immigration intake levels — by 82% — along with establishment of the current Immigrant Investor Programme. Under the new scheme, those left cold by the prospect of actually managing a business here could simply purchase citizenship with a three year minimum provincial investment (loan) of $250,000, assuming that person was worth $500,000. By 1988, inclusion in our little family was being discounted: $100,000 was knocked off the “fee” if funds were earmarked for provinces sadly deprived of their fair share of immigrant investors (Nfld, NS, NB, PEI, Sask, Manitoba, Yukon, NWT). The price of citizenship elsewhere (BC, Al, On or Que) retailed at the standard 250-G’s.

In a third option, an investment of $500,000 over five years (on a net personal worth of $700,000) realized bank-guaranteed repayment with interest, along with touching citizenship ceremony. A new scheme was hatched every couple of years throughout the 90s without significantly altering the essentials of the “tier” (provincial discount) system, while overseas gangsters continued to toast Canadian stupidity. However unproved, whatever sacrifices were asked of us — like the Queen Bee — capital linked migration had to be kept alive at all costs! In the most recent tune-up, the tier system has been abruptly and unceremoniously shovelled out of the immigration stall.

The former minister, Lucienne Robillard announced “an increase in the minimum investment to $400,000 for all investors, regardless of the province where the capital is invested. The minimum net worth of the investor will be $800,000. … In addition to their investment, immigrants bring with them a wealth of international business expertise to Canada and connections to the global economy.” (News Release 99-16, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, March 24, 1999)

Unfazed by the fact that Canada’s major trading partner was, is, and overwhelmingly remains, the U.S., Ms. Robillard’s lacklustre tenure was distinguished by a burning urgency to convince Canadians that immigrants enjoy some magical ectoplasmic “in” with party bosses and despots back home. “The possibility is eliminated by Steven Globerman’s study which shows that there has been no sign of any obvious linkage between immigration from Asia and Canada’s trade with that region between 1973 and 1993. … [Worse] many of the jobs that are created are nothing more than ‘MacJobs’. For example, the Canadian Maple Leaf Fund used investor immigrant money only to build car washes and gas bars.

These activities do nothing more than provide short-term, low paying, dead-end jobs that tend to ghettoize employees and are certainly not what was expected of the program. … [On the other hand, very few jobs of any description are generated when] between 60 percent and 80 percent of all Hong Kong funds entering Canada are invested in real estate. … The leading sectors for investor immigrant investment between 1986 and 1991 have been, by the government’s own admission, the accommodation, food and beverage industries (with 41 percent of investment), construction (25 percent), with the manufacturing sector only receiving 12 percent of funds…. [Yet another problem,] as a series of federal and provincial surveys have found, is the difficulty experienced in monitoring the program over time.

The mobility of many BIP [Business Immigration Programme] migrants within Canada has made it very hard to follow their progress, even in the few years of observation that are required for program compliance. Over the longer term, such government monitoring does not occur and we, therefore, have very little information on the long-term impact of the program, or the duration of the jobs or businesses created, [factors] contributing to many opportunities for fraud and abuse of the program. …

The Economic Council of Canada has questioned the value of the BIP, arguing that, given the amounts involved, the benefits from such foreign financial investments to Canada are very small. … Chinese immigrants are particularly motivated to succeed in easily liquidated business ventures so that they may someday return to their family roots. … The issue of those investments’ long-term presence in Canada is very much a moot point, given capital’s increasing mobility and the clear attractions of the USA for many of the investor and entrepreneur immigrants.

In this sense, the NAFTA agreement, often cited by BIP migrants as one of Canada’s attractions to them, is also one of its main disadvantages since it equally encourages disinvestment from this country. … Many such immigrants have sought to take advantage of the lowest investment tiers (and, so, have invested in the some of the ‘have not provinces’ simply to meet the programme requirements in the cheapest way possible) while, at the same time, actually residing in the metropolitan centres of the country (presumably to meet their own wider economic and social goals).

Thus, in 1993, 90.3 per cent of investor immigrants stated their intention to reside in the three leading provinces of immigration. However, these three provinces received only 47.3 percent of the total investment made under the program. … [While this certainly explains the frenetic support theoretical immigration enjoys in places like Manitoba and Cape Breton Island, it leaves actual magnets like Ontario and B.C. perpetually scrambling to cope with skyrocketing infrastructure and service demands that have not been reflected in the nation-wide pattern of actual investments. Even the government grudgingly admits that immigrants use services at a much higher rate during their first few years in Canada.

Should such opportunism — using Canada as an unavoidable ‘stage’ in a personal development strategy or doormat to America — be rewarded with automatic citizenship?] … From such a perspective, the BIP can only have a series of negative impacts on the majority of the country’s citizens and ultimately, as argued above, on the country itself. However, for certain groups, such analysis also points to the considerable [and fundamentally anti-democratic] advantages that globalization and its associated phenomena extend: the abilities to accumulate and invest capital without restriction, and to move about the globe with a freedom unavailable to others. … The devaluation of Canadian citizenship affects the individual citizen in far-reaching ways. … If being ‘Canadian’ has no more cachet than possessing an American Express Card, the entire notion of citizenship is called into question.” (The Economic Impact of Canada’s Business Immigration Program: A Critical Reappraisal of Theory and Practice, Dr. Alan E. Nash, Dept of Geography, Concordia University, October 25-27, 1996)

October 12, 1999: Six Billionth Born

“In 1913, 400,000 immigrants arrived in Canada; the second highest yearly total was 256,000 in 1993. About 70 people a day request refugee status in Canada.” (Migration News, Vol. 6 No 9, September 1999) “Every ten seconds the world’s population increases by 27 people. … 98 percent of growth occurs in the developing world. [Prior to WW1], “almost 90 percent of the world’s people lived in the countryside. Now nearly half live in cities. … China, whose cities now hold 350 million people, has lost 20 percent of its arable land since the late 1950s.”

(National Geographic, October 1998) In Canada, where arable land comprises just 5% of our total land mass, “in 1996, 85% of all immigrants — and 93% of those who arrived between 1991 and 1996 — lived in a census metropolitan area.” (Statistics Canada) This means that prime agricultural land will continue to be paved over to make way for low rental housing and fast food franchises, to accommodate more and more people. “‘This idea that we don’t have enough room here is ridiculous,’ Dr. Hedy Fry, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and the Status of Women, said on the CBC the other night.” (National Post, Sept. 23, 1999)

Making Room For Cuckoo

Western nations have largely given up on the idea that a sovereign state says who gets to join the family. Tears, taunts, tantrums and Third World tumescence increasingly dictate the terms and the timetable of the invasion — as 600 uninvited guests recently proved. The average Canadian tax-slave brightens considerably when he realizes that the world is full of patsies and poltroons: “Swissair will no longer carry passengers who are being deported under force from Switzerland, the company said Thursday.

The Swiss national carrier’s decision came into force Sept. 10, spokesman Urs Peter Naef said. Incidents involving people resisting deportation have caused increasing problems with passengers and flight crews, he said. In one such case in May, a Congolese man escaped deportation after fellow passengers on a Swissair flight to Kinshasa attacked his three police guards during a stopover in Cameroon. The Swiss officers returned to Switzerland because local authorities wouldn’t let the plane continue unless the detainee was taken back.” (Associated Press, September 30, 1999) However, in contrast to spiritless Canada, other nations are beginning to tire of the inexhaustible ingratitude our generosity seems to inevitably inspire: “The right-wing Swiss People’s Party headed for stunning gains in parliamentary elections yesterday and staked a potentially explosive claim to a second cabinet seat in the coalition government. Television projections, forecast the anti-immigration, anti-EU People’s Party would leap from fourth to first in the popular vote.” (Globe and Mail, October 25, 1999)

“‘The people have rewarded us for our policy, namely fighting the abuse of asylum law and reforming state finances with tax cuts,’ [party president Ueli] Maurer told Swiss television.” (National Post, October 25, 1999) Earlier this month, Austria’s Freedom Party (FPO) enjoyed similar successes; its populist campaign based on ‘Uberfremdung’ — a word that means overpopulation with foreigners.

Pointing to “a government poll which found that more than half of Austrians are in favour of stopping all immigration. … The FPO plans to close Austria’s borders to foreigners for up to four years and attempt to block European Union expansion to the east. … ‘We have seven million Austrians in Austria and one million immigrants if you include illegal entrants,’ [party leader Jorg] Haider said.” (London Daily Telegraph, September 26, 1999) Much more in keeping with our bloater politicians, president Thomas Klestil fretted that a triumph for Haider might make Austria “ungovernable”. Isn’t that a little far fetched in a cohesive society that actually shares common values?

There Are Differences

Among some cultures dogs, re pariah animals meant to be chased off with rocks; others see an unclean beast whose saliva is as defiling as that of swine; some see a karmically debased creature, while still others see a four footed buffet. These cultural differences prove surprisingly durable. “The unswerving loyalty displayed by man’s best friend was recognized as early as the 10th century, according to archaeologists who have made one of the most important Anglo-Saxon finds in Britain.

Among the remains of a medieval settlement discovered on the outskirts of Ely, Cambridgeshire, experts have found the remains of about 20 dogs, buried in individual graves. … Roddy Regan, joint director of the dig, said: ‘There is certainly an element of care in the way the dogs have been buried. My guess is that they would have been working dogs used as sheepdogs or for herding. But I have never seen this kind of burial of dogs before, and it seems to show that the owners had built up some kind of attachment to their animals.’ … The settlement, discovered in a field by housing developers, may be the site of a village [of about 100 people] called Cratendune … based around a monastery built in the seventh century by Queen Etheldreda.” (Globe and Mail, November 6, 1999)

Is This A Great Country Or What!

Remember the brouhaha over unpaid student loans? Apart from post-graduate escapees taking their education with them to The Free World, we have other problems. “Behind the facade of a vocational school specializing in computer skills, [the stellar-sounding Credit Valley Institute of Business and Technology] the RCMP alleges, was a mostly phoney operation that bled the Ontario Student Assistance Plan of more than $18-million in less than a year. … Of the 1,568 people who applied for and received loans from the institute for the 1998-99 school year, only about 10 per cent are believed to have been legitimate students.

[According the Toronto Star of November 9, 1999, the institute “accepted students in its computer courses who could hardly speak English and, in one case, could not even find the letter A on a typewriter.”] The owner of the school, Lawrence Mpamugo, 51, and his sister-in-law, Justina Mpamugo, 45, both of Mississauga, [are] charged with fraud over $5,000, and conspiracy to commit fraud. …

An arrest warrant on the same charges has been issued for Mr. Lawrence’s younger brother, Ernest, believed to be in Nigeria. … Nigeria has become infamous in recent years as a source of international fraud and confidence scams. In this instance, however, there was no indication the alleged fraud was being run from the West African country.” (Globe and Mail, November 6, 1999) Heavens no! With an immigration system like this, why bother? Will any one link in the chain of morons that led to this ever be held accountable?

[The Government claims we have no heritage! Well Canada First Disagrees!]

Gypsy Crime, but You’re Not Supposed to Notice

Two summers ago, when an influx of gypsy illegals recruited here by an immigration lawyer were stuffing emergency accommodations to the bursting point, a group of youthful skinheads staged a protest. Certainly, one of their signs — “Honk if you hate Gypsies” — showed a lack of judgement. The immigration lobby and professional censors like Bernie Farber of the Canadian Jewish Congress were soon in full cry that they be charged with hate. The police dutifully did so. The youth quickly learned, as anti-APEC protesters would that fall, that in politically correct Canada, militant protest against the powers-that-be will not be tolerated.

When interviewed, the youth warned that people like this would be no benefit to Canada. Perhaps, we’re not supposed to notice, but … “A band of fraud artists posing as undercover police officers has scammed dozens of people for amounts as high as $18,000, Toronto police said yesterday. Police are looking for as many as 20 people after receiving a tip about an organized group running money exchange and bank examiner frauds in Toronto, Hamilton and Montreal. The suspects are believed to have come to Canada as immigrants last year and have been moving around the country ever since. …

Police have been reporting similar incidents as far away as Saskatchewan.” (Globe and Mail, November 9, 1999) “Fraud officers believe the conmen, who they described as Romanian Gypsies, have also pulled scams in the States. … [Even though their knowledge of English is sketchy, the group] has been singling out tourists in the downtown core, claiming to be undercover officers probing a counterfeit money ring. They ask to see the tourists’ money and then issue a phoney receipt claiming the money will be returned after their probe. It never is.” (Toronto Sun, November 9, 1999)

More Enrichement: Bear Paws for Better Sex?

“A few discreet queries and a lot of cash will get you a platter of illegal black bear paws in some restaurants, an official with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources said yesterday. The paws, a prized delicacy in many Oriental countries, are even available from some restaurants as takeout, Tim Boyd, a ministry enforcement supervisor said. In some countries, the paws are believed to bolster virility. In a news release yesterday, the ministry announced that a Richmond Hill restaurant [unnamed] had been fined $9,000 for selling bear parts.

Mr. Boyd said undercover ministry officials ordered meals that included paws for takeout from the Richmond Hill restaurant. It was charging $450 per paw platter, he said. Police seized four paws, which police ordered destroyed. The restaurant was the second in the Toronto area to be fined for offering illegal bear parts on its menu in the past year. In May, after a two-month investigation, the ministry and York Regional Police charged the Big Mouth Kee Restaurant on West Beaver Creek Road with three counts of violating the act. Last December, the Champion House Restaurant in Mississauga and its owner [See Hotline #111, March 1999 for an expose of this Chinese eaterie.] were fined a total of $5,000 for selling paws at $300 a plate, Mr. Boyd said. … [He] said many hunters kill black bears only for the paws and gallbladders, which certain communities consider an aphrodisiac.” (Globe and Mail, October 30, 1999) Good grief, talk about crippled. Some restaurants. Some countries. Certain communities.

The society that cannot say what it means, must not appear judgmental, ought not denounce the cruelty, dare not name the restaurant — is just as dead and butchered as the poor creature whose severed paws beckon from glutinous dishes to those experiencing ceaseless erectile dysfunction. Please. At $450 a platter, a $9,000 fine is not an effective deterrent to such barbarous hocus-pocus. How about that much-loved legal remedy of the 90s — mandatory cultural sensitivity training?

Behind Every Successful Man…

“Clifford Fox was suspended Saturday from his job as an official with the Montreal branch of the Immigration and Refugee Board after he and his common-law spouse, [translator] Natalia Zimenko, were each charged with 35 counts of abuse of trust. … [They] have been accused by the RCMP of selling close to 80 Russians [from 35 families] fast-track access to refugee status. … Ms. Zimenko’s translation firm prepared claims for Russian refugee claimants who paid cash for the service. …

During raids last fall at Mr. Fox’s office and at the Montreal home he shared with Ms. Zimenko, RCMP investigators seized the equivalent of $79,864 in U.S. and Canadian currency. … While Mr. Fox had no power to grant refugee status, RCMP investigators charge that his influence was key, since he could grant access to the accelerated claims process and could recommend that an immigration commissioner grant refugee status. Commissioners usually follow such recommendations, the RCMP found.

A sampling of cases of Russian immigrants handled by Mr. Fox from 1995 to 1997 showed an ‘extremely high acceptance rate’ — 86% compared to the 50% average — according to the RCMP. After the raids at his office and home last fall, Mr Fox continued to work at the IRB, although he was moved to ‘more administrative functions.'” (National Post, July 13, 1999) What touching faith. But why? Did he need the money?

Multicult & Strip Malls in Richmond, B.C.

“The small row of Richmond businesses on the corner of Number Four Road and Steveston Highway are adding a new dimension to the expression ‘strip mall’. So much so that residents in the area are demanding city council do something about the X-rated video store and body-rub parlour that occupy the small mall, which is soon to include a pool hall. …

‘Parents are worried about their children being near these places. They complain of finding condoms and needles, which they associate with what goes on there,’ [Richmond Mayor Greg] Halsey-Brandt said. …

[City solicitor Paul Kendrick prepared a report] which said there is concern that some of the businesses might be associated with organized crime and involved child prostitution. The report dealt with massage parlours, pool halls, escort services, social clubs and karaoke bars. … RCMP Inspector Al Speevak said that until April this year, there were 11 massage parlours operating in Richmond. Now there are 17. … In the meantime, city staff will contact the owners of the Steveston mall. ‘The owners live off-shore, but we’d like to talk to them about what else could go in there,’ Halsey-Brandt said.” (Vancouver Sun, September 27, 1999) Immigrant investors, perhaps?