TORONTO—As Ontario's auditor general puts the final touches on his report on an alleged Liberal "slush fund," The Epoch Times has uncovered information that suggests ties between one Liberal cabinet minister and a group that received grants from his office.
Auditor General Jim McCarter is looking into whether $32 million in grants for immigrant services were doled out unfairly over the last two years to groups with Liberal ties. A spokesperson in the auditor general's office told The Epoch Times the report would be released by the end of this week.
One organization that received the questionable grants is the Chinese Professionals Association of Canada (CPAC).
Mid-Autumn Festival Dinner
The Epoch Times has learned that CPAC board members figured prominently in a fundraiser for Ontario Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle six weeks before Colle's office issued the first of two unadvertised grants to CPAC. The grants totalled $275,000.
At least 12 of CPAC's 15 board members took part in the Oct. 19, 2006 fundraiser, according to photos of the event found on the website of the Chinese Canadian Times.
The event was called "Mid-Autumn Festival Dinner with Mike Colle." A fundraising form filed with Elections Ontario by Colle's constituency association did not give the theme or location, describing the event only as a "fundraiser." But the date matches that of the dinner held at the Golden Court Abalone Restaurant in Richmond Hill.
Among the CPAC board members in attendance at the fundraiser were the association's president and chairman, Howard Shen, a prominent CPAC leader and former president, Thomas Qu, and Michael Huang, now a policy advisor in Colle's office.
When reached this week, Michael Huang refused to say whether he had a role in organizing the event. He directed The Epoch Times to Colle's media spokesperson. However, Colle's office did not respond to repeated inquiries about whether CPAC board members had organized the dinner. Huang was both an intern in Colle's office and a CPAC board member at the time of the fundraiser.
Reached Friday by phone and asked if he had attended the dinner, Thomas Qu said, "No, no, no," and hung up.
Howard Shen did not return calls.
However, Qu is pictured on stage at the Oct. 19 event holding a microphone and what appear to be speaking notes. He is standing with Colle and a half dozen Chinese-Canadians wearing boutonnieres. Among them is Hughes Eng, national co-chair of the National Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCCC), a pro-Beijing umbrella group to which CPAC belongs. Former Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin says the NCCC is a front organization for the Chinese communist regime.
Eng also reportedly campaigned for Qu in his unsuccessful run for Markham Councillor in 2003.
When reached Friday, Rick Byun, a senior communications advisor in Minister Colle's office, rejected any connection between the board members' support for Colle and the grants.
"The support that Minister Colle has as an MPP comes from all sides, from all sorts of a diverse number of people," Byun said.
"If people have a personal inclination to contribute to any particular cause then they're free to do so, and that's not because of their associations, professional or otherwise—that doesn't come into play."
According to the fundraising form submitted to Elections Ontario, the plates at the dinner were priced between $125 and $150 each, with tables going for $1350. The dinner earned $21,130 in revenue, of which $12,940 was counted as contributions to Colle's campaign.
Several attendees made additional donations to Colle's campaign, according to the constituency association annual return for 2006. Hughes Eng contributed an additional $940.
Unadvertised Grants
On Dec. 1, Colle's office issued a $25,000 grant to CPAC "to gather information that will help ease newcomers' transition into life in Ontario." In March, the office quietly awarded CPAC another $250,000. Neither the government nor CPAC announced the second grant publicly at the time.
Also in March, Colle hired Michael Huang as a policy advisor. Huang had been working as an intern in Colle's office since September. Colle says Huang resigned from CPAC on Oct. 26, a week after the fundraising dinner. Colle denies that Huang's working in his office played any role in the grants to CPAC.
But neither of the CPAC grants was advertised, and the government provided no formal evaluation criteria.
Premier Dalton McGuinty's government has since enacted changes to make future grants more transparent.
Colle has strongly defended the CPAC grants, saying they were a result of a "crisis that was occurring" in the immigrant community in which many foreign-trained professionals were unable to find work.
He has called CPAC an organization with "an incredible track record."
But not everyone involved with CPAC agrees. Some accuse the group of acting as a lobby for the Chinese consulate in Toronto.
Beyond Chinese Professionals
According to CPAC's website, its main objectives include providing opportunities for Chinese professionals to network, train, integrate into Canadian society, and develop their careers. At the same time, it aims to be "a national voice and representative of the Chinese-Canadian community."
CPAC also works with state and local-level Chinese governments to attract Chinese-Canadians with technical knowledge to return to China to discuss their technology, all expenses paid.
CPAC helped arrange eight such visits in 2006 and posted another five opportunities in May of this year. Areas of interest include new materials, electronics, biomedicine, new energy, mechanical and autos technology, petroleum, and others.
A lifetime CPAC membership is available for a one-time $100 fee, and members are entitled to discount car insurance. CPAC says it has now attracted 20,000 members.
But CPAC leaders have not always stuck to issues relating to Chinese-Canadian professionals.
In 1999, Thomas Qu spoke as CPAC president at an event condemning Taiwanese independence and was praised in the Chinese regime's official Foreign Affairs website.
Qu was also one of only 28 overseas Chinese invited to the 10-day Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing in May 2005, a privilege reserved for only the most trusted Communist Party supporters.
During Chinese leader Hu Jintao's visit to Toronto in September 2005, Michael Huang was also seen positioning pro-Communist Party supporters to block protesters.
In 2004, Huang was also among a core group of Chinese consulate supporters who showed up at Toronto City Hall to protest a motion that was to recognize a "Falun Dafa Day" in the city. Falun Dafa, or Falun Gong, is a spiritual practice persecuted by the communist regime in China. Huang and the others sprang to action after the Chinese consulate sent a letter to councillors and the mayor urging them not to pass the motion.
Huang was also the chief organizer of a farewell dinner for outgoing Chinese Consul General Chen Xiaoling in Dec. 2006.
Powerful Lobby
Last week, nine CPAC members told media they believed many had joined the organization solely because of its discount car insurance package. They said they felt CPAC was using its membership numbers to lobby the government, though they didn't feel the organization represented them.
"Instead of focusing on services that it claims it provides, CPAC has invested considerable time and energy on packaging itself, and trying to project itself as Leader of the Mandarin community," the CPAC members said.
"In actuality, this organization is controlled by a few persons who are fully supported and endorsed by the local Chinese consulate. "
Nonetheless, the organization and its leaders have been gaining prominence quickly.
Thomas Qu was recently named the executive vice-president of the new Chinese Canadian Liberal Association of Canada.
And sources say they believe CPAC is close to landing a large grant from the federal Citizenship and Immigration ministry.
Workers with other immigrant service providers declined to be interviewed for this story, citing concerns that publicly criticizing the government over its relationship with CPAC might hurt their own efforts to win grants.
However, one said of CPAC: "To be honest, it is not that they have been doing this the longest or that they have the best track record. Somehow they have managed to get the most attention from the minister. That's the difference."
NOTE: The Epoch Times identified 12 CPAC board members at the Oct. 19 Mid-Autum Festival Dinner with Mike Colle by comparing photos from that dinner with photos of CPAC's current board found on the CPAC website and in Chinese-language media.
Those identified include: Thomas (Tao) Qu, a former chairman of the board and president; Howard (Hao) Shen, the current chairman and president; Michael (Zheng) Huang; Stan S. Yu; Bruce (Bing) Jiang, Margaret (Jing) Yang, Hugh Zhao, Christine Xu, Lynda (Mingrong) Xu, Wilbert Lai, Longhuan Kim, and Lawrence Yu (former president). Photos of the dinner can be found at: http://www.cctimes.ca/images/picnews/east/061019/index.html
[Editor's Note: Two of the above 12 names were corrected on July 26: Christine Yu was changed to Christine Xu, Lynda (Mingrong) Yu was changed to Lynda (Mingrong) Xu.]
Additional reporting by Maggie Ma and Anna Yang.
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