Former RCMP Director, Solicitor General Warn About CCP Threat and Land Acquisitions at PEI Hearing

A farmer works a potato field in North Tryon, Prince Edward Island, in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan

CHARLOTTETOWN–Prince Edward Island needs a new approach to land acquisition regulations amid today’s national security realities and Beijing’s subversion attempts, a former senior officer with the RCMP told a provincial hearing in Charlottetown on July 6.

Gary Clement, a former national director for the RCMP’s Proceeds of Crime program, said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is “one of the most ruthless transnational organized crime groups we’ve ever faced,” and that the province needs a more comprehensive approach when it comes to land ownership issues to protect public interest.

“The objective should not be more regulation. The objective should be smarter regulation,” Clement told a panel of the members of the Review of the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission.

The independent commission was formed by the province in May to examine the structure and  responsibilities of PEI’s Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC), a regulatory body overseeing energy and land regulations and appeals processes related to these issues.

The commission’s formation follows revelations by a provincial legislative committee last year that IRAC didn’t publish a report on a 2016-2018 investigation related to major land acquisitions on the island by the groups Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society (GEBIS) and the Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute (GWBI).

PEI Premier Rob Lantz has also asked for the RCMP and Canada’s anti-money-laundering agency, FINTRAC, to probe the issue in October 2025, following a press conference by Clement and his co-investigators in Ottawa the previous month on security concerns related to land acquisitions and CCP interference concerns in PEI.

“These allegations primarily center around the activities of certain Buddhist groups and their affiliates operating in the province and build on years of public speculation and uncertainty,” Lantz wrote in his Oct. 16, 2025, letter to the RCMP.

The July 6 hearing also featured presentations from a number of other members of the public and citizen groups, including Wayne Easter, a former PEI Liberal MP and former Solicitor General of Canada, who is calling for a federal public inquiry into the operations of GEBIS and GWBI and their affiliates.

“Islanders deserve to understand who is investing in our land, what the long-term intentions are, and whether any external political interests could be influencing local decisions,” Easter said.

“We are living in a time of foreign influence, whether economic, political, or institutional. It is a global issue.”

GEBIS and GWBI didn’t return a request for comment.

GWBI says on its website that “there is no big business or government controlling GWBI, GEBIS, or Bliss and Wisdom,” and that allegations that their spiritual leader, teacher Zhen-Ru, has close links to the Beijing regime are false. GEBIS told The Epoch Times in a past statement that it has “absolutely no affiliation with the Chinese government.”

New Approach

Clement has co-authored a book into the issues of CCP’s interference titled “Canada Under Siege: How Prince Edward Island Became a Forward Operating Base for the Chinese Communist Party.” His co-authors are Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior manager with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and Dean Baxendale, CEO of the China Democracy Fund and Optimum Publishing International.

He said the province needs a new Land and Economic Security Commission that is solely focused on matters related to “land ownership, strategic investments, beneficial ownership transparency, and economic security.”

Clement added that the province needs to establish stronger coordination mechanisms with federal security and intelligence agencies such the RCMP and CSIS.

“Foreign influence networks, money laundering organizations, and organized crime groups do not respect provincial boundaries. Neither can the response,” he said.