This article originally appeared in the National Post.
By Ian Dowbiggin, November 19, 2025
Early in 2025, the final report from Judge Marie-Josée Hogue’s Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions revealed that foreign actors, notably the People’s Republic of China, pose an “existential threat” to Canadian democracy.
What the report did not say was that nowhere in Canada is that threat more glaring than on Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province. P.E.I. provides a glimpse into how the controversy over the presence of Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-directed organizations warrants transparency and accountability, features that have been conspicuously missing in Anne of Green Gables land.
That was the topic of an event in Ottawa on Oct. 8. Attendees included journalists, researchers, concerned citizens, intelligence experts, representatives from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and former solicitor general Wayne Easter.
While the meeting’s participants talked about the broad national security threats that Beijing poses to Canada, they also spent considerable time discussing the alarming body of evidence suggesting that P.E.I. is the site of money-laundering, illegal land purchases and “elite capture,” all traced back to China’s Communist government. Easter, along with former CSIS intelligence officer Michel Juneau-Katsuya and former RCMP investigator Garry Clement, warned that P.E.I. could be used as a “forward operating base” for the CCP.
The consensus at the Ottawa meeting was that, with Canada’s national security at stake, only a national inquiry could uncover the true scale of Beijing’s presence on the island. The story starts in eastern P.E.I. with five sprawling buildings and controlled-access compounds housing Buddhist monks and nuns belonging to a group called Bliss and Wisdom. Canada Revenue Agency filings show the two main monasteries have accumulated very close to $500 million in assets.
The first monks arrived around 2008, but now there are hundreds of monks and nuns, under the spiritual leadership of Zhen-Ru, an unordained layperson who, Radio-Canada reports, has links to Beijing. Although Zhen-Ru claims to follow Tibet’s Buddhist tradition, Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, does not recognize her.
Despite pressure from Islanders such as blogger and historian David Weale, the provincial government, media elites and other stakeholders have given every indication that they want nothing to do with the Bliss and Wisdom file.
But the story has become too big to ignore. In February, after extensive pressure from citizens’ groups, P.E.I.’s government announced it was launching an investigation into the Buddhists’ land purchases. The government also ordered the regulatory commission in charge of land transactions to release the results of an investigation said to have been concluded in 2018.
But a bombshell hit on Oct. 8. When faced with a subpoena issued by a committee of the P.E.I. legislature, the regulatory commission confessed that no report was produced by the 2018 investigation into Buddhist land purchases, despite previous assurances that such a report existed.
In the wake of this startling news, P.E.I. Premier Rob Lantz asked the RCMP to launch a full investigation into what he called “allegations of foreign interference and money laundering” in the province, saying that Islanders “deserve answers.”
Days later, yet another bombshell: the RCMP announced that it had already conducted investigations into allegations of money laundering and foreign interference on P.E.I., but that so far, “all investigations were concluded as unfounded.”
The RCMP says that because of new information, it will review its past findings, but the statement has mystified many Islanders. For example, why has there been no announcement of these RCMP investigations in the past? And why were key witnesses and experts on the topic of Bliss and Wisdom seemingly not interviewed over the course of these investigations?
A thick atmosphere of mystery and suspicion surrounds the story and there’s no clear resolution in sight. But with politicians of all stripes now calling for a federal inquiry, the genie is out of the bottle. Premier Lantz is right that Islanders deserve answers. So do all Canadians.
Ian Dowbiggin is professor of history at the University of Prince Edward Island.
