PEI Too Small a Target for PRC Capture? No Way.

Op/Ed columnist Garry Clement argues Prince Edward Island has become a vulnerable beachhead for Chinese Communist Party influence, and only a federal public inquiry can restore trust.

OTTAWA — For years, Prince Edward Island has been portrayed as a postcard-perfect province, far from the geopolitical storms reshaping the world. But recent reporting and allegations—most notably those outlined in Canada Under Siege—have shattered that illusion, revealing a pattern of regulatory breakdowns, political acquiescence, and national-security blind spots.

Yet despite detailed reporting by CBC, The Bureau, Ben Mulroney and others, no federal politician has demanded a public inquiry. That silence is no longer acceptable.

Could the problem be “national security” fatigue after years of hard-hitting reports from The Bureau, The Globe and Mail and others on China’s federal election interference and RCMP probes into diaspora leaders tied to CCP police station and underground finance allegations?

Or is it that too many in Ottawa assume PEI is “too small to matter” in the grand chessboard of foreign influence?

Nothing could be further from the truth — and looking at similar operations in Maine, Missouri, Oklahoma, in addition to well-known operations in Michigan, New York and California, it is abundantly clear the Chinese Communist Party is targeting both rural and urban domains, farmland, universities, remote critical infrastructure, and banks and condo towers and factories alike.

Canada Under Siege lays out this stark narrative: that PEI became an attractive beachhead for actors aligned with the Chinese Communist Party, taking advantage of weak oversight and a political culture unprepared for modern foreign-influence threats.

Our book does not allege that every official was complicit—but it shows how vulnerabilities were created and exploited. These concerns echo long-standing warnings that adversarial states seek the easiest points of entry, not the most obvious ones. If PEI has become one such entry point, even inadvertently, Canadians deserve answers.

Recently, former Solicitor General The Honourable Wayne Easter has become a forceful advocate for a federal public inquiry, adding weight to calls for action. Alongside Dean Baxendale, MP Kevin Vuong, Lt.-Gen. (Ret’d) Christopher Coates, and investigative journalist Sam Cooper, Easter has made it clear that concerns about PEI’s vulnerabilities are neither partisan nor peripheral.

When a former federal minister with decades of experience in security, policing, and agriculture calls for a national-level investigation, the stakes are undeniable. Easter’s support signals that these allegations demand a full, independent examination, and it renders the refusal of current MPs to raise the issue in the House of Commons not only perplexing, but indefensible.

Perhaps the most glaring institutional concern lies with the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC), which oversees property transactions—a domain vulnerable to opaque ownership structures and foreign-influence strategies.

Investigations by CBC, The Bureau, and others have highlighted troubling examples suggesting that IRAC repeatedly failed to enforce the spirit, if not the letter, of PEI’s property legislation. These concerns include approvals granted despite clear red flags, inadequate due diligence on beneficial ownership, patterns of land acquisition inconsistent with transparent market norms, and what critics describe as a regulatory culture “hands-off to the point of negligence.” If even a fraction of these allegations are accurate, PEI did not simply experience administrative slip-ups—its regulatory framework was systematically outmatched by entities prepared to exploit it.

Most astonishing is this: no federal MP—Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Bloc, or Green—has risen in Parliament to demand a federal public inquiry, not even after sustained, corroborating coverage in national media.

Why?

There are several uncomfortable possibilities: national-security fatigue in Ottawa, partisan caution among politicians who may fear unearthing uncomfortable truths from previous governments, and jurisdictional buck-passing, with PEI pointing to Ottawa and Ottawa back to the province while accountability evaporates.

Only a federal inquiry has the tools and jurisdiction to fully investigate interprovincial and international money flows, federal intelligence and law-enforcement awareness, gaps in RCMP or CSIS reporting and response, the role of federal officials and former cabinet ministers, and how foreign-linked entities acquired land, influence, and regulatory latitude in PEI. A provincial inquiry alone cannot compel federal disclosures, examine national-security failures, or interrogate cross-jurisdictional patterns.

This is a national-security issue, not a local zoning dispute.

At stake is more than a review of land transactions. It is the question of whether a Canadian province—no matter how small—was quietly exploited as a forward operating base for foreign influence while regulators failed to regulate and politicians chose to look away.

The only credible path to truth is a public, transparent, federally mandated inquiry with full investigatory powers. Until federal politicians find the courage to demand one, Canadians are left with two choices: accept a narrative shaped by silence, or insist on answers.

The people of PEI—and Canada—deserve far better than silence.