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Wilful Blindness: Foreign Interference | Elite and State Capture | How a Criminal Network of Narcos, Tycoons and CCP Agents Infiltrated the West |
Revised and updated edition of the Globe and Mail and Amazon bestselling book “If you want to understand war in the 21st century, read this to get part of the story.” — Robert Spalding, US Brigadier General (retired)
“This book reads like a thriller and is stranger than fiction. Gripping, racy and exciting, it is difficult to put down. A tale of gambling, narcotics, tycoons, criminal gangs and Communists. And the shocking part is that it’s not a novel, it is all true.” — Benedict Rogers, CEO Hong Kong Watch
In 1982 three of the most powerful men in Asia met in Hong Kong. They would decide how Hong Kong would be handed over to the People’s Republic of China and how Chinese business tycoons Henry Fok and Li Ka-Shing would help Deng Xiaoping realize the Chinese Communist Party’s domestic and global ambitions. That meeting would not only change Vancouver but the world. Billions of dollars in Chinese investment would soon reach the shores of North America’s Pacific coast. B.C. government casinos became a tool for global criminals to import deadly narcotics into Canada and launder billions of drug cash into Vancouver real estate. And it didn't happen by accident. A cast of accomplices — governments hungry for revenue, casino, and real estate companies with ties to shady offshore wealth, professional facilitators including lawyers and bankers, an aimless RCMP that gave organized crime room to grow — all combined to cause this tragedy. There was greed, folly, corruption, conspiracy, and wilful blindness.
Decades of bad policy allowed drug cartels, first and foremost the Big Circle Boys — powerful transnational narco-kingpins with ties to corrupt Chinese officials, real estate tycoons, and industrialists — to gain influence over significant portions of Canada’s economy. Many looked the other way while B.C.’s primary industry, real estate, ballooned with dirty cash. But the unintended social consequences are now a fentanyl overdose crisis raging in major cities throughout North America and life spans falling for the first time in modern Canada, and a runaway housing market that has devastated middle-class income earners. This story isn’t just about real estate and fentanyl overdoses, though. Sam Cooper has uncovered evidence that shows the primary actors in so-called “Vancouver Model” money laundering have effectively made Canada’s west coast a headquarters for corporate and industrial espionage by the CCP. And these ruthless entrepreneurs have used Vancouver and Canada to export their criminal model to other countries around the world including Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, Cooper finds that the RCMP’s 2019 arrest of its top intelligence official, Cameron Ortis, raises many frightening questions. Could Chinese transnational criminals and state actors targeting
Canada’s industrial and technological crown jewels have gained protection from the Mounties? Could China and Iran have insight into Canada's deepest national security secrets and influence on investigations? Ortis had oversight of many investigations into transnational money laundering networks and insight into sensitive probes of suspects seeking to undermine Canada’s democracy and infiltrate the United States, according to the evidence Cooper has found.
Wilful Blindness is a powerful narrative that follows the investigators who refused to go along with institutionalized negligence and corruption that enabled the Vancouver Model, with Cooper drawing on extensive interviews with the whistle-blowers; thousands of pages of government and c
“This book reads like a thriller and is stranger than fiction. Gripping, racy and exciting, it is difficult to put down. A tale of gambling, narcotics, tycoons, criminal gangs and Communists. And the shocking part is that it’s not a novel, it is all true.” — Benedict Rogers, CEO Hong Kong Watch
In 1982 three of the most powerful men in Asia met in Hong Kong. They would decide how Hong Kong would be handed over to the People’s Republic of China and how Chinese business tycoons Henry Fok and Li Ka-Shing would help Deng Xiaoping realize the Chinese Communist Party’s domestic and global ambitions. That meeting would not only change Vancouver but the world. Billions of dollars in Chinese investment would soon reach the shores of North America’s Pacific coast. B.C. government casinos became a tool for global criminals to import deadly narcotics into Canada and launder billions of drug cash into Vancouver real estate. And it didn't happen by accident. A cast of accomplices — governments hungry for revenue, casino, and real estate companies with ties to shady offshore wealth, professional facilitators including lawyers and bankers, an aimless RCMP that gave organized crime room to grow — all combined to cause this tragedy. There was greed, folly, corruption, conspiracy, and wilful blindness.
Decades of bad policy allowed drug cartels, first and foremost the Big Circle Boys — powerful transnational narco-kingpins with ties to corrupt Chinese officials, real estate tycoons, and industrialists — to gain influence over significant portions of Canada’s economy. Many looked the other way while B.C.’s primary industry, real estate, ballooned with dirty cash. But the unintended social consequences are now a fentanyl overdose crisis raging in major cities throughout North America and life spans falling for the first time in modern Canada, and a runaway housing market that has devastated middle-class income earners. This story isn’t just about real estate and fentanyl overdoses, though. Sam Cooper has uncovered evidence that shows the primary actors in so-called “Vancouver Model” money laundering have effectively made Canada’s west coast a headquarters for corporate and industrial espionage by the CCP. And these ruthless entrepreneurs have used Vancouver and Canada to export their criminal model to other countries around the world including Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, Cooper finds that the RCMP’s 2019 arrest of its top intelligence official, Cameron Ortis, raises many frightening questions. Could Chinese transnational criminals and state actors targeting
Canada’s industrial and technological crown jewels have gained protection from the Mounties? Could China and Iran have insight into Canada's deepest national security secrets and influence on investigations? Ortis had oversight of many investigations into transnational money laundering networks and insight into sensitive probes of suspects seeking to undermine Canada’s democracy and infiltrate the United States, according to the evidence Cooper has found.
Wilful Blindness is a powerful narrative that follows the investigators who refused to go along with institutionalized negligence and corruption that enabled the Vancouver Model, with Cooper drawing on extensive interviews with the whistle-blowers; thousands of pages of government and c
- GenresPolitics
361 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 8, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 10, 2025
Really amazing account of how deeply the Chinese (and other) organized crime has infested Canada, and how complicit the government has been in allowing that to happen. And I should say, this isn't a tactical failure on the RCMP or CSIS front. These two groups are well aware of what is happening, but are hamstrung by politicians whose top priority is to collect the ever-increasing revenue from the corruption of Canadian casinos that comes as part of the money laundering schemes implemented there. The other members of the 'Five I' group cannot count on Canada any longer and it is completely understandable. Shameful and embarassing as a Canadian.
July 3, 2023
This book had amazing, mindblowing information about Canada and the influence of the CCP party here, but I found it difficult to keep the time lines straight when reading so the information seemed to blend together and it became a bit of a tedious chore to plow through to the end. It needed more of a storyline or plot. Nonetheless, the compelling facts and information kept me hooked until the end and I do recommend it.
April 30, 2026
This is quite an eye-opener. Cooper has done a lot of investigative work in order to tell us how Chinese criminal organizations, with the knowledge and assistance of the Chinese Communist Party, and in alliance with Iranian, Mexican, and Indian criminal networks, are reaping vast profits while flooding North America with drugs, in particular fentanyl.
They bring in ingredients for the drug, which is produced and sold to our sons and daughters. The dirty money is brought to casinos in British Columbia in hockey bags containing hundreds of thousands of dollars in stacked twenties. These are used to purchase chips, after which the criminal may make a couple of low bets. He cashes the chips in for stacks of hundreds and walks out with non-taxable lottery winnings, or in other terms, laundered money.
Cooper shows how this money is distributed through underground banks and through the purchase of Vancouver real estate, which drives the prices up to where you have to be a billionaire to buy a home in some sections of that city. Of course, this criminal activity is attended by intimidation, murder, and arson. Why don't we stop it? In a word, corruption. The province makes money through the casinos, and the Chinese are very careful to contribute generously to political parties and charities like the one associated with the Trudeau family. Remember Trudeau? He's the tool who publicly stated that he had admiration for China's basic dictatorship. More likely he had greater admiration for their money.
I've just touched the surface here. Cooper lays it all out for you in great detail. It's not an easy book to read, but you will be horrified to the extent that the West has been infiltrated by a hostile power.
They bring in ingredients for the drug, which is produced and sold to our sons and daughters. The dirty money is brought to casinos in British Columbia in hockey bags containing hundreds of thousands of dollars in stacked twenties. These are used to purchase chips, after which the criminal may make a couple of low bets. He cashes the chips in for stacks of hundreds and walks out with non-taxable lottery winnings, or in other terms, laundered money.
Cooper shows how this money is distributed through underground banks and through the purchase of Vancouver real estate, which drives the prices up to where you have to be a billionaire to buy a home in some sections of that city. Of course, this criminal activity is attended by intimidation, murder, and arson. Why don't we stop it? In a word, corruption. The province makes money through the casinos, and the Chinese are very careful to contribute generously to political parties and charities like the one associated with the Trudeau family. Remember Trudeau? He's the tool who publicly stated that he had admiration for China's basic dictatorship. More likely he had greater admiration for their money.
I've just touched the surface here. Cooper lays it all out for you in great detail. It's not an easy book to read, but you will be horrified to the extent that the West has been infiltrated by a hostile power.
May 14, 2026
In Wilful Blindness, Sam Cooper exposes the "mind-numbing" rot underneath Canada’s polite veneer, where BC casinos became engines for laundering cartel and triad drug money, enabled by a toothless judiciary and a federal establishment unwilling to confront hard truths. Cooper traces figures like Paul King Jin and Silver International, the collapse of IIGET, audits ignored, and Ottawa’s disregard for RCMP and CSIS warnings on CCP-linked networks. His account of Vancouver’s real estate explosion, political complicity across parties, and foreign interference echoes the same national security complacency that plagued the Kanishka era.
While Sam, surprisingly, avoids discussing Khalistani involvement in major drug operations, it remains a chilling portrait of a country sleepwalking through intimidation, infiltration, and organized crime. A Richmond city tour based on this book would be alarmingly “educational.”
Every Canadian must read this.
While Sam, surprisingly, avoids discussing Khalistani involvement in major drug operations, it remains a chilling portrait of a country sleepwalking through intimidation, infiltration, and organized crime. A Richmond city tour based on this book would be alarmingly “educational.”
Every Canadian must read this.
April 26, 2026
It’s mind blowing how corrupt Canada is and the influence other countries have on our politics and how easily they haven filtrated the west and effected Canadians through drugs, real estate and interference in politics. Sam Cooper shined a light on what people say is conspiracy but he showed up with facts. I recommend this book for sure
January 25, 2026
Every Canadian should read the latest edition of this book. Journalism as it should be done.
August 24, 2024
Wow it's unbelievable what is going on right before our eyes and we allow it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews