There Are Questions Islanders Still Deserve Answered

The Guardian (Charlottetown) 23 Sep 2026 WAYNE EASTER, GARRY CLEMENT, MICHEL JUNEAU-KATSUYA AND DEAN BAXENDALE

Dean Baxendale is the publisher and Garry Clement and Michel Juneau-katsuya are authors of Canada Under Siege. Easter is a former solicitor general of Canada and former Malpeque MP.

On Sept. 12, in a commentary for The Guardian, Sandy Macdonald challenged the evidentiary basis of an ongoing investigation involving the P.E.I.-based Bliss and Wisdom community and argued that allegations surrounding the organization have harmed Prince Edward Island’s Buddhist community.

We take that concern seriously. Optimum Publishing has a long record of engagement with Tibetan Buddhists and the preservation of Tibetan culture, religion and language. Earlier this year, Optimum launched Tibet Was Never Part of China Since Antiquity in partnership with representatives of the Central Tibetan Administration, including the Sikyong (PM), who are recognized as a government-in-exile.

Our journalistic investigation examined Bliss and Wisdom’s financial and institutional relationships, land acquisition, regulatory treatment and potential foreign-influence vulnerabilities. Those issues were explored in Canada Under Siege and the documentary Game of Shadows.

The investigation was broader still. It examined P.E.I.’s immigration pathways, regulatory decisions, political access, beneficial ownership and allegations concerning significant cash transactions and opaque financial practices that had already raised questions among Islanders and public authorities.

We welcome critique of our evidence, methodology and conclusions when warranted. Where evidence remains incomplete, we have said so repeatedly. Our findings have been presented to Canadian and American legislators, committees and individuals working in or adjacent to national security.

Since publication, we have continued examining government documents, institutional relationships, public records and new information provided by sources. That continuing work has uncovered additional evidence that corroborates and, in several important areas, strengthens findings first presented in the book. It has also revealed relationships and historical details that were unavailable when the manuscript was completed.

Where evidence remains incomplete, we identify the gap. Where subsequent evidence strengthens an earlier assessment, we have an obligation to report it.

We welcome critique of our evidence, methodology and conclusions when warranted. Where evidence remains incomplete, we have said so repeatedly. Our findings have been presented to Canadian and American legislators, committees and individuals working in or adjacent to national security.

But scrutiny cuts both ways.

In his critique, Macdonald invokes Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s commission on foreign interference and notes that it said nothing about P.E.I.’ s Buddhist community.

That observation takes the commission’s mandate out of context. The Hogue Commission was never an investigation of Bliss and Wisdom, Moonlight International Academy, P.E.I. land ownership, provincial immigration programs or P.E.I.’ s institutional relationships with China. Its mandate centred on foreign interference affecting Canada’s federal democratic institutions and electoral processes. Significant areas of potential foreign interference outside that mandate were not the subject of the Commission’s inquiry.

The Commission’s silence on a matter it was not tasked with investigating cannot reasonably be treated as evidence that the matter was examined and rejected.

Macdonald’s commentary also omits relevant context concerning his own previous engagement with Bliss and Wisdom. In September 2014, while serving as P.E.I.’ s deputy minister of education, he travelled to Taiwan for 10 days and delivered a 90-minute public lecture organized by the Bliss and Wisdom Education Foundation. He also spent two days at Bliss and Wisdom’s Education Park.

According to Bliss and Wisdom’s own contemporary publication, selected students had prepared for his visit for more than six months, including English-language training designed to help them explain the organization’s educational philosophy. The same publication records Macdonald describing Bliss and Wisdom as a “very special school” and expressing the view that this kind of education could help change the world. This is noteworthy, and there is no question that Bliss and Wisdom, based on its origins, offered a contemporary way for monastic education.

The chronology that followed also warrants some scrutiny. By 2015, federal officials had raised concerns about Moonlight International Academy’s curriculum, including its failure to meet P.E.I. high-school diploma standards and the absence of English and mathematics. In 2016, P.E.I. enacted a new Private Schools Act and regulations that allowed registered private schools to submit their own programs of study without generally requiring adherence to the provincial public-school curriculum. Moonlight subsequently operated within that framework.

It is well documented that P.E.I. governments, educational institutions and businesses spent more than two decades developing relationships with China across education, immigration, agriculture, investment and trade. Those relationships over two decades involved thousands of students, faculty exchanges, educational joint ventures and Canadian credentials delivered through programs operating in China and Canada. Canada and all 5 Eyes partners are now examining these post-secondary exchanges and adding new guardrails on academic collaboration with China due to proprietary IP transfer, specifically in sensitive research where it intersects with civil-military fusion applications.

No Buddhist, monk, nun, Taiwanese Canadian, Chinese Canadian or other Islander should be stigmatized because of religion, ethnicity or national origin. Canada protects religious freedom, and many people came to this country precisely because of those protections.

On that principle, we agree with Macdonald.

But protecting a community from prejudice cannot mean shielding institutions, government decisions or international relationships from legitimate scrutiny.