Continuing to cozy up to the People’s Republic of China, Vancouver's Mayor Robertson participated in an overseas trip recently signing an agreement with the city of Shanghai. The problem is, the agreement was done in secret at first.

Robertson was only discovered to be in China after someone took a picture of him on a train platform and sent it to the South China Morning Post.

The letter of understanding eventually released doesn’t appear to have anything alarming or controversial in it, yet there has been consistent and recurring secrecy from City Hall and the Mayor’s office on issues related to China influence.

In this case, the agreement was only released to the public after he was outed, with Mayor Robertson blaming the delay on a “glitch.”

But this is just the latest in a history of secrecy from Vancouver City Hall when it comes to influence from Mainland China.

Rather than put it out as a public press release, the city only made the agreement available to those who file freedom of information requests.

Robertson has shown he is tone deaf to the influence of Chinese money in Vancouver's real estate market.

On top of the willingness to ignore the influx of Chinese capital into Vancouver, and dismissing those who raise concerns as “xenophobic”, Mayor Robertson's City Hall has had many "mistakes" or "glitches" on issues related to Chinese influence, making it all seem so very secretive.