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Part one of two

Canada’s public guardians have failed to protect Metro Vancouver residents from forms of rule-bending and law-breaking that have been significant contributors to city housing becoming gravely unaffordable.

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Two of the government departments that have let down city dwellers, basically by not doing their jobs, are Immigration Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency.

Although other government departments have also sat on their hands while Metro Vancouver prices have skyrocketed, I’ll focus here on the ways Canada’s immigration and taxation departments have not fulfilled their mandates. And doubts remain they’ll do so in the future.

This is not just my contention. It’s the view of many scholars, including Andy Yan, David Ley, Josh Gordon, Elizabeth Murphy and Tom Davidoff; immigration lawyers such as Samuel Hyman and Richard Kurland; housing activists like Justin Fung and Evelina Xia and some opposition politicians and some journalists.