Maybe Journalism "101" would be better...

This should be quite a joke... from the "get-go" the reporter Teresa Wright and the Guardian still haven't figured out that the $200,000 unit the immigrant invests is not really $200,000 as there is an approved “sleight of hand loan” between the “intermediaries” and the immigrant and in fact the investor only has to come up with a $100,000 per unit... dah… it’s just lawyer’s paper money… and none of the real money is Government or taxpayer’s funds... the next big lesson the media could learn is "nobody put a gun to the investor's head"... in other words these immigrants had enough savvy to garner up $100,000 in the first place then they should have done their investor's due diligence and read the fine print (the buyer beware part) and figured out what level of return, tests, etc... they had to do before they got their deposits back... this crap about the language barrier is a sad excuse as many Islanders including myself do business all over the world in many languages and the onus is on ourselves to figure out what we're signing before we enter into any contracts and that is exactly what these "few" immigrants that now have a problem should have done before they forked over their money... call it a “head tax” or whatever you want but let’s face it these immigrants are getting a pretty cheap entry into our great Country and I don’t see too many of them “giving up their new visas”….. there will be no "Smokin Gun" in the Auditor General's Report and the fraud part of the story will frizzle out to nothing.... what will really come out of the PNP story is just how fortunate PEI was to have these immigrants and their investments in our Community... and Minister Brown should get a medal for aggressively pushing the program forward before the rules were changed as this money was the economic salvation of our PEI economy last year... I guarantee you that there are many thousands more Islanders who have lost much more of their own money (than these immigrants did) in our stock market but you don’t see them “protesting” down at the Premier’s office, at the bank’s or whining to the Guardian… I’d give the Guardian an “F” in Journalism 101 for continuing with this non story…
The Guardian set to launch PNP 101 series
EDITORIAL STAFF
The Guardian
If you have questions about the Provincial Nominee Program and the storm of controversy it has created, look no further. In anticipation of next week’s release of the auditor general’s report on his investigation into the PNP, The Guardian has compiled a series called PNP 101 to help bring Islanders up to speed on this program. Guardian reporter Teresa Wright has been closely following and researching the details about this federal-provincial immigration program. She has written a five-part series exploring the PNP in depth. The purpose of the series is to help Islanders understand where the PNP came from, how it evolved and how it came to be such a hot topic among politicians, media and the public. “I’ve been following the PNP for several months and have written many stories on it, but I still get a sense that Islanders really don’t know much about this program,” Wright said. “What I hope this series will do is put all the headlines we’ve seen over the last six months into context and help people understand the scope of the PNP. This way, they might have a better idea of what they’ll be hoping to see in the auditor general’s report.” The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) offered expedited Canadian visas to immigrants who invested $200,000 on P.E.I., some of which went into an Island company. It was established to encourage more immigration to the province. But serious questions began to arise about how this program was run when it was uncovered several MLAs and the former deputy minister in charge of the PNP accessed immigrant money for their personal businesses. Questions have also been raised about hefty bonuses paid to employees who processed applications, about which Island business owners benefited from the funds raised, and why so many applications were put through in the last five months before the program ended. A total of 1,877 PNP applications were processed in between April and Sept. 2, 2008. This is more than double the total amount processed in all of 2007. Immigrants who have come to P.E.I. through the PNP have also complained of problems in accessing their $25,000 good faith and $20,000 language deposits, charged in addition to their PNP investment. The auditor general launched his investigation into the PNP after some of these controversial details began to hit headlines last October. The RCMP have been also been looking into this program. An allegation of fraud was filed with the RCMP’s commercial crime unit several months ago by a business owner and his involvement in the program. That investigation is still ongoing. “The complaint that came in months ago is actively being pursued,” Sgt. Denis Morin told The Guardian. “Several more interviews have to be conducted. We expect to have them completed within a month at which time a decision will be made as to whether a criminal investigation will be launched.” The auditor general’s report is expected to be tabled in the legislature on the opening day of the spring sitting on April 2. The Guardian’s PNP?101 series will begin on Saturday, March 28.