Man Sues Ontario Securities Commission for Violating His Charter Rights by Cooperating With China

The Ontario Securities Commission in Toronto in a file photo. CP Photo/Aaron Harris

A Canadian entrepreneur is suing the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) for violating his Charter rights by cooperating with China—a “known human rights abuser”—when it signed an agreement to investigate him with the country’s Ministry of Public Safety (MPS) in 2017.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in the Ontario Superior Court, Edward Gong claims the OSC’s decision to use tainted evidence and share information on him and his company with the MPS was “unabated, unregulated and unlimited in scope and use.”

Gong, who lived in Canada for more than two decades before becoming a Canadian citizen in 2008, alleges in the claim the OSC treated him “as though he belonged to China, instead of recognizing his rights as a citizen of Canada.”

Gong, who made his fortune manufacturing health supplements in Canada and then selling the products to Chinese customers, says he employed more than 600 people in his company, which generated revenues that topped $200 million.

In 2017, the OSC charged Gong with fraud over $5,000, possession of property obtained by crime, laundering proceeds of crime, and uttering a forged document. The charges came after he sold securities in two companies, O24 Pharma PLC and Canadian National TV Inc., both of which the OSC alleged were controlled by Gong.

The OSC also alleged that a large sum of the money that Gong received from the scheme was directed to his bank accounts in Canada, which he then used for his benefit.

In 2021, Gong’s criminal charges of fraud and money laundering against the tycoon were withdrawn. But his company Edward Enterprise International Group pleaded guilty to operating a pyramid scheme and forging documents, and was fined $1 million and forfeited nearly $15 million in assets to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Gong said that when the OSC told Chinese police that Gong may be in China, they put him at risk of being indefinitely detained, tortured, or killed.

RCMP Liaison Officer Warned About Cooperation With China

According to documents signed in court, the OSC signed an agreement with Chinese police to disclose information on the case on April 4, 2017. RCMP liaison officer Sean Jorgensen had raised concerns about sharing information with China, but was pushed out of the liaison office in Beijing.

After the agreement was signed, a team of Chinese agents flew to Toronto in October 2017. Two months later, Gong’s property was raided and he was arrested at Pearson International Airport.

The lawsuit alleged that OSC staff gave at least 5,890 potentially privileged documents to investigators in New Zealand and China—files that contained private information on Gong’s customers in China and employees in Canada.

Gong also alleged he was treated in a discriminatory manner, as it was “highly unlikely that a Canadian citizen born in Canada of European background, who was accused of financial crimes, would have been treated in such a manner.”

OSC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.