The mud was being slung in the legislature Tuesday as MLAs discussed a woman found guilty of running an immigration fraud scheme in the Yukon.

Stacey Hassard, the Yukon Party MLA for Pelly-Nisutlin, raised the matter during question period.

“In December 2023, a Richmond (B.C.) court found an individual named Joyce Chang guilty of immigration fraud,” Hassard told the House.

“A Richmond News article reported that this individual had overseen a multi-faceted deception scheme that involved forged documents from the Yukon Business Nominee Program.

“Between 2020, when the charges were first issued, and 2023, when this individual was found guilty of all 11 charges of immigration fraud, she made cash donations to both the Liberal Party of Canada and the Liberal Party of the Yukon,” Hassard noted.

“Did anyone from the Yukon Liberal cabinet office ever meet with Joyce Chang or discuss issues related to immigration with her between 2020, when she was first charged, and 2023, when she was found guilty?”

Premier Ranj Pillai responded, “No idea of the individual of whom they are speaking. I can talk to our cabinet folks, but immigration matters are held and dealt with by the Department of Economic Development and the immigration unit there.”

Hassard repeated the question.

Pillai replied, “I will ask our cabinet members. I don’t believe that I have ever been made aware of anybody who has met with this person, and I certainly have not met with a — I think — Joyce Chang.”

Hassard then said, “This individual was charged with 11 counts of immigration fraud in direct relation to the Yukon business nominee program, which is a program that is overseen by the premier himself.

“While that matter was before the courts, this individual made financial political donations for the premier’s party.”

He then asked, “What message does the premier think it sends that someone convicted of immigration fraud was donating money to the minister responsible for immigration while her charges were before the courts?”

Pillai retorted, “I find it interesting that it’s always the member for Pelly-Nisutlin whenever there is mud to be thrown; the leader of the official Opposition (Currie Dixon) never has the guts to stand up and actually go tête-à-tête.

“It’s always the member — not the critic for the department. But as soon as he was getting up today, I knew that there would be some level of mud being thrown.”

Referring to the Yukon legislature, Pillai said, “I would say that it was maybe the first in this country to make sure that we have a strong system and that there is no inside influencing or outside influencing from folks … I know that we on this side always followed ethical standards and will continue to do so.”

Dixon did, in fact, stand up and challenge the premier after that.

The 2022 Annual Report on Political Party Revenues shows Chang donated $500 to the Yukon Liberal Party that year.

According to the Richmond News story by Vikki Hui, Tzu Chun Joyce Chang was charged in December 2020 with 11 counts of immigration fraud and found guilty on Dec. 20, 2023.

A Yukon government official, Ian Young, was originally charged in the case but later died.

“What I’m surprised by is the fact that there hasn’t been any change to government policy or a review of the program since then,” Dixon later told reporters.

“There’s been no internal audit, as far as we can tell, and the premier wasn’t able to tell us if there was any policy changes that had been made as a result of it.

“So I think that these types of programs are vulnerable to abuse … and I think that the administration of immigration programs needs to be watched very closely. And so I think the government should do a review and make sure that the protections are in place to prevent this from ever happening again.”

Dixon was asked about Young.

“The police stormed the Department of Economic Development and seized files and the Yukon employee, who has since passed away, was charged, as well as the individual that we asked about,” Dixon noted.

“So it’s not like this was a surprise, and the premier tried to make this seem like he was surprised by it and he had no idea about it and that he’d never heard of this person, but of course, this has been in the media, in the public for years now, since 2020, that this case has been winding its way through the courts.”

The seizure by the RCMP as part of Project Husky, a five-year investigation, occurred in 2019.

The Star reported Nov. 26, 2020 that the issue, in fact, was brought up in the legislature that day by Yukon Party MLA Brad Cathers.

“It’s before the courts, so we can’t offer much comment,” Pillai told the legislature at the time.

The story also stated, “Since the issue involves the period from July 2013 to September 2016, Pillai said, Cathers should ask his caucus colleagues about the situation, since the Yukon Party formed the government during that period.”

Dixon added, “It does seem odd that someone would, while they have a charge before them in the courts, randomly make a donation to the Liberal Party of Yukon for $500.”

Dixon was questioned about Pillai’s assertion that Dixon’s party was in power when the fraud occurred.

“The police investigation started by their own account in 2015 … no one was aware of police investigations until 2020, when the RCMP stormed the Department of Economic Development and seized the documents,” Dixon said.

Reporters were also supplied with a release dated Sept. 22, 2017 titled “Government of Yukon issues fraud advisory”.

It warned of the immigration scheme, called the “Yukon Business Investor Visa Program”.

The release said, “The Yukon government does not run a program by the name of the Yukon Business Investor Visa Program, nor does it facilitate access to foreign investment.”

Pillai also met with reporters afterward.

“I’ve gone back and looked. I think it was the house leader for the Yukon Party, the current house leader (Scott Kent) was the minister in charge of education when this took place,” the premier said.

“I think it’s important to note, as well, upon coming into government, we moved the operations of immigration from Education over to Economic Development.

So that actually happened in 2018.

“So when these activities took place, under the previous government, it was actually in a completely different department.”

Pillai then pointed out, “I heard that the leader of the opposition said that his party wasn’t aware of this. I mean, little fuzzy I think, on details.

“The investigation started in 2015 and the Yukon Party were in power until late 2016. So I think he should clarify what they knew or didn’t know at the time, but I’ll leave it to them.”

Regarding the question of policy changes stemming from the fraud case, Pillai said, “We have a strategy that we’ll be rolling out in the next few months that we’ve done a lot of work on.

“We’ve held back a lot of that work, because we want to make sure that we have a strong strategy that looks at the current situation in the country, and understand where we can have strong policy, so we’re always watching these things.”

Pillai said officials are constantly tweaking the immigration programs.

He was asked if the Liberals missed the connection between the $500-donation by Chang and the court case against her. Pillai pointed out that each party has someone oversee political donations.

“Today was about throwing mud at me. I think it was interesting that this information, which probably the Yukon Party were sitting on to look at or throw at me, in this particular way, they know that donations go directly to the party.

“They know that we have an executive that oversees that.”

Pillai added, “I was briefed today on a business that’s just been suspended for a year … you’ll see that the Yukon Party have partnered with that organization or those individuals directly over the last two years. So I’m wondering if this was thrown at me as a defence mechanism by the Yukon Party.”

A link supplied by cabinet communications revealed that the Destination Family Hotel and Antoinette’s Restaurant have been banned from participating in the Yukon Nominee Program under Type C violations.

Those are defined as “serious violations like inadequate wages, fewer than minimum hours of work or receiving payment for accepting a nominee.”

The one-year ban took effect on Jan. 26.