Article contentArticle contentGiving backArticle contentArticle contentAt a 2015 open house in Little Sands, attendees were told GEBIS espoused efforts to relieve poverty, preserve land, provide welfare and education programs, promote peace and diversity in all cultures and religions, and protect animals.Article contentAmong other good deeds, the monks, nuns and adherents have running donations to P.E.I. food banks and community fridges, offer free produce and plant give-aways at their organic farms, take part in roadside and beach cleanups, and recently even held a sacred art experience through a Thangka exhibit. They bring breadrolls into Charlottetown to trade for donations in aid of the Upper Room Hospitality Ministry, welcome visitors to tulip fields in the spring and sunflower fields in the fall, and have various special events that promote all those good things they told The Guardian about in 2015.Article contentArticle contentArticle content Venerables Dan, left, and Eli, monks with the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society, led planning for the End Hunger in P.E.I. drive, which gave out 250 food boxes in 2022. Photo by Logan MacLean /The GuardianArticle contentArticle contentArticle contentAll this is in addition to the previously mentioned open houses where the Buddhists generously share their home and sacred space in an effort to promote peace and provide education. If they have ever uttered or demonstrated any promotion of the Chinese Communist Party, I have never seen it and our Guardian reporters have never recorded it.Article contentWe have also never been able to find that their growth over the years has taken them over P.E.I.’s Lands Protection Act limits, despite what you might hear.Article contentArticle contentLand holdingsArticle contentArticle contentIn 2021, The Guardian combed through the province’s land registry, and followed up on every tip sent to this newsroom to count the acreage held by GEBIS, GWBI, their charitable foundations and affiliated business ventures. I mean, you wouldn’t count up the number of acres with Roman Catholic churches across P.E.I. and then add in plots where Catholics resided and businesses that Catholics owned and say that Rome has an undue influence over the Island. But I digress.Article contentArticle contentArticle content Venerable Dan, one of the monks at the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society, stands in the group’s field in Heatherdale in 2021. The GuardianArticle contentArticle contentThe total number of acres was 1,251. The Lands Protection Act limits the landholdings of corporations to 3,000 acres. Even if we missed some, it doesn’t come close.Article contentSo, I find myself perplexed by the figure of 17,000 acres that gets tossed around as gospel. Usually that number is attributed to the 2023 Globe and Mail article, but here’s what the Globe wrote:Article content“A citizens’ group … estimates that more than 17,000 acres has been bought up by Bliss and Wisdom and people affiliated with the organization … If that 17,000-acre figure is accurate, the group and its followers control about 4 per cent of all the land in Kings County, which makes up around a quarter of P.E.I.”Article content“If that figure is accurate” means the Globe couldn’t verify it. That’s why we need an IRAC report to give us a legitimate number.Article contentArticle contentNeighbours dividedArticle contentArticle contentUnfortunately, this issue has divided people and there is a lot of nastiness on both sides. Those who are convinced the CCP is influence peddling and worse in rural P.E.I. can become quite hateful in their representation of the Buddhists and contemptuous of those of us who aren’t convinced. Those who don’t buy the conspiracy often label their opponents as xenophobes and racists.Article contentNeither characterization is helpful in solving the controversy and it is my belief that all Islanders caught up in this are fearful and angry because they care about the future of Prince Edward Island and see this as a pivotal moment they don’t want to be on the wrong side of.Article contentAs for me, I guess I’d rather be labelled as naive than paranoid or cruel.Article contentArticle contentArticle contentArticle contentJocelyne Lloyd is the managing editor of The Guardian. She lives in Charlottetown.Article content
JOCELYNE LLOYD: P.E.I. under siege: How Islanders became divided by fear
