The Hongcouver | Vancouver condo king Bob Rennie on race, real estate and ‘David f***ing Suzuki’

Canada’s pre-eminent public scientist and environmentalist has had a new title bestowed upon him, to add to his PhD and Order of Canada: “David f***ing Suzuki”.

Rennie’s targeting of the co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation came in light of comments the environmentalist made last year to the French newspaper, L’Express. Suzuki said Canada was “full”, and lambasted Ottawa’s immigration policies for “plundering” poorer nations of future leaders in the name of promoting Canadian economic growth.

In his speech, Rennie said “sensational” headlines about Chinese immigration and real estate prices in Vancouver were “bordering on racism”. He said Canada needed to be wary not to repeat policies such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923, which effectively barred Chinese immigration for almost 25 years.

“Fortunately Mr Suzuki, we all have friends whose lives are better because they moved here…let’s be very careful that we don’t repeat patterns of the past,” he said.

Rennie also used his speech to relate an anecdote about how his firm inadvertently sent out Chinese-language marketing material to the tony neighbourhood of Point Grey, and in the process “sparked racist responses, touched nerves of ignorance and brought out stereotypical reactions that fuel the David Suzukis of the world”.