Yes, that's how this scam worked. Presumably, the refunds were made through these police stations, these covert off-site institutions serving the Chinese government's interests. I don't think the people who received the money went to the Chinese embassy and got it from there.
It is indicative of problems in our enforcement of Canadian law. Everybody who was involved in this scheme clearly knew that it was illegal. There's no ambiguity about it. You were being given an under-the-table refund for your donation.
I'm just beside myself, but the issue for me really is whether it will stop. Are we actually going to prevent this behaviour from persisting in the next election in certain ridings that the Chinese state has identified as amenable to its subversion? The question is about what the rewards are for this. Some of it is the rewards that the people colluding with agents of the Chinese state are receiving back in China. How do we trace that kind of scheme, which is transnational and covert and corrupt?