On the second question, this is the practice of forum shopping or round-tripping. In forum shopping, you set up a holding company in a third state in order to gain access to that state's investment treaty to sue the state in which you own assets. That's common in investment treaty arbitration. Not all countries allow it, but Canada certainly does.
Round-tripping is more controversial. That allows domestic investors to set up a holding company abroad in order to sue their own country. The most significant case is the Tokios Tokelès decision against the Ukraine, where a holding company in Lithuania was 99% owned by Ukrainians but was allowed to bring a claim under a bilateral investment treaty between the Ukraine and Lithuania by the arbitrators on the basis--and I quote from the award--that “the origin of the capital is not relevant” to the definition of investment.
That was a decision of two of the arbitrators in that case. Quite remarkably, the presiding arbitrator dissented from that decision on the basis that it violated the purpose of the ICSID convention, which was to promote foreign investment. The presiding arbitrator resigned in that case.