Is this still happening in Canada?

It was very common in Australia. A lot of Chinese ownership, citizens basically afraid their government could at any moment seize assets & bank accounts looked to move money offshore. Our government had(and still are) been proping the housing market up through every financial crises by any means necessary. So investing in the housing market is almost risk free and the guaranted gains means it easier just to leave it vacant and not have to deal with agents or tenants. It's a safe offshore bank in a country that won't steal your shit if they decide they need warfunds quickly.

But China has several restricted moving money out over the last few years and it's definitely slowed the trend here, not that it's made any noticeable impact to our housing prices