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Corruption scandals in Chile and Canada: the setbacks of Luksic and Barrick Gold
Professor Hall gives a more complete picture of the corruption scandals in Chile and Canada, as manifestations of a policy of deep infiltration of the Barrick Gold Company in the American nations.
ANTHONY-J.-HALLMAY 4, 2015

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In Canada, Nigel Wright - chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper - has been the focus of the news for a $ 90,000 check he signed for now suspended Senator Mike Duffy. And in Chile, corruption scandals across the political spectrum have unmasked a reality that had been living in the supposed model of transparency in the region.


However, much less attention has been given to the scandalous implications of a payment for $ 9 million former Foreign Minister John Baird for the Munk School of the University of Toronto and the role of Andronico Luksic in the institutional crisis in the country South American. The anatomy of both deals highlights the abundant conflicts of interest linking the Barrick Gold Company with the Canadian government of Brian Mulroney and now Stephen Harper, and the Chilean bicolor political system.



The origins of Barrick Gold


After finishing his term as the most anti-diplomatic Foreign Minister in the history of Canada, John Baird has obtained a privileged position on the International Advisory Board of the Barrick Gold Corporation, whose president and founder was former US President George HW Bush. The current director of the international panel is former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.



A scholar of the relations between Mr. Bush and Mulroney in 1997, Anton Chaitkin coined the phrase "Barrick's barracudas". Baird is a recent recruitment of this school of predatory fish that inhabit the murky corners of interaction between business and politics. The boss goes back to 1984 when Adnan Kashoggi visited Ontario to establish the Toronto headquarters of the Barrick company complex.





At the time he was preparing the political, legal and economic foundations of what would be Barrick Gold, the extravagant playboy Kashoggi was among the richest men in the world. This CIA agent and arms dealer also served as the leader of a group of Saudi investors including Kamal Adham, the head of the country's intelligence operations. This strategic link with Saudi wealth was key to the financial subsistence of Western capitals when they relied heavily on Saudi Arabia's support for the transition of the US dollar from a gold-backed currency to an oil-backed currency.



The connection of Barrick Gold through Peter Munk to the family-Bronfman dynasty of Canada, was an important dimension of the Israel-Saudi Arabia axis, a pivotal factor in maintaining the Anglo-American empire. The activities of Edgar Bronfman, as the influential leader of the World Jewish Congress between 1979 and 2007, allow us to glimpse the politico-economic monster that included the Barrick company complex.



Kashoggi met with Ontario premier Bill Davis in 1984 under exaggerated media attention to publicize the registration of what was then American Barrick or Barrick Resources on the Toronto Stock Exchange. We jump to 2015 when former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich became the head of Barrick's international advisory panel.



In 2008, Gingrich was nominated by the Republican Party of the United States to be a presidential candidate. The multimillionaire czar of the Sheldon Adelson bets financed the candidacy. Adelson's political priorities include bringing to the presidency a man who agrees to bomb Iran with nuclear weapons, the number one nemesis of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.



The role of the Munk School in the promotion of aggressive policies of the Harper government against Iran


Weeks before joining Barrick's well-rewarded international advisory panel, Foreign Minister Baird held a press conference in Toronto with Professor Janice Stein, then director of the Munk School of Global Affairs. The Munk School, originated in its current form in 2011, began with a generous donation to the University of Toronto from Peter Munk.



Munk became the public face of the Barrick Gold Corporation after Adnan Kashoggi was exposed in the 1980 Contras scandal - the CIA's financing of militias in Nicaragua with money from cocaine trafficking. Kashoggi was discovered along with some of his fellow Saudi investors as key operatives in a complex web of illegal financial transactions for the White House National Security apparatus.



During and after his presidential term between 1989 and 1993, Bush Sr. took the reins of Barrick's most accelerated international expansion phase. To assist him in this venture, he recruited his colleague Brien Mulroney, with whom Bush had worked intimately to compose the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. NAFTA was established in 1992, shortly after both were elected to their public offices under clouds of infamy.



On January 6 of this year, Stein and Baird announced that the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a grant for $ 9 million dollars to the Digital Public Square Project. In this web manipulation plot, the University of Toronto Munk School was enlisted in a federal operation that evokes old Cold War initiatives to support dissidents in communist countries to join forces and rise up against and overthrow their oppressors allies with the Soviet



This Harper initiative with the University of Toronto is being driven in a context defined by the breakdown of Ottawa diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2012. The unilateral decision of the federal government to break formal relations was introduced by Baird with the incendiary allegation that " the government of Canada sees Iran's government as the greatest threat to current global peace and security. "



Baird continued this series of insults in 2013 by saying that, "The [Iranian] regime is hollow. He does not have the depth, the intellect, the humanity or the humility to bring a better future for his people. "This anti-diplomatic characterization came in spite of the diplomatic transformations that came with the election of Hassan Rouhani as president of Iran in 2013.



The Digital Public Square initiative is a mildly disguised instigation of regime change against Iran and against several other countries on the Harper government's blacklist. Professor Stein tried to guarantee the role of the University of Toronto in the plan. "It's about giving space to different narratives. It's about accommodating different voices, "he said.



A breeze of irony hit me when I saw these words attributed to Professor Stein, who seemed to have trained John Baird to articulate Canada's international positions. When it comes to issues such as relations between Canada and the Islamic Republic of Iran or the Israeli regime, different voices from a wide variety of perspectives in Parliament or the media are the last thing I hear. Instead, what I hear - especially from the airwaves of Canadian public television - is a narrow spectrum of myopic and partial international comments.





In fact, from my own experience as a delegate at an international conference in Tehran in October 2014, I can say that I participated in a much broader and freer discussion of world affairs than would be possible these days at the heavily censored Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). ). The same comparison can be applied to the closed-door academic environment of the University of Toronto and the cloistered confines of its Munk School.



In 2013, the director of the Munk School, Janice Stein, and the Foreign Minister John Baird were accused of stifling such free academic debate by a coalition of Canadian-Iranian community groups. The organizers of a closed and hermetic academic meeting at the University of Toronto were accused of carrying out "a calculated attempt to marginalize critics and to censor opponents of conservative policies against Iran." The presenters exhibited "aggressive visions" that do not reflect " the visions of the Iranian diaspora. "



Corporate Academy in Canada and dirty laundry in Chile


Peter Munk's donation to the University of Toronto was negotiated in secret with the former president of the university, David Naylor. Dr. Naylor was recently appointed to Barrick's board of directors. The 2011 Naylor-Munk deal is unprecedented in terms of linking the future flow of financing to a major academic unit of the Canadian university.





The director of the Munk School must satisfy Peter Munk - and, after his death, the custodians of his estate - about meeting predetermined academic and "brand" guidelines. The University of Toronto's adoption of these conditions sets unfortunate precedents for corporate sponsorship from other academic institutions.



This pressure against academic freedom is only the beginning of a litany of negative implications permeating the positioning of the Munk School in the academic world. As the website of a coalition of the university called Peter Munk Outside the University of Toronto indicates , "students are right to be concerned that their school is so intimately associated with this company ... accused of human rights violations, labor violations, environmental devastation and / or corruption where they operate. "



This corruption begins in Canada and extends to many countries where Barrick is active, including Peru, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea and Australia. Barrick's appalling record has been highlighted by a number of organizations and NGOs including Mining Watch and Protest Barrick as well as several authors such as Alan Denault, Sakura Saunders, Greg Palast, Alex Constantine and EP Heidner.



Particularly serious from the perspective of the growing attacks on academic freedom at the University of Toronto and other higher education centers is the story of Barrick Gold's intimidation of intimidating, silencing and destroying its critics through a variety of coercive techniques.



The litigious assault in Ontario against the online posts of the Chilean-Canadian miner Jorge Lopehandia became especially aggressive in the early 2000s. With his associates in Vancouver, Lopehandia has achieved considerable traction with the Chilean judicial system demonstrating that he, and not Barrick Gold is the main owner of the title of the immense deposits of gold, silver and copper in the Pascua Lama mine.





Barrick Gold's main man in Latin America is the heir of Andrónico Luksic Sr.'s financial empire. Luksic father was one of the main beneficiaries of the radical privatization of public property imposed in Chile after the US coup in 1973. The banker Andrónico Luksic Jr. has taken over from his father's hostility towards Lopehandia's tireless vindication for the title of one of the richest mineral deposits in the world. Through public outreach serving their politically motivated efforts to extend dishonest loans to the family of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Luksic has spoiled his too enthusiastic power game. His attempt to get the approval of the First Family of Chile has generated too much negative publicity against, swallowing Barrick's advance in Chile in a scandal of scandal.



Lopehandia's tenacious defense of his rights and interests is part of a tsunami of problems overwhelming Barrick in what was previously publicized as his main Latin American stronghold. In 2013, Peter Koven accused Barrick in the Financial Post of Canada of "ruining the Pascua Lama project as awkwardly as no mining company has ruined a major project."



Exploiting public interest for private and corporate profit


As the recent Canadian Foreign Minister, John Baird has played a key role in Barrick Gold's legal interactions, for example in the case of Jorge Lopehandia. Lopehandia has had a lot of company when it comes to introducing claims of native peoples in several of the countries where Barrick barracudas operate.



Barrick has emerged as a political order in an international affairs structure in which 75 percent of mining companies are based in Canada. It seems that a loose audit of the stock exchanges of Toronto and Vancouver, together with the lack of serious regulation by the Canadian federal government, has turned Canada into a magnet of laissez-faire for extractive companies of different types.



There is an unmistakable stench of conflict of interest around John Baird in his work in and out of Stephen Harper's cabinet. The clearest indicator of this misconduct began at the same time he delivered a check for $ 9 million dollars to the Munk School of Global Affairs. The purpose of the donation was to promote the transformation of the University of Toronto into a partisan partner in the decidedly aggressive interactions of the Canadian government against Iran.



Just weeks after the handing over of public funds to the Munk School, the Barrick Gold Corporation reciprocated the gesture. On his first days back as a private citizen, Baird joined the international advisory board of Peter Munk's University of Toronto's main gold funding medium.



Thus, John Baird followed a path opened by former US President George HW Bush and Brian Bulroney. Mulroney joined Barrick's barracudas after receiving cash from Karlheinz Schreiber for services offered while he was prime minister of Canada, which cleared the way for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.



As foreign minister, Baird intervened in 2012 to avoid allegations that Harper's former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, was guilty of conflicts of interest by promoting Barrick Gold's interests with his superior. Next, Wright was investigated by Mary Dawson, parliamentary ethics supervisor, on the suspicion that she had played a role on three occasions advocating for a Canadian position vis-a-vis mining exploitation in Latin America preferred by Barrick.



The National Post paraphrased the former minister's characterizations of Wright's interactions with the Barrick Gold Company as well, "Wright did nothing wrong; he only listened to Barrick's concerns, without saying anything, relegating the matter to other people responsible for the folder and did not get involved in any decision related to the company. "



What credibility do these words have with the subsequent induction of Baird and David Naylor into the intimate sanctuary of Barrick Gold through the company's deep infiltration into the academic life of the University of Toronto? Here is another sign that the Harper government's ethical initiative is a sham, personified in Baird's recent access to state secrets to serve Barrick Gold.



Accompanied by an email guaranteeing Stephen Harper's Chief of Staff that the deal was "in the oven," Nigel Wright delivered the now-famous $ 90,172 check to suspended Senator Mike Duffy. This payment is seen by many as a smoking gun in the ongoing high-profile criminal trial in Ottawa.



Wright's close friend is Anthony Munk, his former colleague at the capital firm Onex Corporation. Wright's closeness to the Munk family is defined in his role as godfather to Peter Munk's grandson. "I fully trust" Nigel Wright, Munk Sr. declared in 2011. Munk's trust in his grandson's godfather was reflected in Wright's appointment with Andrew Coyne and Ken Whyte to the board of directors of the Aurea Foundation.



With its annual debates at the Munk School of Global Affairs, the Aurea Foundation is another example of the machining of the limits of acceptable discourse in the mainstream media and academia. This discourse highlights above all the deregulation of business and maximum freedom for Israeli expansionist policies, both political priorities for the new barracudas of Barrick, John Baird and Newt Gingrich.



An academic alternative to the Munk School of Global Affairs?


After two decades of intense interaction in the courts of Chile and Canada, with representatives of the Canadian mining leviathan, the survival of Jorge Lopehandia says a lot. Not only has it retained its legal basis, but it is gaining strategic territory. From his adverse experience, Lopehandia has developed his own personal perspective of what he sees as Barrick Gold's ruthless and anti-ethical way of doing business.



Lopehandia is especially critical of the effects of Barrick's accounting machinations on the decreasing value of the numerous pension funds that heavily bet on what was once seen as a leading company. The revolt of retirees is felt again in 2015, with several administrators of pension funds repeating the main themes of their protests of 2013.





A common thread of claims in their no-confidence votes is the high compensation rate for Barrick executives. This tendency to allocate succulent pay to the top brass is reminiscent of the days when George HW Bush was generously rewarded for plotting the transactions that catapulted Barrick Gold from obscurity to the number one merchant of gold and its derivatives in the world.



According to Lopehandia, the great rewards for executives and their political advisors reflect the reality that the most important asset for Barrick is access to the internal citadels of political, judicial and media influence. A common pattern that circulates throughout this process of infiltration involves the corruption of the state to take advantage of its coercive force to displace native peoples of valuable natural resources.



The regularity of this expansionary pattern in the growth of the Barrick Gold Corporation flows naturally from its history of millionaire exchanges in the mining stocks of the Toronto Stock Exchange. The rise towards prominence in Toronto has been based on the dispossession and displacement of native peoples in search of the development of one mining boundary after another in northern Ontario.



This same general trajectory of expansion through indigenous dispossession continues through spaces like Barrick Gold towards a broader international scope. It is a process that is making Canada synonymous with the dirtiest and most exploitative networks of the extractive industry.



Lepenhandia, father of university children, speaks eloquently about the tragic subordination of one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Canada to the orders of corporate subversion. He asks rhetorically, "Why pay honors to those who have benefited the most from the kind of scandalous incursions that give the Canadian mining industry a bad name among a lot of decent people in Latin America and Africa? What message do we give to the young people treating characters like Peter Munk, Brian Mulroney, John Baird and Newt Gingrich as models for the future leaders of the country? "



According to Lopehandia, part of the funds received by the Munk School of Global Affairs are, in fact, stolen from him and from people like him in Barrick Gold's global rush for spoils. He talks about the kind of alternative to the Munk School that he would like to donate in the event of being victorious in his crusade to create a fairer model to exploit the riches of the vast precious metal deposits of Pascua Lama in a sustainable manner.



Lopehandia emphasizes that an alternative to the Munk School in which he would like to get involved would be in the promotion, rather than the limitation, of academic freedom. The type of institute that Lopehandia has in mind would be a tribune of academic meritocracy that will provide respect, recognition and security to those voices of dissent emanating from outside the inner circle of privilege and power.



Such a center of excellence would renounce, instead of cultivating, the conditions of exclusion like those that led the Iranian-Canadian community groups in 2013 to accuse the Munk School of organizing an event at closed ports to promote the aggressive policies of the ruling party. Instead of responding appropriately to valid criticism, the anti-Iranian association of the University of Toronto and the Harper government was solidified in 2015 with the announcement of John Baird and Professor Stein of a substantive federal largesse for the Munk School.



A Lopehandia Globalization Studies School would adhere, rather than disdain, open academics to declaring the truth to power circles, even when that power takes the form of a corporate leviathan like Barrick Gold with its hidden history of dealings with the most ambiguous variety of former public officials.



SOURCE



Leer en: https://www.elciudadano.cl/politica/escandalos-de-corrupcion-en-chile-y-canada-los-tropiezos-de-luksic-y-barrick-gold/05/04/#ixzz5QjGA8cId