Mining magnate Munk admits to donating more than legal limit to Conservatives

OTTAWA - Mining magnate and philanthropist Peter Munk has admitted he donated more than the legal limit to the Conservative party three different times.

Munk, the founder of mining giant Barrick Gold Corp., signed a compliance agreement with Elections Canada earlier this month, acknowledging that in 2008, 2010 and 2012 his donations exceeded the maximum allowable contributions in those years.

Canada Pension Plan To Vote Against Barrick Gold's Executive Pay Plan

TORONTO - How Barrick Gold Corp. pays its top executives is facing opposition from some of Canada's biggest investment managers, including the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, ahead of the gold miner's annual meeting next week.

The CPPIB joined other fund managers Friday in saying Barrick hasn't adequately addressed shareholder concerns about executive chairman John Thornton's paycheque.

Barrick exec with Tory ties appointed to IDRC board

The government has appointed a mining industry executive who is a former Conservative minister’s staffer to the board of a Crown corporation that works on international development research.

International Development Minister Christian Paradis recommended the appointment of Barrick Gold Corp. vice president of government affairs Alanna Heath to the board of governors of the International Development Research Centre.

Ms. Heath worked as a policy adviser to Jim Flaherty from 2007 to 2009 when he was finance minister. She joined Barrick as director of government relations in early 2010, according to a Bloomberg report.

Barrick Gold hires John Baird, Newt Gingrich

Barrick Gold Corp. has hired former foreign affairs minister John Baird and former top U.S. lawmaker Newt Gingrich, the company said in regulatory filings.

Mr. Baird is working on Barrick's international advisory board along with Mr. Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives. No compensation details were disclosed in the filings.

The company also gave its chairman John Thornton a pay raise as the world’s biggest gold producer repositions itself to deal with the severe slump in bullion prices.

Barrick Gold refuses to relocate villagers who suffer murder, rape and house burning

This past July a young man was murdered deep in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea, and Canadians should care.

Why?

Why concern ourselves with this one act of violence in a far away corner of the Pacific, at a time when there is so much violence in the world?

After all, there is lots of killing closer to home that could concern us, starting with the Ukraine (quiet for the moment) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). That latter group has even compelled U.S. President Obama to take serious military action, with Canada's Prime Minister Harper tagging along behind, calling out: "Me too! Me too!"

Former Natural Resources chief of staff, PMO adviser joins Barrick Gold

A former PMO staffer and chief of staff to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver has taken a position leading mining company Barrick Gold’s government relations department.

Dave Forestell joined the Toronto-headquartered multinational last month as its director of government relations. He was a policy adviser and staff director at the PMO from 2009 to 2012 before moving to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver’s (Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont.) office in 2012 as chief of staff, his LinkedIn profile says

Harper in Peru: What Media Failed to Report

PM committed Canadian tax dollars to aid conflict-ridden mining opposed by locals.

CUSCO, PERU -- Canada's press corps was so focused on the Duffy corruption scandal during Stephen Harper's recent trip to South America that no one bothered to challenge our fearless leader's new "foreign aid" program to help Canadian mining companies get richer in countries where mining has led to major human rights violations.

Barrick hit with $16-million fine over Pascua-Lama gold mine

Barrick Gold Corp. won’t contest a $16.4-million (U.S.) fine levied by Chile’s environment agency over water protection measures near its Pascua-Lama mine.

In a decision issued Friday, the Chilean environmental regulator known as SMA handed down the largest possible fine and ordered construction at the giant $8.5-billion (U.S.) mine to remain on hold.

Barrick Gold CEO gets called out at Toronto mining convention

Once a year, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) throws the world's largest mining convention in downtown Toronto. This year, the convention featured a track on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that was open to the public. The final session of this track was a CEO panel featuring Jamie Sokalsky, the CEO of Barrick Gold.

While Sokalsky tried to present Barrick's CSR program as more than just window dressing, I got ahold of the mic to draw attention to the very real and on-going human rights abuses at two of Barrick's mine sites, first in North Mara, Tanzania and then in Porgera, Papua New Guinea. Unfazed by the fact that they turned off my mic, I raised my voice to speak louder about the scale of the devastation in Papua New Guinea. Finally, the security escorted me out as I handed out footnoted fact sheets to the audience at the forum.

FACT SHEET: http://protestbarrick.net/article.php... This is the text of the fact sheet I distributed at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference in Toronto on May 5, 2013. It is just the tip of the iceberg regarding Barrick's abuses, but enough points to prove a point that Barrick does not promote sustainable development at their mine sites. The fact sheet also debunks the myth that self-reporting can replace regulation and independent monitoring of mining activity.

camera: Zach Ruiter
director: Sakura Saunders
editors: Zach Ruiter and Sakura Saunders

Original Article
Source: rabble.ca
Author: Sakura Saunders

Barrick Gold's Offer to Rape Victims Slammed by NGOs

Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold mining company, has come under fire for attaching strings to a "remediation framework" offered to women raped by employees of its Papua New Guinea mine.

Following allegations of a series of gang rapes at its Porgera mine, Barrick devised a strategy the company says will help fulfill its promise to the surrounding communities: "We will uphold your rights and we will protect your dignity."

Ethics controversy deepens around PM's chief of staff over gold giant's lobbying

OTTAWA - The ethics controversy swirling around Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff deepened Wednesday with news that Nigel Wright was lobbied on three separate occasions by a company with which he had deep personal connections.

The belated disclosure by Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX) that it lobbied Wright a third time in May undermines the Harper government's official defence of the prime minister's right-hand man.

Baird says PMO chief who sat in on Barrick call had no conflict

The prime minister's chief of staff was on a call with Barrick Gold Corp. but he is not in a conflict of interest and did not use his position to further the financial interests of his friends, says Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

In an interview with CBC News, Baird said Nigel Wright, the prime minister's chief of staff, "has no personal or financial interest in Barrick Gold Corp."

Occupy Toronto stages successful protest against Barrick Gold

Following a successful May Day rally and march, Occupy Toronto held their ground and refused to budge after they “re-occupied” Simcoe Park in downtown Toronto Tuesday evening.

When police threatened - at the request of the City - to arrest and remove protesters from the park if they stayed past midnight, Occupy held a General Assembly and unanimously decided to stay put.

Twenty minutes later, Toronto Parks and Recreation reversed their decision.

Occupy: 1 City of Toronto: 0.

Organizers had purposely chosen Simcoe Park because it lies directly across the street from the Metro Convention Centre, where Barrick Gold was holding its Annual Shareholders’ Meeting on Wednesday morning.

“We chose this location because Barrick Gold is emblematic of the problems with the 1 per cent controlling everything,” said rally organizer Sakura Saunders.

“Barrick is a horrible company.”

Occupy Toronto: Barrick Gold Chief Peter Munk Says He'd Love To Defend Record To Occupy Protesters

TORONTO - The head of the world's largest gold producer says Occupy protesters have the wrong idea about his company.

And Barrick Gold founder and chairman Peter Munk says he'd love to take that message straight to his firm's detractors.

Munk told investors today he "would love to go outside" and engage the demonstrators that descended on Barrick's annual general meeting in downtown Toronto.

Munk, 84, says he would highlight all the voluntary contributions Barrick makes in the countries where it operates, and not just talk about job creation.

However, Munk did say that when confronted with demonstrators a day earlier "wiser" and "less hot-blooded" voices than his persuaded him not to ask his driver to take him to the protest.

Dozens of protesters shouted their disapproval of Barrick Gold's business practices outside the meeting Wednesday, including a few dressed in gold-sequined outfits.

They chanted "Down with Barrick" and brandished signs from a park across the street from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, accusing the mining giant of perpetuating economic inequality as part of the wealthy "one per cent."