The University of Toronto has announced that their new School of Global Affairs will be built with what many regard as the “blood money” of Peter Munk, CEO of Barrick Gold. Munk has praised brutal Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for “transforming Chile from a wealth-destroying socialist state to a capital-friendly model that is being copied around the world.” At last year’s hearings around Bill C-300 – An Act Respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas Corporations in Developing Countries – Sarah Knuckey, a U.S. lawyer testified that women are being gang-raped by Barrick’s security guards in Papua New Guinea. Barrick has also filed two lawsuits against the publishers of two books – Noir Canada and Imperial Canada Inc.: Legal Haven of Choice for World’s Mining Industries – preventing their widespread publication. For more, see: http://www.protestbarrick.net. Canadian universities are chronically under-funded by all levels of government, which choose to slash corporate taxes, while continuing to spend tax payers’ money on Canada’s military and trade misadventures abroad.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10058.
Barrick is a Canadian company but London-based AXA Investment Managers UK Ltd had over $10 million invested in the company in 2007, BlackRock Commodities Income Trust plc has invested in the company, and the company also has connections with Millhouse Capital, controlled by London resident Roman Abramovich, and New City Investment Managers Ltd/NCIM (UK). (See From Money to Metals by Roger Moody, http://moneytometal.org/index.php/From_Money_to_Metals.)