From:  The Party of One   -   by Michael Harris   
      
      
   Wrecking Ball   
      
   The Harper government's damage-control strategy ws taking shape, with Senator   
   Duffy as the main culprit.  But the other participant in the $90,000 payoff   
   was a different matter.   
      
   Nigel Wright was a blue-chip political asset to the prime minister, with a   
   long history of involvement in Conservative Party policy and fiance going back   
   thirty years. *   
      
           *  Wright was interested in politics even in high school.  He was a   
   member of    the Young Conservatives in university and backed Mulroney in his   
   1983 leadership campaign.  In 1984, Wright interrupted law schools at U of T   
   to become a speech    
   writer and policy advisor to the Mulroney PMO.  Wright also assisted Mike   
   Harris in Ontario and helped Kim Campbell to become the first female PM.    
   (Wright went to Onex in 1997, the same year Harper went to the NCC.)   
      
   If there was any doubt that the PMO would try to come up with a narrative to   
   save him from the scandal, it was quickly removed by the prime minister's   
   director of communications.  Andrew MacDougall told the media that Nigel   
   Wright had "the full    
   confidence of the prime minister" and "he will not resign."   
      
   MacDougall attempted to rag the puck by declaring that the PMO was cooperating   
   with a probe by Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson.  If the   
   Conservatives could give the impression that something was being done about   
   the extraordinary deal    
   between the prime minister's chief of staff and his celebrity senator, the   
   brewing scandal might slip behind the fog banks of yesterday's news.   
      
   It was not Mary Dawson's first dealing with Nigel Wright. . . .   
      
   When Wright had taken the top job in the PMO, Dawson had helped devise the   
   "ethical wall" designed to protect him from conflicts between his role in the   
   PMO and his past life as a Bay Street whiz kid at Onex Corporation.  The   
   ethical wall would be    
   administered by the deputy chief of staff to the prime minister.  Then in   
   2012, Dawson got a chance to assess the height and thickness of Wright's   
   ethical wall.   
      
   It became public that Barrick Gold, founded by Peter Munk, had lobbied Wright   
   three times in May about international relations and international trade.    
   Wright was personal friends with both Munk and his son Anthony who had worked   
   with Wright at Onex.     
   The ties were close.  Wright was godfather to Anthony's son.   
      
   The calls were of interest because Barrick was the world's largest gold mining   
   company.  It had an $8.5 billion investment in the troubled Pascua Lama mine   
   in the Andes, straddling the border of Chile and Argentina.  The project came   
   to a grinding halt    
   in Chile in April 2013 when Chile's environmental regulator stopped   
   construction of the mine on its side of the border, citing serious   
   environmental violations affecting the water supply of the indigenous Diaguita   
   Indian community living below the site.   
      
   For as long as anyone could remember, the Indians had taken their water   
   directly from their glacier-fed river.  Now toxic chemicals, including arsenic   
   and sulfates, were flowing into the headwaters, causing health problems.    
   Barrick was fined $16.4    
   million after authorities confirmed that the company had not told the full   
   truth when reporting environmental failures in their operation.  Diaguita   
   protesters held up signs that didn't enhance Canada's image on the evening   
   news:  "Canada:  What's    
   HARPERing here?"  and "Harper go home."   
      
   Foreign affairs minister John Baird vigorously defended Wright over conflict   
   allegations arising out of the calls from Barrick Gold.  The calls were made   
   in May 2012, shortly after Harper blocked a resolution on Argentina's claim to   
   the Falkland Islands    
   at the Summit of the Americas in Colombia.   
      
   Canadian mining companies were concerned this move would make it harder for   
   them to obtain permits from the Argentinian government, and Barrick planned to   
   continue construction on the Argentinian side of Pascua Lama.   
      
   According to Baird, Wright listened to Barrick's concerns, said nothing, and   
   directed the matter 'to the proper officials'.  Since Barrick called Wright on   
   May 14, 25, and 29, one wonders if the "proper officials" were on a long lunch.   
      
   Dawson discontinued her examination of a possible conflict of interest for   
   Wright over Barrick's contacts with him.  As she often does, she did this   
   without issuing a notice, ruling or report.  When CP reporter, Joan Bryden,   
   pressed Dawson on the    
   disposition of the file, the commissioner told her that she was satisfied   
   there had been no violation on Wright's part of the Conflict of Interest Act.    
   It was 'transparency and accountability' - Harper-style.   
      
   The PMO claimed vindication.  Andrew MacDougall issued a statement:  "As we   
   have said all along, Mr Wright conducted himself properly and in accordance   
   with the rules."   
      
   NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus wasn't buying it.  "It's who you know in the   
   PMO, and this is what the prime minister said he was going to change; this is   
   the culture that he said was going to get cleaned up."     
      
   There were good reasons for the political opposition and the public to worry   
   about the shadowy interface between big business and government.  Access to   
   the highest legislative levels is a huge priority for companies like Barrick,   
   and their executives    
   were not shy about bringing in the politicians when they had a problem.   
      
   That's exactly how Barrick recovered most of its losses from investing in   
   asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) that was being sold by Canada's chartered   
   banks by the late 1980s.  Barrick was advised by CIBC World Markets that their   
   $66-million investment    
   was safe in a third-party ABCP trust called Ironstone.   
      
   But when it turned out that the investment was freighted with a lot of toxic   
   subprime mortgage debt, the big banks could not protect all investors and   
   Barrick lost its money.  Barrick sued the CIBC, and after years of legal   
   wrangling, got some    
   satisfaction in May 2008.  But it didn't happen before a call went out from   
   finance minister, Jim Flaherty, to the bank.     
      
   As Bruce Livesey wrote in his book 'Thieves of Bay Street', "Federal finance   
   minister Jum Flaherty had stepped in and telephoned senior executives at the   
   bank, pressing them to return Barrick's cash.  CIBC reluctantly handed over   
   $49 million to settle    
   the matter."   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)