r. carey gersten

The huge mining corporation’s legal actions against two small book presses — what do they say about our democracy?

By Philip Resnick | TheTyee.ca | April 21, 2010

Barrick Gold is a giant in the world of Canadian mining corporations, and its founder and chair, Peter Munk, has revelled in media attention for his philanthropy. For example, on April 13, the Globe and Mail reported a $35 million contribution from the gold magnate (with a matching $25 million from the Ontario government) for a new Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, “to join an elite cadre of international academic institutions such as the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the London School of Economics and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.”

How could one look such a gift horse in the mouth, or quarrel with Peter Munk’s professed beliefs? According to him, “Canada has a unique opportunity to step into the shoes that America has vacated, and I think that requires an elite group of highly educated, globalized Canadians who can be the spokespersons of every aspect of globalization. I don’t mean just trade, or democracy, or multiculturalism. . . but all the things Canada stands for, from health care down to the fundamental rejection of any kind of corruption.”

Perhaps the portrait is a little too perfect. How many readers of The Tyee or Canadians outside Quebec are aware that the same Barrick Corp., on whose board sit such eminences as Brian Mulroney, has been engaged in using SLAPPs — Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation — against two small presses, one in Quebec, one based in Vancouver, that have published or announced an intention to publish books that this august corporation finds offensive to its image? It took a March 25 op-ed article in Le Devoir, the independent Montreal daily (not beholden to the powerful media interests that control so many of Canada’s leading newspapers) to alert me to the situation.

Read on: http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2010/04/21/BarrickBricks/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=210410