Kevin Doughterty of the Montreal Gazette reports, Sabia-Desmarais meeting was "friendly", not lobbying, Caisse de dépôt says:A spokesperson for the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which invests more than $150 billion in Quebecers’ public-sector pension and insurance plans, said Tuesday that a weekend visit by Caisse CEO Michael Sabia to Sagard, the family compound of Montreal’s powerful Desmarais family, was “friendly.”Maxime Chagnon said Sabia did not discuss business matters with Power Corp. president André Desmarais during a weekend stay at Sagard, in the mountainous Charlevoix region, and the visit conformed with the Caisse code of ethics.
“We are very at ease,” Chagnon said.
Opposition parties are clamouring for Sabia to explain what he and Desmarais talked about during his visit to Sagard last August.
Quebec’s lobbying commissioner is also looking into the matter to determine whether Desmarais was engaged in lobbying the Caisse without registering as a lobbyist, which would contravene Quebec law.
Nicolas Girard of the Parti Québécois – with the backing of François Bonnardel, finance critic for the Coalition avenir Québec – has called on Sabia to explain his actions before a committee of the National Assembly.
Citing “ethical and moral problems,” Bonnardel said Sabia must explain himself.
«Après les pertes colossales de 2008, monsieur Sabia s’était engagé à prendre ses distances avec l’administration de monsieur Henri-Paul Rousseau, qui a quitté la Caisse pour Power Corporation. Or, aujourd’hui encore, les Québécois ont de sérieuses réserves concernant la façon dont la Caisse gère leur bas de laine et rend des comptes à la population. Dans ce contexte, nous estimons que la présence de monsieur Sabia à la résidence du président de Power Corporation est minimalement un grave manque de jugement »My take on all this? Much ado about nothing. More Quebec petty politics. André Desmarais is one of the richest, most powerful men in the world. The Desmarais family is secretive and they do not need the Caisse or this press coverage.
Was it a smart move on Sabia's part? Probably not given that Quebec's media loves jumping on this stuff to stir up conspiracy theories. And even though Sabia is independently wealthy, he should have exercised more common sense. But when André Desmarais invites you to Sagard, you don't refuse, you go, enjoy yourself and engage in interesting discussions with one of the most powerful and successful financiers in the world.
Quebec's media is truly pathetic. In fact, over dinner last night, along with former colleagues who all worked at the Caisse in the past, we discussed some scandals that the media never bothered uncovering. Like how the hell did the senior Caisse trader who lost over $22 billion investing in non-bank asset backed commercial paper (ABCP) land a cushy job as a senior investment officer at Fondaction CSN in charge of seeding Quebec hedge funds and other investments? How are other snaky slimeballs with questionable reputations still surviving and thriving at the Caisse?
That is the stuff that makes my blood boil. I couldn't care less if Michael Sabia spent three days at Sagard with André Desmarais. Good for him. What I care about is senior pension fund managers on the take, splitting commissions with brokers, getting kickbacks from external managers, setting themselves up on easy street through allocations to external managers.
That's the stuff that infuriates me and that is the stuff that Quebec's media should be covering. Maybe now that Arianna Huffington launched Quebec's French-only Huffington Post, we can get back to serious investigative journalism in this province. Leave it to us Greeks to stir up some shit and uncover the truth. Bravo Arianna, your timing is perfect!
.bmp)
