Former students disappointed after trial delayed for former Saskatoon Christian school director

CBC
Wed, June 12, 2024 

Former students of Christian Centre Academy were at Saskatoon provincial court on Wednesday, after the Crown finished presenting its case in the trial of John Olubobokun, a former director at the school, later renamed Legacy Christian Academy. (Pratyush Dayal/CBC - image credit)


Warning: this story contains descriptions of alleged assaults against children.

The trial of a former director of a private Christian school in Saskatoon has been adjourned until the fall after the defence requested more time to find witnesses to testify.

John Olubobokun, 64, has pleaded not guilty to nine counts of assault with a weapon stemming from allegations that he assaulted students two decades ago while he was director of Christian Centre Academy, which has since been renamed Legacy Christian Academy.


The Crown called 11 witnesses at the trial in Saskatoon provincial court this week, concluding Wednesday morning. The defence was expected to then begin presenting its case.

Instead, Olubobokun's lawyer requested an adjournment. Defence lawyer Daniel Tangjerd said his client felt "massively unprepared" after the Crown's witnesses, and wanted to examine their testimony and present new witnesses.

Crown prosecutor Sheryl Fillo requested that Olubobokun testify Wednesday before any adjournment. However, Tangjerd said Olubobokun would like to review all the submitted evidence.

Judge Lisa Watson took a short break to deliberate on Olubobokun's request before granting the adjournment.

The trial is now scheduled to resume Oct. 23 to 25.

John Olubobokun is on trial this week at Saskatoon provincial court on nine counts of assault with a weapon, related to his time as the director at Legacy Christian Academy, formerly known as Christian Centre Academy.

John Olubobokun's trial is scheduled to resume in October. He has pleaded guilty to nine counts of assault with a weapon related to his time as director of a private Saskatoon Christian school. (Travis Reddaway/CBC)

Delay frustrating: former student

Caitlin Erickson, a former student who has been outspoken about allegations of abuse at the school, told reporters Wednesday outside the court that the adjournment was disappointing. She said she was frustrated but not shocked.

"It does seem to be a bit of a delay tactic and a stall tactic, but we will just keep pursuing this and pushing it through," she said.

"With this particular individual, a lot of us are looking for justice from the courts and whatever the courts deem is appropriate. The acknowledgement of the harm done too is really big for a lot of alumni that attended there that have been gaslit over the years."

Caitlin Erickson testified at trial that she had never experienced physical abuse in her life to that degree until John Olubobokun hit her.

Caitlin Erickson testified at trial that she had never experienced physical abuse in her life to that degree until John Olubobokun hit her. (Pratyush Dayal/CBC)

Coy Nolin, who travelled from Estevan to testify on Monday, said it was the first time he had seen Olubobokun since he left the school.

"There was a little bit of little boy syndrome that definitely came up. I felt just like that scared little kid again. But knowing that I had the truth on my side, as well as other witnesses that had come forward, it was definitely a lot of empowerment," he said.

"I was scared that I was going to cry and it kind of happened … just telling the truth and showing that it did actually really affect me. And it still affects me to this day."

Coy Nolin testified about episodes of paddling at the school. He says he wants to see former school director John Olubobokun be held accountable.

Coy Nolin testified about episodes of paddling at the school. He says he wants to see former school director John Olubobokun be held accountable. (Pratyush Dayal/CBC)

While he is frustrated by the delay following the adjournment, Nolin said he is managing his expectations.

"Honestly the only thing I just want to see is the fact that he just gets held accountable."

Accounts of alleged assault

Former students have testified that Olubobokun regularly used a wooden paddle to strike their buttocks at the school as punishment for a variety of infractions.

They said Olubobokun got them to bend over a chair or desk and usually struck them three times before praying with them.

Erickson told the court that Olubobokun threatened students with spankings if they stepped out of line and fostered a system of informing on classmates.

Legacy Christian Academy could be closing its doors.

Legacy Christian Academy is located on Pinehouse Drive in Saskatoon. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)

"I never experienced physical abuse in my life to that degree until this man hit me," Erickson testified, saying she was paddled multiple times between 2003 and 2005.

Carolyn Nolin, the mother of three boys who testified on Monday, including Coy Nolin, was the last to testify Tuesday.

She said the school strongly encouraged taking a child-rearing class that endorsed physical discipline. She said the school sold paddles and that it was basically a requirement for parents to have one.

During cross-examination Wednesday, Tangjerd questioned the timeline of the incidents and her reports to the police.

Civil lawsuit and more criminal matters

Olubobokun's trial is just one of the criminal and civil proceedings involving the school.

A former principal, Duff Friesen, also faces multiple charges of assault and is scheduled to return to court in the fall.

Aaron Benneweis, a former coach and athletic director at the school, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and sexual exploitation. He was sentenced in October to two years less a day for the offences that began in 2008 and continued until 2012.

Former students of Legacy Christian Academy in Saskatoon and other protestors gathered outside Mile Two Church on Sunday, June 9, calling for the government to stop funding the school.

Former students of Legacy Christian Academy in Saskatoon and other protestors gathered outside Mile Two Church on Sunday, June 9, calling for the government to stop funding the school. (Trevor Bothorel/Radio-Canada)

Ken Schultz, a former director and vice-principal at the school, is awaiting trial on charges of assault with a weapon and sexual assault, allegations that he has denied.

A group of students has also launched a proposed class-action lawsuit against the academy and the connected church, Mile Two, with allegations including paddlings, coercion, traumatizing rituals and solitary confinement. The allegations in the lawsuit have not been tested in court.

Earlier this month, Saskatoon police said they are investigating a new complaint involving a Legacy staff member.

ALBERTA

'Hill he's prepared to die on': Second undercover officer at Coutts conspiracy trial

The Canadian Press
Fri, June 14, 2024 



LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — A second RCMP officer who went undercover as a supporter at the 2022 blockade in Coutts, Alta., has testified that one of two men charged with conspiracy to commit murder said all police officers at the blockade "should be hung."

Known only as HQ1516 to protect her identity, she is the second undercover officer to testify at the trial of Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert.

She told the court she has been doing this kind of work since 2015 and has been involved in more than 100 operations.

The officer and her partner met Olienick at Smuggler's Saloon in Coutts on Feb. 9, 2022, bringing perogies in a show of support for the blockade.

She said Olienick was friendly but also angry that some of his friends were being "intimidated" by the RCMP and not being allowed in through another checkpoint.

"He didn't like any cops even though they tried to talk nice. He didn't care that they were doing their job. They should all be hung," she said.

"To me it was like disdain for the police or disgust for the police, which was a little bit shocking obviously being a police officer standing right in front of him."

Olienick and Carbert are on trial in Court of King’s Bench on charges related to the blockade, which snarled traffic at the Canada-U.S. border at Coutts for two weeks to protest COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.

The officer said she and her partner were given scenarios each day to try to find out information as part of the investigation. She said that included determining the leadership, the possible location of weapons and a floor plan of the saloon.

Olienick started talking about a "Plan B" that he would put in place if police attempted to move in on the protesters, she said.

"That he had firearms stockpiled and thousands of rounds of ammo and could have everybody in there equipped," she said.

The operative said Olienick was also fearful that police would move in when protester numbers were down in the middle of week or in the middle of the night.

"Members were going to come in between 3 and 5 in the morning when everybody was sleeping and they didn't have comms to get everyone out to fight," she said.

"He did talk about having a satellite phone and having lots of military support outside that would rush in and smash through police vehicles and he said this is a hill he's prepared to die on and lots of them were."

The five-man, nine-woman jury is to hear more testimony on Friday.

Olienick and Carbert were arrested after Mounties found a cache of guns, body armour and ammunition in trailers in the area.

The two are also charged with mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Olienick faces a further charge of being in possession of a pipe bomb.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 14, 2024.

-- by Bill Graveland in Calgary

Undercover Mountie questioned on whether she misinterpreted Coutts border protest

The Canadian Press
Thu, June 13, 2024



LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — An undercover Mountie who infiltrated the Coutts border blockade faced questions in court Thursday on her police work and whether she misinterpreted what was really going on.

The officer, who can’t be identified, was under cross-examination by the lawyer for one of two men accused of conspiring to murder police at the blockade in 2022.

Anthony (Tony) Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial in Court of King’s Bench on charges surrounding the blockade, which snarled traffic at the Canada-U.S. border at Coutts, Alta., for two weeks to protest COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.

The officer, identified in court only as HQ1298, posed as a volunteer at the blockade.

She has testified that Olienick confided in her he expected to die in the standoff and planned to slit the throats of police.

She said Olienick also referred to police as the “devil’s arms,” which he explained was a way of saying police were doing the bidding of the “devil” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Defence lawyer Katherin Beyak suggested to the officer that the focus of the protest -- and most of the supporters -- was anger at government and not the RCMP.

"What I'm going to suggest to you is the frustration that was being expressed, not only by Tony, but also by other people ... was at the government as opposed to the RCMP. Would you agree with that?" Beyak asked.

"No,” the officer replied.

“The only person that talks about the police or the RCMP excessively is Tony.

“My conversations with Mr. Olienick are very much focused on the existence of a war. Nobody else talks about an existence of a war taking place with ... the RCMP."

Beyak is the lawyer for Carbert, but most of the Crown testimony to date has focused on the actions and words of Olienick.

HQ1298 has testified to her conversations and subsequent notes she made on conversations with Olienick

Beyak suggested the notes lacked critical context given they referred only to what Olienick said and not to what HQ1298 said.

"If it was something significant I had said, I obviously would have documented it,” the officer replied.

“My goal is to see what the truth is. Nothing more, nothing less."

When it came to the second accused, Carbert, the officer told court she hadn’t even been introduced to him until a few days into the undercover operation and that her interactions with him were limited.

“During (the first two days) I understand you did not have any contact or even see Mr. Carbert. Is that correct? asked Beyak.

The officer replied she wasn’t aware of seeing Carbert on one occasion and would not have known who he was if had been around on the second.

"Obviously you did not have any interaction with him," said Beyak.

"No I did not."

A second undercover officer, known as HQ1516, took the stand late in the afternoon.

She said she has been doing undercover work since 2015 and spent just two days in Coutts. She was asked by Crown prosecutor Steven Johnston about undercover operatives using romance to obtain information.

"You will never violate anyone's sexual integrity. You're not covered (legally) as well as morally. It's just not something I would do for myself or anyone else," HQ1516 said.

Olienick and Carbert were arrested after Mounties found a cache of guns, body armour and ammunition in trailers in the area.

The two are also charged with mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Olienick faces a further charge of being in possession of a pipe bomb.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2024.

-- By Bill Graveland in Calgary

5 more arrests, including primary suspect, in connection with Desjardins data leak

CBC
Thu, June 13, 2024

The charges against those arrested on Thursday allege they committed their crimes between October 2016 and May 2019. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press - image credit)


Quebec provincial police have arrested five more people with crimes tied to a massive data breach at Desjardins, including the former bank employee originally suspected of being behind the leak.

Four of them, three men and one woman, were arrested early Thursday morning, hours after Laval police announced arrests of their own tied to the case. Another man, Charles Bernier, turned himself into police later in the day.

Provincial police charged them with fraud, identity theft and the illegal possession and sale of personal information. One of the five, Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval, 42, was also charged with using a computer for fraud.

Boulanger-Dorval was the primary suspect in the leak. He worked at Desjardins on a marketing team at the time of the leak and allegedly justified selling the leaked data to pay debts.

In addition to Bernier and Boulanger-Dorval, police arrested and charged Jean-Loup Masse-Leullier, Laurence Bernier and François Baillargeon-Bouchard. Provincial police also issued arrest warrants for three other people: Maxime Paquette and Pablo Serrano, who police believe are hiding abroad, and Mathieu Joncas.

The charges against those arrested on Thursday allege they committed their crimes between Oct. 1, 2016, and May 27, 2019.

The Desjardins data leak was only revealed to the public in 2019 and the authorities only became aware in December 2018 when a suspicious transaction told them something was amiss.

Benoit Richard, the coordinator of broadcasting and media relations with the Sûreté du Québec, said it took years for investigators to make arrests because the investigation was complex and they wanted to make sure they had gathered all of the evidence they needed.

On Wednesday, Laval police announced three arrests of individuals alleged to be connected to the data breach.

Imad Jbara, 33, and Ayoub Kourdal, 36, were charged with fraud, trafficking in identity information and identity theft. The third suspect has yet to appear in court.

Laval police also issued an arrest warrant for a fourth suspect.

The data breach at the Quebec-based credit union is thought to be one of the largest ever among Canadian financial institutions, affecting roughly 9.7 million people and businesses.

In a statement on Thursday, Desjardins said it was "very pleased arrests have been made."

"We would like to assure the authorities of our full cooperation in further proceedings," the statement said.

Five more arrests, including main suspect, in fraud, data theft at Desjardins

The Canadian Press
Thu, June 13, 2024 




MONTREAL — Quebec provincial police have arrested five people in connection with a multimillion-dollar fraud and the theft of data belonging to almost 10 million clients of the co-operative financial group Desjardins.

Among those arrested, police said Thursday, is the alleged architect of the scheme, Sébastien Boulanger-Dorval, 42, who worked in the marketing department at the financial institution until 2019, the year the theft was discovered.

The four other people arrested are Jean-Loup Masse-Leullier, 32, François Baillargeon-Bouchard, 35, Laurence Bernier, 29, and Charles Bernier, 31. They face charges including fraud, identity theft, and trafficking in identity information.

Police said arrest warrants have been issued for three other people allegedly involved in the crimes at Desjardins: Mathieu Joncas, 38, Maxime Paquette, 38, and Juan Pablo Serrano, 38.

At a news conference in Quebec City on Thursday, provincial police spokesman Benoît Richard said the investigation "shed light on how suspects obtained personal information, the ways in which this personal information was then traded between suspects and how these lists were sold to malicious individuals operating several fraud schemes."

On Wednesday, Montreal-area police said they arrested three other people connected to the case: Ayoub Kourdal, 36; Imad Jbara, 33; and an unnamed third person. Laval police said the three suspects used the stolen Desjardins data to commit fraud totalling $8.9 million between September 2018 and January 2019.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec published scathing reports in 2020 that concluded Desjardins failed to show the level of attention required to protect its customers' data.

The OPC report said Desjardins notified the federal office on May 27, 2019, about a breach involving close to 9.7 million individuals in Canada and internationally. It found that Desjardins had been aware of the security weaknesses that led to the breach, but failed to address them in time. The breach occurred "over more than a two-year period before Desjardins became aware of it, and then only after the organization had been notified by the police," the report said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2024.

Quebec police arrest three in $9-million fraud, data theft case involving Desjardins
The Canadian Press
Wed, June 12, 2024 



MONTREAL — Montreal-area police announced Wednesday that they have arrested three people in connection with a major data theft and $8.9-million fraud involving the co-operative financial group Desjardins, some five years after the alleged crime.

Police in Laval, Que., said one of the suspects was caught with a list of personal data for 1.6 million Quebecers.

The arrests are tied to a 2019 data theft, described as the largest ever in the Canadian financial services sector, that targeted more than 9.7 million Desjardins clients in Canada and internationally, including almost seven million Quebecers.


Laval police deputy director of criminal organizations Jean-François Rousselle said the suspects were allegedly able to use the stolen personal information to get access to the clients' accounts through the bank's online banking platform, Accès D.

“These individuals used the data stolen from Desjardins in order to facilitate the conduct of their operations and to disperse funds in Canada, the United States, but also throughout the world," Rousselle said.

"The main method of operation was to obtain, via the Accès D service, a temporary password using the users' personal information that they had in their possession, to then proceed with transactions made directly from bank accounts via the web platform."

Police said the three suspects used the stolen data to commit fraud totalling $8.9 million between September 2018 and January 2019.

Thirty-six-year-old Ayoub Kourdal, and 33-year-old Imad Jbara were scheduled to appear in court Wednesday, while a court date for the third suspect has not been set. They face charges of fraud over $5,000, trafficking in identity information, possession of identity information, and identity theft.

Police said they are searching for a fourth person in connection with the fraud and data theft.

Rousselle said the investigation was one of the most complex in the force's history and involved the help of the Quebec provincial police and prosecutors.

It led to raids in Montreal, Laval and St-Augustin-de-Desmaures in 2019 that resulted in the seizure of a large amount of data and 70 pieces of computers and equipment containing thousands of documents and files.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec published scathing reports in 2020 that concluded Desjardins failed to show the level of attention required to protect its customers' data.

The OPC report found that Desjardins had been aware of the security weaknesses that led to the breach, but failed to address them in time. The breach occurred "over more than a two-year period before Desjardins became aware of it, and then only after the organization had been notified by the police," it found.

The leak was blamed on an employee of the marketing team who was able to access confidential information, despite not having the clearance level to do so, because other employees would copy the information onto a shared drive.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2024.

Stéphane Blais, The Canadian Press

Police arrest 3 in connection with massive Desjardins data breach
CBC
Wed, June 12, 2024 


Laval police criminal investigations assistant director Jean-François Rousselle announced Wednesday new arrests in the 2019 data breach that affected millions of customers. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada - image credit)


Laval police say they arrested three suspects Wednesday in connection to a massive data breach at Desjardins Group made public in 2019.

Imad Jbara, 33, and Ayoub Kourdal, 36, were charged with fraud, trafficking in identity information and identity theft. The third suspect has yet to appear in court.

An arrest warrant was also issued for a fourth suspect.

The data breach at the Quebec-based credit union is thought to be one of the largest ever among Canadian financial institutions, affecting roughly 4.2 million people and 173,000 businesses.

A suspicious transaction in Laval in December 2018 tipped off Desjardins.

Laval, Que., police criminal investigations assistant director Jean-François Rousselle said one of the suspects had a list of 1.6 million Quebecers' personal information.

The leaked information includes names, addresses, birth dates, social insurance numbers (SINs), email addresses and information about transaction habits.

Using the personal information gathered, the scammers would get a temporary password to log into AccèsD, Desjardins' login portal, to then make fraudulent transactions directly from the victims' account, said Rousselle.

Business accounts were mainly targeted this way, and $8.9 million fraudulently transferred from Desjardins clients and was never recovered.

In a statement to Radio-Canada, Desjardins praised the work of police and said it would continue to co-operate.

Desjardins found negligent

In 2022, the Superior Court of Quebec approved a more than $200-million settlement of a class-action lawsuit related to the breach.

Reports by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec, the province's access-to-information commission, said Desjardins failed to live up to its obligations and was negligent in safeguarding its members' personal and financial information.

The financial institution paid for a credit-monitoring plan through Equifax and offered identity theft insurance for affected members for five years, which is expiring soon.

The Desjardins employee behind the leak worked in the marketing team at its head office and had access to personal information his database access rights did not allow him to obtain, said the Commission d'accès à l'information.

This confidential information was stored in directories shared by all marketing team employees.

Police reports related to fraud increased by 20 per cent in 2023 in Laval, similarly to the rest of Quebec, according to Rousselle.

"Scammers are ingenious and are always innovating their strategies to get more money out of their victims," he said.

"No one is safe from fraud.… Never share your personal information, bank information or give money to someone without confirming their identity."

Legault government pursuing controversial 'third link' in Quebec City

Maura Forrest
Thu, June 13, 2024 

The Canadian Press


MONTREAL — The Quebec government is moving ahead with a controversial transportation project in the provincial capital that has for years been a political lightning rod.

Premier François Legault announced Thursday his government is planning to build a third bridge connecting Quebec City with suburbs across the St. Lawrence River.

The decision comes after Legault abandoned the project last year, infuriating some voters and members of his own caucus, and then promised to revive it last fall — one day after his Coalition Avenir Québec candidate lost a Quebec City byelection.

Legault initially pitched the project as a way to alleviate traffic in the capital region, but he now says the so-called "third link" is important to ensure trucks transporting goods could still get to the city if one of the two existing bridges closed.

“We have to have humility when we need to revisit a decision,” Legault told a news conference Thursday. “In taking a step back, we noticed that the issue of economic security is very important. So that’s why we’re changing our decision.”

The announcement followed a new report Wednesday from Quebec’s pension fund manager — the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec — saying a third link is not justified and would only reduce travel time by about five minutes.

The report instead recommended a $15-billion public transit plan for the region that includes a tramway network. On Thursday, Legault also gave the green light to the first phase of that plan, worth $5 billion. “We can do both,” the premier said.

The third link, despite being a hypothetical project in a metropolitan area of less than one million people, has contributed to Legault’s declining political fortunes and has often attracted national attention.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre staked out his position on X Thursday, saying he supports the third link and accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose government has refused to fund the project, of being “obsessed with a war on cars” and ignoring people who live in the suburbs.

However, Poilievre also said he wouldn’t invest “one cent of federal money” in a tramway if he becomes prime minister. The Liberal government, on the other hand, has previously committed to funding part of a tramway project.

On Thursday, Legault said he’s hopeful he can get money for both projects from either a Liberal or Conservative government.

The announcement is the latest development in a years-long political drama. The project was one of Legault’s key campaign promises during the 2018 and 2022 provincial elections, intended to appeal to voters in battleground ridings in the Quebec City region. But in a major about-face in April last year, his government announced the project was no longer justified, due in part to reduced traffic following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The backlash was swift. In October, one day after losing a Quebec City byelection and facing dismal polls, Legault abruptly changed tack and put the third link back on the table. “Losing Quebec (City) is out of the question,” he said at the time.

The new justification for the project — economic security — is “100 per cent political,” said Rudy Husny, a political analyst and former federal Conservative adviser. “The CAQ was able to get in power with the support of Quebec City and Lévis and all that region. It started there, their climb into power.”

The CAQ’s support base is largely outside Montreal, Husny said, and the government has tried to show it’s focused on the needs of Quebec City, which often feels overlooked.

But the flip-flops on the third link have “damaged the connection” with voters in a region Legault can’t afford to ignore, said political analyst Antonine Yaccarini. She said the issue has become so polarizing around Quebec City that people feel they can only support the third link or the tramway, not both.

“If you’re for the third link, you’re labelled as not caring about the environment or public transit. And if you’re for the tramway, you’re told you want to wage war on cars,” she said. “And it contributes to ensuring that none of the projects is completed.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2024.

Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press

B.C. politicians ask for audit of $3.86 billion North Shore water treatment plant

The Canadian Press
Thu, June 13, 2024 

The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — A group of local politicians from B.C.'s Lower Mainland are asking the provincial auditor general to investigate how the cost of a wastewater treatment plant could balloon to $3.86 billion.

Seven local city councillors from five jurisdictions say in a statement they are urging Michael Pickup to look into the delays and cost overruns, saying he has the jurisdiction because the province put $200 million toward the project.

The original cost of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant in 2018 was $700 million and it was expected to open in 2020, but the Metro Vancouver regional district fired the contractor over construction delays in 2021.

Surrey Coun. Linda Annis, one of those asking for the audit, says the mismanagement of the megaproject is staggering, and Metro Vancouver taxpayers deserve to know how it went wrong and why they are stuck with the bill for the next 30 years.


Burnaby Coun. Richard T. Lee says there hasn't been any accountability for the nearly 450 per cent cost increase from the original budget.

A statement from the auditor's office says it did receive the request, and because there is provincial involvement, it would be something the office could look into, but its policy is not to discuss work under consideration for an audit.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2024.

Saudi Arabia takes stake in Heathrow in £3.3bn deal

Christopher Jasper
Fri, 14 June 2024 

The departure hall at Heathrow Terminal 3 - Maja Smiejkowska/Reuters

Saudi Arabia secured a 15pc stake in Heathrow Airport as part of a £3.3bn investment alongside French private equity giant Ardian.

The oil-rich nation’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been targeting the purchase since 2022 as part of a push to diversify the economy.

The PIF and Ardian announced the purchase of a 25pc stake in Heathrow from Spanish builder Ferrovial in November. They later said they were in talks with other investors to lift their holding to 60pc, raising the prospect of the Saudis taking control of a key UK asset.

In the event, they will have a combined stake just short of 38pc, with Ardian becoming the biggest single shareholder and the PIF ranking third, behind the Qatar Investment Authority, which held out against reducing its 20pc holding.


A source close to the transaction said that on that basis it was not expected to trigger significant national security or competition concerns.

Ardian, which will have a 22.6pc holding, said it was committed to investing in the UK and will support Heathrow in its effort to reduce carbon emissions, grow revenues and withstand external shocks. It did not comment on the long-delayed plans to build a third runway at the airport, which operates close to capacity.

It is understood that, like Qatar, the sovereign wealth funds of China and Singapore also chose to retain the full holdings, as did the Australian Retirement Trust.

Only two investors – Canadian institutional investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) and the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) – opted to exploit so-called tag-along rights entitling them to sell at the same price as Ferrovial.

The Spanish infrastructure giant, the primary owner of Heathrow for 17 years, also rowed back from its plan to fully exit its holding and together with CDPQ and USS will control around 10pc of the company.

The purchase by Ardian and the PIF values Heathrow at about £8.3bn, compared with the £9.5bn valuation based on the original deal in November. That reflects the increased size of the transaction, the source said.

Saudi Arabia has become a major investing force around the world as it seeks to prepare for a post fossil fuel economy, and aims to hold $2 trillion (£1.6 trillion) in assets by 2030.

Its highest-profile investments have been in sport, with the purchase of Newcastle United football club and the establishment of the revel LIV golf tour.

The UK has been more relaxed about Middle Eastern investments than some other countries. Dubai-based DP World owns UK ports and Qatar Airways is a major investor in British Airways parent IAG, though a takeover of The Telegraph by the UAE was blocked.

Heathrow expects to attract 82.4m passengers in 2024, beating a record of 80.9m set in 2019.

Barclays Bank suspends sponsorship of Download, Latitude and Isle of Wight festivals

Laura Snapes

THE GUARDIAN
Fri, 14 June 2024 

Corey Taylor of Slipknot performing at Download festival, 14 June 2019.

Photograph: Joseph Okpako/WireImage

Barclays has suspended sponsorship of all Live Nation festivals for 2024 – including Download, Latitude and the Isle of Wight – after protests from bands and fans over the bank providing financial services to defence companies supplying Israel.

The bank signed a five-year sponsorship deal with Live Nation in 2023. It is understood that the suspension does not apply to the entire contract.

A spokesperson for Live Nation said: “Following discussion with artists, we have agreed with Barclays that they will step back from sponsorship of our festivals.”

A spokesperson for Barclays told the Guardian: “Barclays was asked and has agreed to suspend participation in the remaining Live Nation festivals in 2024. Barclays customers who hold tickets to these festivals are not affected and their tickets remain valid. The protesters’ agenda is to have Barclays debank defence companies which is a sector we remain committed to as an essential part of keeping this country and our allies safe.

“They have resorted to intimidating our staff, repeated vandalism of our branches and online harassment. The only thing that this small group of activists will achieve is to weaken essential support for cultural events enjoyed by millions. It is time that leaders across politics, business, academia and the arts stand united against this.”

The protest group Bands Boycott Barclays said: “This is a victory for the Palestinian-led global BDS movement. As musicians, we were horrified that our music festivals were partnered with Barclays, who are complicit in the genocide in Gaza through investment, loans and underwriting of arms companies supplying the Israeli military. Hundreds of artists have taken action this summer to make it clear that this is morally reprehensible, and we are glad we have been heard.

“Our demand to Barclays is simple: divest from the genocide, or face further boycotts. Boycotting Barclays, also Europe’s primary funder of fossil fuels, is the minimum we can do to call for change.”

Areeba Hamid, co-executive director for Greenpeace UK, also welcomed the suspension. “Live Nation have done the right thing by stepping away from their Barclays sponsorship. It’s time for Barclays to stop hiding behind the music and face it instead. This bank is the biggest fossil fuel funder in Europe, bankrolling oil and gas to the tune of billions of pounds, and has now been linked to arms companies involved in the conflict in Gaza. By putting an end to the greenwashing, festival organisers are sending a clear signal to Barclays that it’s time they took responsibility for the destructive industries they fund.”

A number of bands had already withdrawn from this weekend’s Download festival, which gets underway on Friday in Donington Park, as a result of the sponsorship. Among them were Leeds band Pest Control, who said: “We cannot sacrifice the principles held by this band and by the scene we come from and represent, just for personal gain.”

The bands Speed, Scowl, Zulu and Ithaca also joined the boycott. The latter said: “Once we were made aware of Barclays’ involvement in Download we knew we could no longer participate. This moment of solidarity is an opportunity for festival organisers to reflect carefully on who they take money from and see that the younger generation of bands will no longer be silent.”

The boycott came after more than 100 acts pulled out of playing the Barclaycard-sponsored Great Escape festival in Brighton in May.

The actions of the UK music community echo wider protests against Barclays by pro-Palestine campaigners. This week members of activist group Palestine Action vandalised about 20 of the bank’s branches across the UK, including smashing windows and daubing them with red paint; in Edinburgh, rocks inscribed with the names of dead Palestinians were thrown at a bank branch.

The UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign has called for a general boycott of the bank over its “grave complicity in Israel’s attacks on Palestinians”, alleging that Barclays “now holds over £2bn in shares, and provides £6.1bn in loans and underwriting” to companies providing weapons systems to Israel.

It is also one of the “divestment and exclusion” targets named by the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Barclays addressed the criticism in a statement posted online. “We have been asked why we invest in nine defence companies supplying Israel, but this mistakes what we do,” the company wrote. “We trade in shares of listed companies in response to client instruction or demand and that may result in us holding shares. Whilst we provide financial services to these companies, we are not making investments for Barclays and Barclays is not a ‘shareholder’ or ‘investor’ in that sense in relation to these companies.”

In relation to Israeli defence company Elbit, Barclays stated: “We may hold shares in relation to client driven transactions, which is why we appear on the share register, but we are not investors.”

In an opinion piece for the Guardian, the bank’s chief executive, CS Venkatakrishnan, criticised the attacks on its branches and said: “It is important that we restore reason and discourse to our dealings with each other.”

He added: “The UK’s creative and cultural life is world-renowned and respected. Our literary and music festivals are the warp and weft of our cultural life and an important source of sales and exposure for artists. Rejecting funding only hurts their livelihood and our broader culture. Nobody benefits from reduced funding for the arts.”

When contacted by the Guardian for comment earlier in the week, Barclays said it had supported the UK music and arts sector with £112m over the past 20 years.

CEOs make nearly 200 times more than other workers and their pay hikes keep outpacing employees. It’s an ‘outrage,’ a top advisor says

Seamus Webster
Thu, June 13, 2024

Apu Gomes—Getty Images



Two thirds of all Americans believe companies are doing a poor job of reigning in the wealth gap between CEOs and typical employees, according to early results of a poll conducted by Gallup and Bentley University.

The results have not been officially released yet, but findings so far reveal for the third year in a row that an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that reducing the pay gap between CEOs and average workers is not only an important issue, but also one that corporate boards are failing miserably to address.

“CEO pay is an outrage. It’s atrocious. And it hugely undermines confidence in our institutions,” Nell Minow, vice chair of ValueEdge Advisors, told CNN, which was first to report on the survey findings.

In 2023, the average CEO of an S&P 500 company earned 196 times as much as typical employees, up from 185 in 2022. Some 83% of Americans told pollsters that it was either somewhat or extremely important that businesses try to reduce the yawning chasm between average pay for top executives and pay for median employees. At the same time, just 13% of respondents said companies were doing a fair job of keeping CEO pay under control.

But if public opinion on CEO pay appears overwhelming—and consistent, both year-over-year and across demographics—it doesn’t seem to be having much of an impact.

Median compensation packages for S&P 500 CEOs rose nearly 13% last year, even as pay and benefits for private sector workers rose just over 4%, according to the AP’s annual compensation survey. The results of the survey, analyzed for the AP by Equilar, showed that the average pay for CEOs rose to $16.3 million including cash and stock-based awards, while the median employee at an S&P 500 company earned $81,467.

“Instinctively, it doesn’t seem fair. How can a CEO make 196 times the average worker?” Cynthia Clark, a professor of management at Bentley University, told CNN.

The new findings also showed that political party affiliation wasn’t a major factor in how Americans viewed the pay gap between CEOs and employees. In the survey, 96% of Democrats said reducing the pay gap was important. Republicans, while not as ardent, still overwhelmingly said the issue was important (66%).

CEO pay is “an issue that cuts across the political spectrum,” Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Fortune. In fact, she said it might even be a factor behind the resurgence in organized labor activity in 2023, as dissatisfaction with company profits getting funneled to the top of the pay scale boiled over at major unions like United Auto Workers.

“Coming out of the pandemic, the idea that one person in a corner office is worth hundreds of times more than frontline workers, many of whom were doing essential work to keep our economy going—people just aren't buying that anymore,” Anderson told Fortune.

The Gallup-Bentley findings aren’t the first polling this year that has shown bipartisan contempt for CEO pay.

A poll in April by Data for Progress asked respondents how they would feel about implementing legislation that hiked taxes on companies that pay their CEOs at least 50 times the median pay of employees. The results showed overwhelming approval from both Republicans and Democrats.

Bills like the one surfaced by pollsters have been floated before in both chambers of Congress, including one introduced this year by Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act.

But Anderson said that kind of legislation has stalled because corporate lobbyists continue to pound the table that CEOs of big corporations are almost singehandly responsible for shareholder value. The talent pool for top executives is incredibly competitive, and if they don’t pay up, CEOs will go off to other companies that will.

“I think most Americans really see through that argument now, and understand that employees up and down the pay scale are contributing value to these companies,” Anderson said. “It says a lot about who really has a strong voice in Washington. Those corporate lobby groups who are still pushing that outmoded idea still have a lot of say.”

This all comes as Tesla shareholders today approved the largest pay package in history for CEO Elon Musk at $56 billion.

“Shareholders are the group that ought to decide pay packages,” Bentley professor Cynthia Clark told Fortune in an email. “The big concern with Musk’s award is not what he will do if he doesn’t get it, much covered in the news, but what will happen with other CEO’s and the pay ratios if he does.”

Anderson told Fortune that Musk’s pay package offered an interesting look at other mechanisms for reigning in CEO pay. In January, a Delaware judge vetoed Musk’s payout due to corporate governance issues, and several major institutional investors, including two of California’s public pension plans, came out against the deal ahead of today’s vote.

“It's encouraging to see some major institutional investors take a stand against this obscene pay package that was approved by his brother and his divorce lawyer, and these other people who have such cozy ties with the executives,” Anderson said. “But there is a really high hurdle to getting majority votes against pay packages at companies.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Judge Likely to Reject $30 Billion Visa, Mastercard Fee Deal


Paige Smith
Fri, June 14, 2024



(Bloomberg) -- A $30 billion settlement between Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and retailers to cap credit-card swipe fees is likely to be rejected by a federal judge in Brooklyn, a setback in the two decade-long litigation.


Judge Margo Brodie of the US District Court of the Eastern District of New York indicated in a hearing Thursday that she probably won’t approve the deal, according to court records. Brodie hasn’t officially ruled, but said she would “issue a written decision” in coming days, according to a summary of her comments in court on Thursday.

Retailers have fought for decades to slash their share of the cost for accepting card payments, also known as interchange fees. Much of those fees are passed on to the banks that issue the cards, including giants like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc.

The deal, which was announced in March and subject to court approval, would have let merchants charge consumers extra in transactions involving Visa or Mastercard credit cards. When the agreement was unveiled, the parties said it also would have allowed the use of pricing tactics to steer consumers to lower-cost cards.

“The court’s comments strongly suggest that she won’t accept the settlement,” said Justin Teresi, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. “While Judge Brodie doesn’t seem convinced that larger retailers should be allowed to opt out from the settlement, provisions like changes to digital wallet acceptance rules and some state bans on surcharges likely present real adequacy issues.”

Spokespeople for both Visa and Mastercard said the firms were “disappointed” by the developments.

“We believe the settlement presented a fair resolution of this long-standing dispute, most notably by giving business owners more flexibility in how they manage their card acceptance activities,” a representative for Mastercard said in a statement. “We will pursue our options to ensure a proper resolution of this matter.”

Visa’s spokesperson said that “continued engagement between industry and the merchants is the best way forward.”

Swipe fees totaled more than $172 billion last year, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition. Reactions were mixed when the settlement was announced in March, with some coalitions of retailers pledging to take a close look and some quickly opposing it.

Visa shares slipped less than 0.7% in early trading in New York, while Mastercard’s stock was little changed. Both companies’ shares have underperformed the S&P 500 Financials Index so far this year.

“It seems that the judge has yet to make a final decision, but if the settlement is rejected, it may force the parties to go back to the drawing board and elongate a final settlement,” Sanjay Sakhrani, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said in a note to clients. “The most obvious assumption would be that the judge doesn’t think this settlement is adequate.”

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents large merchants including Target Corp. and Home Depot Inc., called the settlement a “mere drop in the bucket” at the time and said its terms need “to be carefully reviewed” to see if they remedy the harm done.

On Thursday, another group praised the judge’s remarks.

“We’re gratified to see that the court recognized how bad this settlement was,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores.

--With assistance from Patricia Hurtado and David Scheer.

(Updates with share price reaction in ninth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Converting cow manure to fuel is growing climate solution, but critics say communities put at risk

DORANY PINEDA and TERRY CHEA

Fri, 14 June 2024 

PIXLEY, Calif. (AP) — The stench of cow feces, urine and ammonia forces residents to keep windows and doors closed in parts of California's farming country. Some people constantly run air purifiers at home to counter the smell and, they say, fight off air-related ailments.

"We have a lot of health problems going around in this community and most of them are respiratory problems,” said Beverly Whitfield amid dairies in Pixley, a small town in Tulare County. She believes her allergies, her adult son's asthma and others' breathing issues are linked to pollution from nearby dairies.

Industrial-scale dairy farms already are among the biggest polluters in the San Joaquin Valley, a premier U.S. agricultural region with poor air quality. Now residents like Whitfield worry methane digesters, which can turn manure into a biofuel that is cleaner than traditional fuels like gasoline, could exacerbate health issues. Biofuel experts say digesters can reduce air pollution.

Dairy and digester capital

Home to about 1.7 million cows, California is the country's leading dairy producer and a large contributor of methane. Cow burps and manure emit the potent planet-warming gas, which over a shorter period is much more powerful than carbon dioxide.

In recent decades, digesters that convert manure and other organic waste into biogas to create electricity or to power vehicles have spread across the country.

The number's expected to grow since waste management practices such as digesters became eligible for funding from the Inflation Reduction Act — President Joe Biden’s law to combat climate change.

Most digesters are in dairies that capture methane from lagoons of cow manure and turn it into biofuel. Liquified cow manure commonly is stored in a covered digester where microbes from the animals' digestive systems produce gas. The gas then is cleaned and compressed into a liquid fuel that can be used as an energy source.

In the last decade, about 120 digesters have cropped up across California and roughly 100 more are in the pipeline. But a technology hailed as a cost-effective way to help the state reach its methane reduction goals has become controversial.

Environmental justice organizations say mostly low-income, Latino communities are dealing with pollution from nearby digesters, and they want California to stop providing financial incentives for more. Critics also say state policies favor industrial dairies, entrenching unsustainable animal agriculture.

Rebecca Wolf with the environmental group Food and Water Watch said the state is incentivizing dairies to keep running large operations that already pollute. “You're never going to stop polluting” with this system in place, she said.

Dairies argue the state's financial program plays an important role. “There’s got to be some financial incentive there to give up some portion of your land to operate these systems,” said dairyman Brent Wickstrom, whose digester recently went online.

Supporters point to the technology’s effectiveness at mitigating climate change. AgSTAR, sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, estimates manure-based digesters reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2022. That's roughly the annual greenhouse gas emissions from more than 2 million passenger vehicles.

Supporters note that biofuel from methane reduces pollution by replacing fossil fuels like gasoline with cleaner vehicle fuel.

“This technology reduces odors and some local air pollutants,” said Sam Wade, director of public policy for the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas. “At the same time, it reduces greenhouse gas emissions."

Dairies, digesters and pollution

Residents near dairies complain about flies and strong odors.

“You don't want the doors open because you're afraid of all the smells,” said Whitfield, whose family left doors open when they moved to Pixley in the 1970s. "Everything's changed now with the dairies.”

Some dairies say digester tarps that cover manure reduce smells. “If anything, it should be keeping some of that odor in as opposed to making more,” said Wickstrom, the Merced County dairyman.

Studies have found people living near large dairies can experience fatigue, respiratory problems, burning eyes and runny noses if odors are concentrated enough. A 2017 University of Wisconsin study found digesters can increase ammonia emissions by up to 81%. Ammonia may form fine particulate matter that can enter lungs and the bloodstream. Long-term exposure to particulates has been linked to heart and respiratory issues.

“Having a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is good, but you also want to think about the human health impact,” said lead author Michael A. Holly, an associate professor at the Green Bay campus.

California air regulators said the Midwest study doesn't necessarily apply to this state's different meteorological conditions and types of digesters. They added that studies are underway to understand effects of digesters on ammonia emissions.

A recent study funded by the California Air Resources Board found San Joaquin Valley dairy waste emissions contributed little to ozone and fine particulate matter concentrations.

“The air quality implications are basically zero, and really we can make a decision about whether or not digesters should be adopted based on greenhouse gas emissions,” said Michael Kleeman, lead study researcher and a University of California, Davis professor. “There's already so much excess ammonia in the agriculture-rich regions that (digesters) are not going to significantly influence the air quality.”

Maria Arevalo, a 74-year-old activist and former farmworker, believes her asthma and sleep apnea are linked to pollution from dairies near her home in Pixley. She sleeps with a machine to help her breathe. So do her son, 34, and grandson, 11.

Her neighborhood often smells of ammonia, she said, but many families can’t afford air conditioning and open windows to let breeze in. “These dairies shouldn’t be in areas where communities are.”

In her town of about 4,000 there are more cows than people. According to the nonprofit Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Pixley's 26 dairies house approximately 140,000 cows. Nine have digesters operating on farms with thousands of animals, according to AgSTAR.

Recently, 15 members of Congress wrote opposing USDA's decision to make some large-scale farming practices, such as roofs and covers for waste management facilities, eligible for federal funding.

“The storage of hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid manure ... pollutes the air and water of surrounding communities,” they said. "This inherently unsustainable manure storage system is only further entrenched by ... digesters.”

Tradeoffs of a climate solution

Researchers have found nearly 40% of methane emissions from human activity come from livestock and agriculture. EPA estimates each cow can produce 154 to 264 pounds (about 70 to 120 kilograms) of methane annually.

In California, supporters view digesters as important in helping the state meet climate goals and as a source of renewable natural gas for vehicles.

Biomethane improves air in cities "because trucks don't emit very much emission at all when they run on natural gas,” said Eric McAfee, CEO of the renewable fuels and biochemicals company Aemetis.

Joey Airoso, who's had a digester on his 2,900-cow farm since 2018, found that odors declined and nitrogen-rich remnants could be used as crop fertilizer. “That's a big deal environmentally because it alleviates extra nitrogen being put on," he said.

Colin Murphy, from the Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy at UC Davis, said that while digesters have benefits, they don’t solve air pollution “and don’t make it any more pleasant to live near one.”

Some valley residents who have complained about odors and respiratory issues say they have been told to move. But many have lived in small, rural towns long before dairies arrived — and relocating is not always financially feasible.

“Where are you going to move at? You don't have money to move,” said Whitfield, the Pixley resident with allergies.

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Pineda reported from Los Angeles.

Cows stand in a corral at a Pixley, Calif., dairy farm on Monday, May 20, 2024. In recent decades, digesters that convert cow manure and other organic waste into biogas to create electricity or to fuel vehicles have spread nationally, and the number is expected to grow. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

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