Dominic Barton, latest flameout among the smouldering crushes of the Liberal government — think the Kielburgers, or the Deliverology guy from Britain — reached his denouement last week at, honestly, a late afternoon House of Commons committee. It was riveting on CPAC! If you’re incredulous, read on.
Barton, a Canadian who made it big in America, spent nine years at the top of the over-sized, overreaching, oleaginous consultancy, McKinsey & Company. His time as “managing director” included the scuzziest episodes in McKinsey annals, and that’s saying a lot — even if he acknowledges no palpable responsibility.
When he was still there, our recently elected Liberals made him chair of an advisory group charged with making Canada rich and handsome. For that, he received grovelling admiration in places like the CBC. After leaving McKinsey he became ambassador to China. He was on the job during the release of the Michaels, the best thing going for him in the eyes of history.
Debacles at McKinsey in his era included advising Purdue Pharma on how to “turbocharge” sales of oxycontin, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths, for which McKinsey agreed to pay out $600 million; bribery cases in India and South Africa; charges by the Rainforest Foundation about misrepresenting forest use, a scandal at Canadian firm Valeant that the Financial Times said had McKinsey’s fingerprints everywhere.
The Commons hearing concerned abundant federal contracts to McKinsey but was that the worst they could find? Should Canada engage at all with the Bondian SPECTRE of global consultancies?
Canadian committee hearings lack the resources and hubris they have in the U.S., where they’re often grandiose spectacles. Still, the NDP’s Gord Johns gave it a shot. In the face of dull obsessions with smallish contracts that McKinsey hoovers up, he strove to raise big moral issues, asking if it’s “ethical” to do business with a company covered in slime. (I paraphrase.)
It was like 1959s Anatomy of a Murder, when defence lawyer James Stewart at last manages to enter a rape into evidence. (“Mr. Biegler, you finally got your rape into the case,” says the judge, unforgettably.) Johns looked verklempt over his small victory but the chair called time on him. Curses!
The only committee member seemingly prepared to play in the American League was Conservative Garnett Genuis. Like he could go toe to toe with Jim Jordan: young, fresh and poised. He says McKinsey’s a big shop but as boss, Barton was “certainly” responsible for its culture.
Barton says astoundingly that he only became aware of the Purdue case after his leadership gig. Genuis nearly swallows his tie. Barton repeats that the firm has 3,000 “engagements” on any given day, which sounds to me like something he was advised to say by a pricey media coach.
Genuis asks, if he was so out of the loop, “What did you do all day as managing director?” Barton says snottily that Genuis should spend time learning how companies work. Genuis says, “Bluntly sir, I just don’t believe you.” It sounds less like rhetoric than genuine emotion.
Barton repeats that they did nothing “unlawfully,” which means I think that they admitted no guilt when paying $600 million — the whole reason for “settling.”
When NDPer Johns returns, he harps on the measly federal contracts McKinsey got, instead of moral absolutes. It sounds like he’s had a call from party HQ to stick to their talking points about denouncing privatization.
In his final round Genuis asks about McKinsey’s work for Saudi Arabia involving a Canadian dissident. Barton says they went to court and won so Genuis should be “careful” what he says — sounding like a threat to sue. Genuis shoots back that they’re in Parliament and he has immunity. Barton retreats from menacing to whimpering, telling the chair, “But that hurts.” Poor baby.
After that hearing, a deputy minister told the committee that McKinsey still qualifies for federal contracts since it wasn’t convicted of a crime.
Similar situation to Donald Trump then.
Sounds right to me.
This column originally appeared in the Toronto Star.
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