“This is a hysterical, anti-mining group we’re talking about,” Bristow said Wednesday in an interview. “Our AGMs are first and foremost for our shareholders.”
Dozens of Canada’s largest investors have urged major companies to safeguard shareholder rights by maintaining the in-person component of AGMs amid a rise in remote meetings that began during the Covid-19 pandemic. None of the 60 largest companies on the Toronto stock exchanges held virtual-only annual meetings in 2019, but 57% do now, according to an April open letter from a group of institutional investors, advisers and portfolio managers.
Heated exchange
Barrick, the world’s second-biggest gold mining company, hosted both an in-person and a virtual meeting last year. The in-person meeting included a heated exchange between Bristow and an activist protesting the company’s Reko Diq copper project in Pakistan. On Tuesday, a handful of protesters gathered…
