Magna proposal prompts showdown with pension groups

Two of Canada’s massive public pension funds are blasting a plan by Magna International Inc. to simplify its share structure and pay the Stronach family US$863 million, wrote Canwest News Service June 3.

Both Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan are expressing outrage at the compensation arrangement and are hoping to draw a line in the corporate sand as a warning to other companies that might be considering similar manoeuvres.

“It’s turning into a bit of a showdown,” said Richard Leblanc, professor of corporate governance and ethics in York’s School of Administrative Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. “Magna is an incredible success story and there has been wide latitude for past consulting payments made to (board chair Frank) Stronach, but with a premium this large, the eyebrows have been raised…. The (pension plans) are sending an unambiguous message to the market that this is unacceptable,” Leblanc added.

Dancing with the sails from now on

If the calculator is right, 32,200 kids have shed their street clothes, slipped on leotards and hit the dance floor, wrote Barrie’s Simcoe.com June 3. That’s not counting adults. These are the numbers who have participated in Carol Gillstrom’s dance classes since she opened her doors in the main living room at the Knights of Columbus Hall in 1987.

Two years later, she rented the guts of a building at the corner of Anne and Brock streets and there she’s been ever since.

She arrived in Barrie in 1980 with a newly minted bachelor’s degree (BFA Spec. Hons. ’80) in dance from York University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. She got her first job with Heather Fraser at the Barrie YMCA. Seven years later her business was born.

When she stands en pointe, it’ll be to stretch upwards to pull one of many ropes that will direct the sails and the rudder of the sailboat that will become her home.

Roller Girls on film

Hugs and Bruises: The Story of the Hammer City Roller Girls makes its local debut tonight, wrote the Hamilton Mountain News June 3.

The film, a product of Hamilton area director Joe Krumins, will be shown at 10pm at This Ain’t Hollywood, 345 James St. N., in Hamilton. Hugs and Bruises is his graduating film project for his studies at York University.