Paul Desmarais

Paul Desmarais    (financier, billionaire)
Born	January 4, 1927 Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Died	October 8, 2013 (Age 86) Sagard, Quebec, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Alma mater	University of Ottawa
Children	• Paul Desmarais Jr • André Desmarais
Spouse	Jacqueline Maranger
Interests	Quebec
Relatives	• Louis Desmarais • Jean Noël Desmarais
One of Canada's richest and most influential men, with several prime minsters in his pocket. 3 Bilderbergs.

Paul Desmarais Sr. was a Canadian financier. Through close relations and patronage over many politicians, including four prime ministers, he grew to command the intersection of Canadian business and politics.

Robin Philpot's charge against Paul Desmarais is straightforward: The vast fortune Desmarais accumulated over the years could only be obtained through his patronage of government and his influence in politics: 'All the Premiers of Québec and Prime Ministers of Canada, since the time of Maurice Duplessis...used to eat from his hand, with the sole exceptions of Premiers René Lévesque and Jacques Parizeau'. In other words, Paul Desmarais was a big crook.

He also was friendly to foreign politicians, including French president Nicolas Sarkozy, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. With an estimated family net "worth" of US$4.5 billion (as of March 2012), Desmarais was ranked by Forbes as the fourth wealthiest person in Canada in 2013. He attended 3 Bilderberg meetings. He was a long-time friend Charles Bronfman

Desmarais was chairman and chief executive officer of Power Corporation of Canada until 1996 when he passed the reins of management of Power Corporation to his sons, Paul Jr. and André. He then continued to be director and as chairman of the executive committee of the board, and remained the controlling shareholder. Power Corporation of Canada is a diversified holding company with interests in companies in insurance, transportation, paper, media, and financial services.

Desmarais was committed to a united Canada, which gained him enemies among Quebec independence activists, but friends among the deep state loyalist political caste holding Canada together and controlling Quebec, which greatly helped his business/patronage empire centered in Quebec.

Personal life

Desmarais was born in Sudbury, Ontario, to lawyer Jean-Noël Desmarais (3 May 1897 – 1983) and Lébéa Laforest (2 September 1899 – 1984). The Desmarais family is originally from Quebec and descended from Paul Desmarais who moved to Canada from Saint-Sauveur-sur-École, Île-de-France in late 1600s.

Desmarais' grandfather Noël Desmarais 1873–1964 (wife: Roseanna 1874–1964) founded the town of Noëlville, Ontario, now part of the municipality of French River.

Two of his brothers, Louis Desmarais and Jean Noël Desmarais, were involved in federal politics.

Desmarais was married to Jacqueline Maranger, also from Sudbury. They had two sons: Paul Jr. and André (who is married to former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's daughter France) and two daughters, Louise and Sophie.

The Desmarais family has a large family estate in Sagard, Quebec, Canada, between the villages of Saint-Siméon and Petit-Saguenay: Domaine Laforest. The area of the estate is over 75 square kilometers. The Desmarais family also owned secondary homes in Palm Beach, Florida and New York at the time of his death.

Career

After graduating from the University of Ottawa, Desmarais went to Osgoode Law School until he began working for Sudbury Bus Lines Limited, the restructured bus company formed from the remnants of the Sudbury and Copper Cliff Suburban Electric Railway his grandfather had founded. The company was sold to him for a symbolic 1 CAD, because it was almost bankrupt. He rescued the company and acquired additional bus lines in the Ottawa area and Quebec City (including Quebec Autobus, Provincial Transport and Regional Transport). By 1968 the holding company which Desmarais had acquired three years earlier, Trans-Canada Corporation Fund (TCCF), owned the bus line Provincial Transport, an interest in Toronto-based Imperial Life Assurance and Gesca Ltée, (which had an interest in the Montreal paper La Presse). That year TCCF made a share-exchange offer with Power Corporation of Canada, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, whereby Paul Desmarais became chairman and chief executive officer and controlling shareholder.

This was when the awareness of the Empire of Desmarais first appeared, when the young Liberal deputy Yves Michaud sounded the alarm at the Québec National Assembly in 1968:

If this problem is not corrected by a very serious inquiry on the part of elected officials, in accordance with the laws of our Assembly, the Desmarais oligarchy will threaten the power of our Parliament: Does the dangerous nature of this situation require even further proof? Will not this oligarchy eventually usurp the sovereign will of our representatives, and even our Prime Minister?

Power Corporation of Canada

Taking advantage of the substantial investment of Power Corporation of Canada, Desmarais took control of a large pulp and paper company, Consolidated Bathurst (built since in Stone-Consolidated, then merged with Abitibi-Price Inc. to form Abitibi-Consolidated, then Abitibi-Bowater and Resolute). At the same time, under the leadership of Desmarais, Power Corporation of Canada continued to acquire control positions in Great-West Life and Investors Group which formed the basis of Power Financial Corporation which was founded in 1984. Acquiring Trans-Canada Corporation Fund, Desmarais obtained the newspaper La Presse in 1968, which enabled him to gain influence through the field of print media in Canada. Then he looked for companies in Europe and he met the Belgian financier Albert Frère to the board of directors of Paribas. The two men discovered an alter ego, applying the same financial techniques: a friendly investment in substantial firms, some of which were experiencing financial hardship. Desmarais owned about 15% of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, a Belgian holding company connected to the Rothschild family, which in 2001 acquired a 25% interest in the German media company Bertelsmann, whose subsidiaries include BMG and Random House (the German company Bertelsmann bought the 25% back in July 2006). Groupe Bruxelles Lambert currently holds positions in global industrial and services companies based in Europe including: Imerys, LafargeHolcim, adidas, SGS, Pernod Ricard, Umicore, Ontex, GEA and Parques.

He founded the Canada China Business Council in 1978.

Desmarais made substantial donations (many anonymously) to the arts, education, including to McGill University, and other areas Today, many pavilions are named after him, including the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion at The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Paul-G.-Desmarais Pavilion at the Université de Montréal. He had one of the largest private collections of art in the country.

He was also a member of the international advisory committee of the deep state Barrick Gold Corporation and David Rockefeller's Chase Manhattan Bank, and a member of the Supervisory Council of AXA and the Compagnie Financière de Paribas (France).

He also sat on the Canadian advisory board of the Carlyle Group.

Politics

In 2012 The group Anonymous published a 2 hour video of influential attendees of a birthday party for Jacqueline Desmarais, wife of Paul, "bringing together almost all political leaders from the left and the right, from the federal to the provincial". The video was dismissed as "absurd" by corporate media

The Desmarais family enjoys connections to politicians worldwide. Critics charge that the family's political connections provide it with unfair advantages in business.

According to a profile in The Australian, "Desmarais grew to command the intersection of Canadian business and politics through close relations with four prime ministers." Desmarais was an advisor to Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Brian Mulroney worked as a labour lawyer for Desmarais before entering politics, and Desmarais named his then-employee Paul Martin as president of Canada Steamship Lines Inc. (Power Corp.'s Great Lakes shipping subsidiary) in 1974 (Desmarais sold the company to Martin in 1981.) Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was related to Desmarais by marriage; Chretien's daughter France is married to Desmarais' son André. Both Mulroney and Trudeau served on advisory boards for Power Corp. after leaving office.

According to Le Figaro, Paul Desmarais Sr. was a close associate of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Paul Desmarais Sr. and Sarkozy were together at the party at Fouquet's to celebrate the election of the new president on May 6, 2007. In 2004, Nicolas Sarkozy was a guest at his estate in Sagard, in Charlevoix, a good distance from the Saint Lawrence. «Quand tu entres dans la propriété, on t'ouvre un premier portail. Ensuite, tu dois faire des kilomètres et des kilomètres avant d'arriver au château...» ("When you enter the property, they open the first gate. Then you have to go kilometers and kilometers before arriving at the chateau...") Nicolas Sarkozy told about the fortitude of his friend Desmarais. Sophie Desmarais' ex-husband, Eric Le Moyne de Sérigny, is also close to Nicolas Sarkozy, heads numerous companies, and was a member of the board of directors of Imerys.

Desmarais was an opponent of the Quebec sovereignty movement. On February 2, 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy made comments asking Quebec sovereigntists to focus on unity and not separation from Canada, and to put their goals of sovereignty on hold during tough economic times. This angered many sovereigntists who claimed that Sarkozy was acting under the influence of Desmarais.

Death

Desmarais' funeral was a private event. A public memorial was held on December 3, 2013 at Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal. Many politicians, dignitaries and members of the business and cultural communities were present, including: Laurent Beaudoin, Robert Charlebois, Jean Chrétien, Bill Davis, Denis Coderre, Stephen Harper, Pauline Marois, Brian Mulroney, Bob Rae and Nicolas Sarkozy. Many testimonials were shared around the time of his death and the ceremony:

- George H. W. Bush: "Paul was that rarest of men, who possess not only the drive, the integrity and the vision to succeed spectacularly in business, but also a tremendous capacity for friendship. He was what I would call a true point of light, helping and usually leading many worthwhile causes. So, yes, I liked and I respected this good man immensely. At age 89 and a half, I recognize more than ever the importance and the blessings of friendship."

- Bernard Landry: "We were totally opposed on many matters — the national fate of Quebec of course, the management of modern capitalism. But for many other things, internationalism, culture, we were on the same floor. And that's why we remained friends."

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1982	14 May 1982	16 May 1982	Norway Sandefjord	The 30th Bilderberg, held in Norway.
Bilderberg/2006	8 June 2006	11 June 2006	Canada Ottawa	54th Bilderberg, held in Canada. 133 guests
Bilderberg/2008	5 June 2008	8 June 2008	US Virginia Chantilly	The 56th Bilderberg, Chantilly, Virginia, 139 guests

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References

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