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Votre Excellence,
Cette lettre fait suite à ma rencontre avec votre Consul Honoraire Mr. Jeff Gilmour. Sur les conseils de Mr. Gilmour j’ai l’honneur de solliciter une entrevue privée avec vous à Ottawa.
Au cours des dix derniers mois je vous ai fourni des documents relatifs aux sérieuses difficultés que j’ai rencontrées avec IAMGOLD.
Au vu de ces documents je pense qu’il est indéniable que mon père, James Clinton Snell a rendu service au peuple malien avec la découverte des mines de Sadiola et de Yatela. Ce service a été rendu au peuple malien sans aucune rémunération.
A ce jour le solde restant dû à mon père au titre de ses services et des royalties s’élève à plus de $75,000,000.00 (soixante quinze millions de dollars).
Mon souhait est que le gouvernement du Mali, au vu de la contribution de mon père, soutienne ma famille et adresse un ultimatum à IAMGOLD. Ainsi il me parait raisonnable d’intimer à IAMGOLD l’ordre de régler leur dette à l’égard de ma famille sous peine de retrait de leur droit d’exploitation au Mali. Je souhaiterais également qu’IAMGOLD soit contraint de renommer la mine « Sadiola » la mine « James C. Snell » en mémoire de mon défunt père.
Si vous deviez m’accorder le privilège d’une entrevue je me ferais un plaisir de vous fournir d’autres données géologiques en guise de cadeau au gouvernement du Mali.
Respectueusement,
James Westgate Snell
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
My recent trip to the IAMGOLD AGM in Toronto
I guess I was scared and empowered somewhat. The IAMGOLD AGM seemed to be an enthusiastically attended event. It was held at the St.Andrew's club downtown Toronto (King Street). I walked 4 miles to the meeting to burn off nervous energy and to think. I had called the company beforehand and asked if I could attend as a guest. I said I was a "business" (health care business) student from Athabasca University and that my name was James. No last name. One of the investor relations ladies said it was OK for me to attend. When I got to the 27th floor at the St. Andrew's club there were people taking registrations with laptops. I was VERY nervous that I would need to give them my last name as Peter Koven from the Financial Post had given a director of the company my website address some days before. So I went down to the lobby to think a bit more. While I was there, two lovely ladies burdened with paperwork and boxes came in off the street. Naturally, I offered to aid them not knowing who they were. When I got closer, their IAMGOLD name tags stood out. I switched into my yet to be discovered espionage mode and decided to become their best friend. They were headed upstairs to the AGM. I carried a bunch of their stuff and got them laughing. I walked right past the check-in desk. I was the first person in the room...except for the CEO (Joe) and Chairman (William), the man who started the company with Mark Nathanson. I was right in front of him eating a fruit bar. He had no clue who I was or what was about to happen to him. Around 150 people?, a packed house, filed in. The presentation from the Chairman and CEO were substandard and boring. It was amazing to see the wealth of the company. A reaction of money harvesting from the Africans that my father had catalyzed with his hard work, skill and honesty. Peter Koven from the Financial Post and a reporter from Reuters were there. Although Peter had turned me onto the meeting and suggested I attend, he was unenthusiastic and asked me to not mention his name. This was very discouraging. I was the second person to stand up and "ask a question". Over the period of 20 minutes I respectfully told the sad story. I was nervous and emotional at times. The CEO (Joe) tried to shut me down twice but I managed maintain what was left of my composure and continue. Shocking. I told him he had been warned that I would tell the story. And I did warn him in the Fall of 2008. I just did not tell him that I would drop the bomb in front of investors and media. Mission accomplished for my Dad. I have no idea what was said afterwards as I left immediately after handing out some website cards.
James
Motto for the IAMGOLD AGM
"SPEAK THE TRUTH...BUT LEAVE IMMEDIATELY AFTER"
James
Motto for the IAMGOLD AGM
"SPEAK THE TRUTH...BUT LEAVE IMMEDIATELY AFTER"
My mother's letter to the editor (published this week) National Post
Dear Sir
Tears stream down my face as I write this letter. There are many reasons
which cause suicide.
In the case of my family the cause was dishonesty and greed by a Canadian
mining company. The father of my children discovered vast gold fields in West
Africa and although he was legally entitled to some of this wealth he never
received one cent. After years of believing in the decency of this company he
fell into a deep depression from which he never recovered and two years ago
blew his brains out. My brave sons cleaned up all that was left of this
wonderful human being.
We mourn his death daily. I pray that the owners and shareholders of this
company will perhaps make good, although no amount of gold can bring back our
beloved friend, father and grandfather.
Sincerely
Madeleine Jones
Tears stream down my face as I write this letter. There are many reasons
which cause suicide.
In the case of my family the cause was dishonesty and greed by a Canadian
mining company. The father of my children discovered vast gold fields in West
Africa and although he was legally entitled to some of this wealth he never
received one cent. After years of believing in the decency of this company he
fell into a deep depression from which he never recovered and two years ago
blew his brains out. My brave sons cleaned up all that was left of this
wonderful human being.
We mourn his death daily. I pray that the owners and shareholders of this
company will perhaps make good, although no amount of gold can bring back our
beloved friend, father and grandfather.
Sincerely
Madeleine Jones
Friday, April 24, 2009
CORPORATE CRIME BUSTER....Mr. Nathanson integrates himself into Canadian law and politics
http://www.nicaso.com/pages/doc_page45.html
Corporate crime buster
York University's Jack & Mae Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime & Corruption
By Stevie Cameron / Maclean's
Mark Nathanson is flustered, clearly not used to questions about his life and his career. "I've lived in the shadows,'' he says. "Quietly.'' Not so quietly now. This week, at a ceremony in Toronto, Solicitor General Herb Gray will lead an international group of academics, politicians, judges, police officers and lawyers in a celebration of an extraordinary, $3-million gift that Nathanson has made to Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. Its purpose: to fund the Jack and Mae Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption. The centre, named after Nathanson's parents, is the only one of its kind in Canada, and has few counterparts anywhere in the world. And the man funding it is intriguing in his own right. At 50, Nathanson, one of two children of a family that operated a wholesale grocery company in Sydney, N.S., has quietly built an immense fortune with an impressive array of enterprises: from African gold mining to consumer electronics, and from intelligence equipment used by governments to an international forensic investigation company headed by his close friend and partner, Rod Stamler, former assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
"I always wanted to be a policeman,'' says Nathanson, sitting in the spacious condominium in downtown Toronto that he visits a few weeks each year. "But I didn't want to live on a policeman's salary. I had to make some money first.''
While Nathanson has built a business empire that spans the globe, the academic venture he is now funding will study the ways in which the global economy has made both companies and countries increasingly vulnerable to organized crime. "Canadians tend to believe the best of each other,'' says Osgoode Hall dean Marilyn Pilkington. "But they can't afford to be vulnerable through lack of awareness.'' To open immediately, the centre will be headed by York criminologist Margaret Beare, author of Criminal Conspiracies: Organized Crime in Canada, published last year. And its advisory board reads like a who's who of criminal law: Ward Elcock, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, RCMP Commissioner Philip Murray, Toronto police Chief David Boothby, lawyers Edward Greenspan and John Rosen (defence lawyer of convicted murderer Paul Bernardo), and Antonio Nicaso, managing editor at the Italian-language daily Corriere Canadese, and an expert on organized crime, who conceived the original idea for the centre.
Working with officials at York, that impressive team has created an interdisciplinary graduate centre that will offer up to eight fellowships a year to students in a range of disciplines, including law, criminology, sociology, economics and political science. Along with professors from across the university, students will investigate ways to improve the efforts of governments, police forces and private businesses to understand the world of organized crime. According to Beare, it is a world that increasingly crosses both international borders--and the more nebulous divide between underworld operations and white collar activities. "When the Russian mafia first came to Canada, they relied on violence,'' notes Beare. "That is less true now. Like any criminal group, it can substitute corruption for violence, and influence officials that way.''
For Nathanson, the centre reflects an abiding interest in the complexities of organized crime--and a fitting addition to a career that has spanned the globe. A dropout of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., Nathanson, who now lives in the Bahamas with his wife, Maria, first moved abroad in 1971. From a base in England, he marketed consumer electronics products across Europe. In 1983, he launched a business selling intelligence equipment in Africa. By the second half of the decade, he had founded a gold mining company in Mali whose discoveries include a deposit now estimated to contain eight million ounces. Today, International African Mining Gold Corporation, known as IAMGOLD, is exploring fields in three South American countries, and is involved in joint ventures exploring others in five African states.
In 1990, working with former RCMP assistant commissioner Stamler, Nathanson established International FIA Holdings Ltd. (the acronym stands for Forensic Investigative Associates). Acting, in the words of Stamler, "almost like a private Interpol,'' it searches out embezzlers and other white collar criminals, and traces and recovers stolen assets.
Then, in 1995, Nathanson and Stamler started kicking around another idea: establishing an academic centre that could link experts, and develop further knowledge, in the shady world of which they were fast becoming hands-on experts. York, they decided, was a natural choice. Nathanson admired York's accomplishments in business, sociology, ethics and law. "For me,'' he says, "Osgoode Hall represents Canadian law.''
Corporate crime buster
York University's Jack & Mae Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime & Corruption
By Stevie Cameron / Maclean's
Mark Nathanson is flustered, clearly not used to questions about his life and his career. "I've lived in the shadows,'' he says. "Quietly.'' Not so quietly now. This week, at a ceremony in Toronto, Solicitor General Herb Gray will lead an international group of academics, politicians, judges, police officers and lawyers in a celebration of an extraordinary, $3-million gift that Nathanson has made to Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. Its purpose: to fund the Jack and Mae Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption. The centre, named after Nathanson's parents, is the only one of its kind in Canada, and has few counterparts anywhere in the world. And the man funding it is intriguing in his own right. At 50, Nathanson, one of two children of a family that operated a wholesale grocery company in Sydney, N.S., has quietly built an immense fortune with an impressive array of enterprises: from African gold mining to consumer electronics, and from intelligence equipment used by governments to an international forensic investigation company headed by his close friend and partner, Rod Stamler, former assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
"I always wanted to be a policeman,'' says Nathanson, sitting in the spacious condominium in downtown Toronto that he visits a few weeks each year. "But I didn't want to live on a policeman's salary. I had to make some money first.''
While Nathanson has built a business empire that spans the globe, the academic venture he is now funding will study the ways in which the global economy has made both companies and countries increasingly vulnerable to organized crime. "Canadians tend to believe the best of each other,'' says Osgoode Hall dean Marilyn Pilkington. "But they can't afford to be vulnerable through lack of awareness.'' To open immediately, the centre will be headed by York criminologist Margaret Beare, author of Criminal Conspiracies: Organized Crime in Canada, published last year. And its advisory board reads like a who's who of criminal law: Ward Elcock, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, RCMP Commissioner Philip Murray, Toronto police Chief David Boothby, lawyers Edward Greenspan and John Rosen (defence lawyer of convicted murderer Paul Bernardo), and Antonio Nicaso, managing editor at the Italian-language daily Corriere Canadese, and an expert on organized crime, who conceived the original idea for the centre.
Working with officials at York, that impressive team has created an interdisciplinary graduate centre that will offer up to eight fellowships a year to students in a range of disciplines, including law, criminology, sociology, economics and political science. Along with professors from across the university, students will investigate ways to improve the efforts of governments, police forces and private businesses to understand the world of organized crime. According to Beare, it is a world that increasingly crosses both international borders--and the more nebulous divide between underworld operations and white collar activities. "When the Russian mafia first came to Canada, they relied on violence,'' notes Beare. "That is less true now. Like any criminal group, it can substitute corruption for violence, and influence officials that way.''
For Nathanson, the centre reflects an abiding interest in the complexities of organized crime--and a fitting addition to a career that has spanned the globe. A dropout of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., Nathanson, who now lives in the Bahamas with his wife, Maria, first moved abroad in 1971. From a base in England, he marketed consumer electronics products across Europe. In 1983, he launched a business selling intelligence equipment in Africa. By the second half of the decade, he had founded a gold mining company in Mali whose discoveries include a deposit now estimated to contain eight million ounces. Today, International African Mining Gold Corporation, known as IAMGOLD, is exploring fields in three South American countries, and is involved in joint ventures exploring others in five African states.
In 1990, working with former RCMP assistant commissioner Stamler, Nathanson established International FIA Holdings Ltd. (the acronym stands for Forensic Investigative Associates). Acting, in the words of Stamler, "almost like a private Interpol,'' it searches out embezzlers and other white collar criminals, and traces and recovers stolen assets.
Then, in 1995, Nathanson and Stamler started kicking around another idea: establishing an academic centre that could link experts, and develop further knowledge, in the shady world of which they were fast becoming hands-on experts. York, they decided, was a natural choice. Nathanson admired York's accomplishments in business, sociology, ethics and law. "For me,'' he says, "Osgoode Hall represents Canadian law.''
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
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