The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - Carney & Brookfield tried to buy Canadians' donated blood-plasma!

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, Wyatt Claypool here. We have to talk about one of the stranger scandals that's come

00:00:06.120 out over the last week involving Prime Minister Mark Carney and Brookfield Asset Management.

00:00:12.060 I'll admit, when I first saw headlines about this about a day and a half ago, I think I was

00:00:17.740 asleep and I woke up and looked at my phone at 3am and saw this headline and assumed that I

00:00:23.720 actually just read it wrong the next day. I just looked it up this morning and in fact this is a

00:00:29.640 true story about Mark Carney's former company, Brookfield Asset Management, where he still has

00:00:34.780 a lot of his assets bound up in, was attempting to buy a company that's been sort of secretly buying

00:00:41.040 Canadian blood plasma from Canadian blood services for years. It's a very complex story and I want

00:00:47.400 to get into it. Really, this is about the sort of entanglement that Mark Carney and Brookfield has

00:00:53.440 had with the Canadian government for years, getting effectively secret knowledge that most people

00:00:58.140 wouldn't have and using it to profit or at least attempt to profit in this particular scenario.

00:01:04.280 But before I get into it, I just want to remind you guys, if you like the channel, make sure to

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00:01:31.560 if I fail, I as one guy owe all four of them dinner. It's a way of putting pressure on myself and so far

00:01:37.120 it's been working. And then also leave a comment on what you think about this particularly strange

00:01:43.460 story. I do like to read people's comments and it does help us on the algorithm. But let's start off

00:01:49.640 with this tweet from a Conservative MP, Todd Doherty, who says,

00:01:55.940 Prime Minister Carney, former firm Brookfield, is involved in the acquisition of a foreign company

00:02:02.080 that profits off Canadian blood donations. Canadian blood and plasma should be used to help Canadians

00:02:07.860 not line the pockets of Carney's friends. And I think Todd Doherty kind of buries the lead a little

00:02:14.000 bit here. It just sounds like Brookfield's up to something sort of suspect. And that's it. In fact,

00:02:20.260 Mark Carney was the chair of Brookfield while this was going on. I actually don't even have a particular

00:02:26.620 problem with Canadian blood services selling excess blood or blood plasma to another organization. If we

00:02:33.980 don't need it, they can have it as long as they pay us for it. The problem is, is that it seems like

00:02:38.800 we're probably giving it away to this company at a massive discount because they are an agent for

00:02:44.860 Canadian blood services. But somehow in the story, Brookfield Asset Management gets tipped off that

00:02:50.900 this is going on and attempts to purchase the company that is receiving the blood plasma donations,

00:02:57.460 that is buying them from Canadian blood service at a massive discount. So let's get into this Globe and

00:03:04.140 Mail story. And we're going to read through it just because a lot of the details are very key to

00:03:08.980 understand the whole, you know, issues around government corruption here. Because this is

00:03:14.320 fundamentally not a story about blood, although that is what this is centering on, blood plasma.

00:03:20.620 But it's more about government corruption. It's about insider investing. The idea that Mark Carney as

00:03:27.780 the economic advisor, Justin Trudeau, while being the chair of Brookfield Asset Management,

00:03:31.920 was getting the inside lane on all these very particularly obscure, you know, business deals

00:03:38.860 that Brookfield could be making. Grants that they could get access to. The ability to buy blood

00:03:44.480 plasma at a massive discount and then use it for pharmaceutical development. So here we have

00:03:50.120 this headline. This article is written by Chris Haney. Is this Hannah Haney? I'm always bad with names,

00:03:57.760 guys. I think you've discovered this over time. This article will be linked in the description below

00:04:02.140 as well as pinned at the top of the comments if you guys want to read it for yourselves later.

00:04:06.380 But the headline here is Conservatives call for investigation of Spanish drug makers use of

00:04:11.200 Canadian blood Canadian donated blood plasma. Conservative MPs are calling for a parliamentary

00:04:18.700 investigation into Spanish drug maker Griffith's use of Canadian donated blood plasma to make

00:04:25.360 medicine for sale abroad. The call follows a Globe and Mail investigation that found Canadian blood

00:04:30.800 services is selling some blood components to Griffith's to manufacture a product called albumin

00:04:39.280 as part of a complex arrangement between the international pharmaceutical company and the Canadian charity to

00:04:44.880 collect and process blood plasma. Plasma is a straw is a straw colored fluid in blood used to for

00:04:53.520 transfusions and to make therapies such as immunoglobin commonly used for people with immune disorders.

00:05:02.240 Both CBS, Canadian blood services and Griffith's collect plasma at donation centers across Canada

00:05:09.200 and Griffith's pays donation donors while CBS does not. In a letter sent Wednesday to House of Commons

00:05:15.840 Health Committee Chair, Hendy Frye, six Conservative MPs called the details in the story troubling.

00:05:21.520 The letter also references the fact that the private equity arm of Brookfield Asset Management,

00:05:27.600 LTD, BAMT, explored a bid to buy Griffith's last year. At the time of the bid, Mark Carney was the chair

00:05:35.280 of the board of Brookfield, one of the world's largest asset managers, but he stepped down in January to

00:05:40.720 pursue the leadership of the Liberal Party and ultimately became Prime Minister. Brookfield said in April it had

00:05:46.560 dropped its bid for Griffith's. Well obviously in April it's going to drop the bid for Griffith's because

00:05:51.760 it's going to cause a massive conflict of interest if the Brookfield Asset Management, Carney's former

00:05:58.480 company that he still holds a large portion of his own assets in, is attempting to buy a partner of

00:06:05.760 Canadian blood services that is getting cheap blood, blood plasma from Canadians both collecting it themselves as 0.98

00:06:12.640 well as purchasing excess from CBS and that that was just going to be overlooked. Obviously that's why

00:06:19.600 they dropped the bid. It was going to look really bad if they're buying this obscure Spanish company.

00:06:24.400 I know it's a big company in terms of Spain, but it's not a company that most Canadians would be able to

00:06:29.280 rattle off the top of their heads. This is the first time I had ever heard about it. But let's read on a

00:06:34.880 little bit more. This is a quote from a Conservative MP, quote, we urge you to recall the Standing

00:06:41.280 Committee on Health to investigate both the use of Canadian donated plasma by Griffiths and the

00:06:46.640 potential conflict of interest arising from the Prime Minister's investments in Brookfield Asset Management

00:06:52.800 given its attempt to acquire Griffiths, wrote the letter signatories including Conservative Shadow

00:06:57.520 Health Minister Dan Manzer. Quote, Canadians expect their donated blood plasma to save lives in Canada

00:07:05.760 and not be turned into profits for foreign companies or the Prime Minister. The Canadian

00:07:10.240 Health Coalition, a progressive group that advocates for public health care, said it also supported the

00:07:15.120 call for parliamentary investigation. Quote, I think every member of parliament deserves an explanation

00:07:20.400 from Canada Blood Services about the murky details of its agreement with Griffiths, said Stephen

00:07:25.600 Staples, the group's national director of policy and advocacy. And just one more line here before I

00:07:31.280 just sort of go into more commentary. It says, CBS has had a large has had a lengthy association with

00:07:37.600 Griffiths. The Spanish drug maker has been a longtime supplier of immunoglobin and consulted with CBS on a

00:07:44.720 national plasma collection strategy before the agency announced a formal partnership in 2022. And so the

00:07:52.320 problem with this, remember, is that Mark Carney was the economic advisor to Prime Minister Justin

00:07:59.920 Trudeau between 2020 and when Justin Trudeau had resigned in December. He was there the entire time

00:08:07.600 and then stepped back to run for Liberal leadership. And then you only had Brookfield break off the attempt

00:08:13.520 to actually purchase Griffiths in April of 2025. Carney still being the chair of Brookfield up until late

00:08:21.360 December of 2024. At the time he was actually moving, telling them they should move the headquarters from,

00:08:27.440 I believe, Calgary and Toronto over to New York City after Donald Trump was elected, which was a very funny

00:08:33.280 piece of hypocrisy. Trump the bad man is actually very good for business, so let's head down south. But what this

00:08:40.080 is really getting to is the idea that how does Brookfield consistently always have this inside lane into niche

00:08:48.160 industries where the government is effectively subsidizing it? Because Griffiths, whether they're

00:08:53.840 paying Canadians directly or they're buying excess blood plasma from CBS, is obviously getting a very

00:09:00.640 good deal compared to what a firm in the United States would be getting for collecting blood plasma down

00:09:06.240 there because they're the only ones offering money. So they are obviously going to be able to purchase blood

00:09:10.720 plasma at a very low dollar figure. And then also with CBS, they're the only purchaser of CBS's excess blood

00:09:19.360 plasma. And so again, it's going to be a very good deal for Griffiths. Brookfield catches wind about all

00:09:25.520 this and they decide that maybe we should purchase Griffiths and then keep this scheme going. And again,

00:09:32.240 I don't even necessarily think it's wrong for blood plasma or any blood products to be sold by CBS if it helps

00:09:39.360 pad out their budget, be able to pay for staff without just taking it from taxpayers. That's fine

00:09:44.720 with me. The problem is, is when it becomes a monopoly that we then have the advisor to the

00:09:50.960 prime minister attempting to exploit and he only drops it when he becomes prime minister himself,

00:09:56.480 although he still hasn't actually, you know, disconnected himself from all of his holdings in

00:10:01.200 Brookfield Asset Management. But that's neither here nor there. But again, this is a pattern we see

00:10:06.880 all over the place. Brookfield Asset Management owns or operates a modular home building company.

00:10:14.560 And suddenly Mark Carney's plan for housing in Canada, it's for modular homes. That's a little

00:10:20.640 bit odd. It's almost like Brookfield has an inside lane on policy on what companies, what industries to

00:10:28.160 own and be invested into in order to benefit the most. This is a big thing with Brookfield. Obviously,

00:10:34.000 they do hold, you know, interest in normal kind of industries of banking, a little bit of like

00:10:40.640 normal oil and gas type energy. But they're also very much invested in things like green energy,

00:10:47.840 EV creation, battery manufacturers and storage, solar and wind power, things that only end up surviving

00:10:55.680 because the government gives those companies involved in that industry large grants, tax breaks,

00:11:01.600 or big contracts. So this is just another extension of the way that Mark Carney and Brookfield Asset

00:11:08.320 Management have very much been sidling up with the government, getting inside of information in

00:11:13.360 order to be able to invest in companies that the government is going to give money to guarantee

00:11:18.880 profits because you don't even need to be profitable. The government will effectively make

00:11:23.280 you profitable through subsidies, grants and tax breaks. So, you know, I think that's the real story

00:11:30.240 going on here. The blood is, it's odd. It's very strange that this is something that Brookfield was

00:11:36.240 trying to get involved in. And Canadian Blood Services does have to answer about how this was

00:11:40.800 going on for so long. Well, their own media, their own website said that we do not sell any of the,

00:11:48.320 any of our, any of the blood, the blood plasma or blood products that we take in that Canadians donate.

00:11:54.800 They were lying for a long time. And so they should be investigated. But the main area of issue is not

00:12:00.800 that anything was being stolen or anything was being sort of sold. And that's like bad,

00:12:06.640 you know, maybe you can have your own perspective on that, throw it in the comments. But it's the fact

00:12:12.560 that there's a monopoly that's involved in this, that is not even a Canadian company, it's from Spain,

00:12:18.080 that then an insider economic advisors company is attempting to purchase, because presumably it would

00:12:24.080 be a highly lucrative industry to be in, to be able to purchase all this stuff. And obviously,

00:12:29.440 Griffiths is involved in tons of stuff. But it's kind of strange, again, that every time there is some

00:12:35.760 like big lucrative government angle of how to make money, that's how Brookfield Asset Management

00:12:42.240 finds these companies invests in those industries. But yeah, so not a fantastic look. I wanted to

00:12:49.840 sort of quickly throw down some, I just want to go down and read a little bit more of this.

00:12:54.880 It says in a statement, Griffiths said it is, quote, proud of our pioneering long term agreement

00:12:59.680 with Canadian blood services to help Canada reach self sufficiency in immunoglobulins. We continue to

00:13:05.680 follow the agreement to the letter and deliver on our commitments. And I actually don't believe

00:13:10.720 Griffiths has necessarily done anything wrong here. They're exploiting the CBS's silence and

00:13:16.640 basically giving, giving them a monopoly on this particular service. They are the only private

00:13:22.960 company involved in getting blood plasma donations aside from CBS, and they are being able to purchase

00:13:30.800 access from CBS. I don't doubt that they are following the agreement. The problem is the agreement

00:13:36.000 should have never been made by CBS in the first place. Article goes on to say,

00:13:39.920 CBS said the partnership was necessary to boost the domestic supply of immunoglobulin, which has faced

00:13:45.440 global shortages. CBS said it currently meets 27% of the plasma needs domestically compared with 15%

00:13:53.600 before 2022. Okay, well, that's fine. But again, all this is kind of minutiae. It's CBS talking around the

00:14:01.840 issue. The issue is not the fact that we need to collect more blood plasma. And again, if we need

00:14:09.120 to collect more blood plasma, why are we letting Griffiths take a bunch to then use for pharmaceutical 0.76

00:14:15.680 development and like for their own private interests? That's a bit odd. And it's not even necessarily

00:14:20.480 wrong. It's just odd why they keep saying something that's not really about what the story is about.

00:14:25.760 The story is about the dishonesty. The story is about Brookfield Asset Management somehow coming

00:14:30.480 into knowledge of this being a very lucrative company to purchase who happens to be involved

00:14:36.320 in a big contract with Canadian Blood Services and is getting blood plasma at a premium. That is what the

00:14:43.200 actual story is about. And so it's good to be investigated by hope that that angle is what

00:14:49.440 is focused on by the conservatives and anyone else in parliament taking issue with this. But with that

00:14:55.280 being said, that should be it for this video, guys. Remember to like the video, subscribe, leave a

00:15:00.160 comment, do all that great stuff. It's so strange just how many issues Carney is already having with his

00:15:08.400 conflicts of interest, how many stories it's generating, and how he still just refuses

00:15:13.120 to actually break off of his assets in Brookfield. He could just have it all sold and then put in a

00:15:18.960 blind trust and then it could be invested in random stocks shotgunned around the economy so that he

00:15:24.000 couldn't give grants or subsidies to particular industries to boost up his stock investments,

00:15:30.560 his stock portfolio. But he refuses to do it, which makes me feel like that's at least decently

00:15:37.360 important to him being able to hold on to these Brookfield assets that I don't know that he has some

00:15:42.240 sort of stake in wanting to grow that wealth. Is he going to do anything illegal to do it? I don't

00:15:49.760 know, but it's such a strange thing that you won't drop something that's causing you such big problems

00:15:54.800 as prime minister. But again, with that being said, I will see you guys later.

The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - August 16, 2025

Carney & Brookfield tried to buy Canadians' donated blood-plasma!

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