The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - August 16, 2025


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


Episode Stats

Length

16 minutes

Words per Minute

168.78717

Word Count

2,724

Sentence Count

126

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

Brookfield Asset Management is trying to buy a company that has been secretly buying Canadian blood plasma from Canadian Blood Services for years. The problem is, they re giving it away to them at a massive discount because they re an agent for the Canadian Blood Service. But somehow, Brookfield gets tipped off that this is going on, and attempts to purchase the company that is receiving the blood plasma donations.


Transcript

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
00:01:08.400 drop a like on the video. I know some people watch an Apple TV and you can't really do that.
00:01:12.920 Subscribe if you are not yet a subscriber. I'm trying to hit 100,000 subscribers by mid-December
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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
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
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.