The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition Barrick said it would "carefully consider" an unprecedented rejection by shareholders of the company's executive compensation plan on Wednesday, even as management strongly defended a record payment given to the co-chairman. The Post's John Shmuel writes the rejection at Barrick's annual meeting was a direct challenge to a board that last year agreed to pay $17-million (U.S.) to co-chairman John Thornton, which included a staggering $11.9-million signing bonus. Peter Munk was defiant during the meeting, defending his company's decision to bring on Mr. Thornton, a former president at Goldman Sachs. "We had to secure him," Mr. Munk told shareholders. "The right thing was to have this advanced investment … to secure the kind of access he could give us and the credibility he could provide us with in securing major capital." In a second vote, shareholders agreed to re-elect all 13 directors to Barrick's board. While 85 per cent of votes cast were against Mr. Thornton's pay package, an average of 82 per cent of votes were cast in favour of each director's re-election. Mr. Munk began his speech with a simple observation: "Bad times bring out more people."