AbitibiBowater Shut Public Out of First Annual Meeting Since Restructuring

AbitibiBowater discussed its future direction behind closed doors Thursday, less than a day after Quebec politicians granted pension changes required for its restructuring. The Montreal-based forestry company barred the public and media from its first annual meeting in three years and the first since it exited 20 months of creditor and bankruptcy protection in Canada and the United States.

Annual meetings are routinely open to observers in Canada. But company spokesman Pierre Choquette said the newsprint giant considered the event a private meeting “from a legal standpoint.”

“It’s a private meeting so I cannot tell you about the content of what’s