Pressure Mounts on UPP to Divest From Israel
The University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) has voted to divest from Israel, the association announced on Friday.
This decision stems from Israel’s “illegal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the UTFA said.
The motion, which passed by 52% of the vote, calls on the Ontario University Pension Plan (UPP) to produce a rapid timeline for complete divestment from all direct and indirect holdings in entities that support or sustain Israel’s “occupation and/or which manufacture” or distribute arms, ammunition, or munitions of war where “there are reasonable grounds to suspect they may have been used by Israel in Palestine.”
Motion equates divestment from Israel akin to policy for Russia
It added that all new investments should be screened, and that these divestment commitments should then be incorporated into the UPP’s investment exclusion policy.
The motion claimed that the divestment from Israel should occur in line with the university’s current divestment from Russia.
The New Arab also reports University of Toronto faculty seeks divesting pension fund from Israel:
The University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) has passed a motion calling for the divestment of its pension fund from Israel-linked investments, and has formally submitted the motion to the Chief Executive Officer and Board Chair of the Ontario University Pension Plan (UPP).
In a statement released on Monday, UTFA said it had also shared the decision with the Canadian Association of University Teachers and the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations. It added that the motion would be conveyed to the University Administration and other employee groups within the UPP.
The motion, passed on 8 May with 52 percent voting in favour, calls on the UPP to divest from companies that are directly or indirectly involved in violations of international humanitarian law - specifically those linked to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
This includes "all direct and indirect holdings in entities that manufacture or distribute arms, ammunition, implements or munitions of war, where there are reasonable grounds to suspect they may be used by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory", as well as companies "engaged in activities that support or sustain Israel's illegal occupation."
The motion also references earlier divestment measures taken against Russian entities, and seeks to bar investment in companies that support or profit from any illegal occupation, including Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The UPP is a multi-university pension plan that includes faculty and staff from the University of Toronto, Queen's University, the University of Guelph, and Trent University.
Advocacy group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) welcomed the result, calling it a "historic divestment motion".
In a statement, the group noted: "The UTFA is the 20th faculty or academic association to endorse boycotting or divesting from Israeli war crimes in Palestine over the last two years. BDS works!"
The initiative was supported by the University of Toronto Faculty and Librarians for UPP Divestment campaign, which argues that university pension funds, described as "deferred wages", should not be invested in entities complicit in human rights violations.
The vote follows a wave of similar campaigns across academic institutions in response to Israel's war on Gaza.
In recent months, the University of York in the UK and Trinity College Dublin have both announced plans to cut financial ties with Israeli companies following student-led protests. In March, Harvard Law School students passed a referendum urging the university to divest from Israel.
And Joe Friesen of the Globe and Mail reports U of T faculty vote to pressure pension to divest from companies linked to Israel’s war in Gaza:
Faculty at the University of Toronto have voted to put pressure on their pension plan to divest from companies connected to Israel’s war in Gaza and other conflicts, a move opponents view as divisive.
The faculty voted in favour of the proposal by a margin of 52 per cent to 43 per cent, with 5 per cent abstaining, the faculty association reported.
A total of 1,365 votes from the roughly 3,500-person membership were counted at a May 8 meeting, which required that voters be present either in person or online to cast a ballot. The vote was held at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
The motion calls for divestment from companies that manufacture arms that could be used in the occupied Palestinian territories or elsewhere to commit a violation of human rights, an act of terrorism or other crimes. It also calls for divestment from companies connected to the occupation of Palestinian territory or any other illegal occupation, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
The pensions of University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) members are managed by the University Pension Plan (UPP), which also includes four other Ontario universities.
The UTFA is a joint sponsor but it doesn’t have the power to dictate to the UPP board what its investments should be. It can, however, advocate for its aims within the UPP’s governance structure. Day-to-day investment decisions are handled by outside fund managers.
Deb Cowen, a professor of geography and member of the Jewish Faculty Network, was one of a few dozen organizers behind the motion. She said they had worked toward this vote for months.
“I was wonderfully surprised to see over 700 of our colleagues stand in support of the motion, just because there’s been so much backlash,” Prof. Cowen said. She said many of her colleagues put their faces on a campaign website expressing support for the motion, but declined to use their names publicly for fear of being the target of personal attacks.
Prof. Cowen said the UPP has ethical investing policies in place already but it hasn’t applied them in a consistent way, in her view. Colleagues have raised concerns about investments connected to Sudan as well as the Palestinian occupied territories, she said. She hopes this vote, which commits the UTFA representative to the pension plan to advocate for this resolution, will lead to change.
“It’s a fairly low bar to say we shouldn’t be investing in genocide and we shouldn’t be investing in war crimes, and that’s really what the motion does,” Prof. Cowen said.
Renan Levine, a professor of political science and an opponent of the proposal, said many faculty were upset about the process as well as the content of the vote, which in his view focused primarily on Israel, even if other conflicts were mentioned.
“I’ve certainly been hearing from many of my colleagues about how hurt they are,” Prof. Levine said. “I was sitting in the meeting with a couple of Israeli professors who were gobsmacked that this was taking place.”
Prof. Levine said he’s concerned that the meeting agenda was established by the proponents. In part, that’s a result of how the vote came about. After 50 members of UTFA petitioned for a meeting on the issue in March, the organization said it followed the rules in the faculty association’s constitution, which include the ability to set the agenda.
The supporters of the motion dispute the notion the other side wasn’t given an opportunity to make its argument. The meeting had time set aside for discussion and clarification, Prof. Cowen said.
Prof. Levine said the fact that more than 1,300 members voted is an indication that interest and attendance was high. But, he said, many were unable to take part because of other commitments.
Emotions ran high at times during the meeting. Prof. Cowen said organizers were asked to address the chat section of the online meeting because people were posting emojis that some members found objectionable, such as images of guns and pagers.
Prof. Levine said he would have liked to see the issue approached in a way that is more in keeping with an academic institution.
“Here is a contentious topic we could have deliberated in the way that academics deliberate best, but we didn’t,“ Prof. Levine said.
Jun Nogami, interim vice-president for salary, benefits, pensions and workload at the UTFA, said the association’s priority for the meeting was to ensure a “transparent, respectful and rules-based environment.”
This is a contentious topic so let me begin by stating the following are my views and mine only, nothing to do with Canada's large pension funds or UPP which manages the pension plans of 41,000 members across five Ontario universities.
I've been getting bombarded lately by emails calling for all of Canada's large pension funds to "divest from genocide, occupation and apartheid in Israel."
I typically ignore these emails because it's a contentious issue that has been going on since my time in university 30 years ago and I honestly don't believe these calls for divestment from Israel will make an iota of a difference in the conflict.
Moreover, while I don't like seeing innocent Palestinians in Gaza being killed, my own views have shifted over time and October 7th just proved to me and the world that Hamas terrorists funded by Iran will stop at nothing to completely destroy Israel.
The Israeli response was resolute and disproportionate as I expected and university campuses across North America have been a hotbed of protests, typically pro-Palestinian protesters which strongly feel genocide is going on in Gaza, citing Amnesty International and other human rights groups.
Like I said, deeply contentious issue, everyone has their opinion and mine is more sympathetic to Israel especially after October 7th.
Do I like what's going on in Gaza? No but I understand the nature of this conflict and the proxy wars funded by Iran against Israel and sadly, I do not see an end to this conflict, ever, even if they implement a two state solution.
I realize this conflict arouses passions on both sides and I am respectful of everyone's view but I don't see how divesting from Israel will solve anything.
In fact, I agree with those who feel divesting from Israel is not just wrong, it's stupid and quite frankly impossible and ridiculous.
I'm an outcomes type of person and I feel like telling all these protesters across campuses in North America (the respectful ones as I detest the hooligans) what is the endgame here and do you really understand what you are calling for and how do you measure success?
Don't talk to me about Russia's war against Ukraine, this is not the same thing.
And if I am to be brutally honest here divesting out of Russia and imposing sanctions on that country did absolutely nothing to weaken or deter Putin's response. If anything, Russia's economy benefited by contravening sanctions and emboldened Putin to continue his ruthless campaign against Ukraine (and even there, the politics aren't as black and white as we are led to believe).
Again, what is the point of divesting? I recently argued against divesting out of Tesla even though its founder acted like an idiot and disrespected American civil servants with is crazy antics.
Do I like Musk or Tesla? Not particularly but I don't mix my feelings and emotions with investing.
UPP is led by Barbara Zvan who has to diplomatically navigate all this and remind her members that there is independent governance to ensure their best interests.
I do not envy Barb when she has to meet angry members from all sides who argue for or against divesting from Israel.
While I wish there was peace in the Middle East, it's not going to happen and while it's fashionable to blame "Israeli aggression and genocide" as the root cause of this conflict, there are other views (including mine) which blame Iran funding terrorist organizations as the root cause of this conflict.
I agree with that professor who said there should have been a lot more open and transparent debates on the topic and while I understand why many academics are staunchly in favour of divesting from Israel, I don't think it will make a difference in any way, shape of form.
In fact, even if all pension funds divested from Israel (whatever that entails which is far from clear), it wouldn't change a thing just like divesting out of Russia didn't change a damn thing.
All this to say, while I understand your passion, please stop emailing me about divesting from Israel or divesting from anything (except tobacco where strong arguments have been made to divest, not that it has made a big difference).
Members have a right to express their opinion to their pension plan and vote on things, I just wish people were better informed on what divestment entails and whether it's really worth it.
Below, around the world, students are calling on their universities to 'disclose and divest' their investments in companies and organizations linked to Israel. Andrew Chang explains why many universities are rejecting those calls and how past divestment movements have laid the groundwork for today's protests.
Also, demands among pro-Palestinian protesters vary at each university in the US, but nearly all have called for some form of divestment from Israel. But while the divestment movement has a long history in this country, the practicality is complicated, especially for higher education institutions.
Lastly, Sky News reports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement started as a Palestinian civil resistance movement but other protests have broken out over Eurovision and celebrities who have not spoken out in support of Gazans in the war with Israel.
Update: Jim Leech, OTPP's former CEO and former Chancellor of Queen's University which joined UPP early on recommended a report from the Committee he chaired at Queen's recommending against divestment.
You can read the full report here, it is extremely well written (former Chief Investment Strategist for CPP Investments Don Raymond was part of the committee) and I especially recommend the section on "Divestment" on page 21 where it explains the "unintended consequences" of such actions.
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