Introducing the Divest for Human Rights Campaign at McGill
October 25, 2021
To the McGill Community,
On July 22 2021, the Students’ Society of McGill University formally the Divest for Human Rights Policy, after a sustained campaign led by a of McGill student groups. The Policy is grounded in the ɫ’s constitutional commitment to “demonstrating leadership in matters of human rights, social justice and environmental protection.”
This campaign calls on McGill University to cease its in several corporations complicit in settler-colonial land theft, environmental destruction, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide around the world.
As a prestigious North American university with an endowment worth $ 1.5 billion, McGill’s investments have always been a matter of critical importance to the student body and the wider public. Under the pressure of student activism and public scrutiny, McGill University has divested for moral and political reasons since the 1980s, including from companies doing business in , from corporations doing business in Myanmar under military rule, and from tobacco firms. In more recent years, students have been for McGill to divest from fossil fuel companies driving the climate . The University has thus far to do so.
The investments concerned by the Divest for Human Rights (DHR) campaign are the following:
- McGill invests $4,770,450 in , the owner of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, the construction of which has provoked the ongoing , colonization and of the lands of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, as well as the violent arrest of Wet’suwet’en s. TC Energy has displayed similar behaviour towards Indigenous nations in ;
- $224,019.33 of McGill’s endowment fund is by Lockheed Martin, the developer of weapons that have been used in violent conflicts around the world, including the Saudi bombing of Yemen which has killed thousands of ;
- McGill invests $824,761 in Re/Max, which real estate in Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land, thus exacerbating the inflicted on indigenous Palestinians by Israeli settlers and soldiers;
- McGill invests $500,706 in Oshkosh Corporation, an industrial truck company which provided vehicles to the U.S. military for its and occupation of Iraq, as well as for the Saudi military’s in Yemen. Oshkosh vehicles are also used by the Israeli , whose atrocities include widespread of Palestinian prisoners, mass forced of Palestinian communities, the of civilians during the 2014 attack on the Gaza Strip, the of over 200 unarmed civilians during the 2018 Gaza protests, and the enforcement of an throughout occupied Palestine.
- McGill invests over $665,281 in Puma, and also maintains investments of below $500,000 in Foot Locker, Nordstrom, and Kohl’s, all four of which use Uyghur in their supply chains. This forced labour exists in the context of a carceral regime in East Turkestan (Xinjiang), consisting of over 380 political indoctrination for Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities, as well as the suppression of , the forced assimilation of , and the systematic of Uyghur religious and cultural heritage throughout the region;
While this list of companies may not be exhaustive, divestment from these companies would set a strong precedent for more ethical investing by educational institutions throughout Turtle Island (North America).
The campaign is led by the , made up of (C-JAM), , , the (ISA), (SFT), (SPD), and (SPHR).
Is it important to acknowledge that this campaign is driven by the members and supporters of these student groups, who have dedicated countless hours of unpaid, volunteer labour to its success. Furthermore, each of these organizations engages in important political work and community building at McGill.
We encourage all McGill community members to learn more about the campaign on the , and to sign the calling for McGill’s divestment from the aforementioned corporations.
In solidarity,
The Divest for Human Rights Coalition
The Students’ Society of McGill University
