Canadians Must Control Where Their Pension Funds Are Invested
NOT in ICE! NOT in War Production! NOT in Projects Which Harm the Social and Natural Environment! It is NOT a Business Decision!
Active and Retired Teachers on picket line
at Windsor Salt, May 31, 2023
Two years ago Ontario teachers learned that their pension funds were invested in Stone Canyon Industries Holdings (SCIH), the Los Angeles-based holding company which owns Windsor Salt whose workers were forced out on strike in February 2023. SCIH hired the notorious anti-union U.S. law firm Jackson Lewis to "run the negotiations" by making sure there were no negotiations so the company could succeed in imposing its dictate and contract out union jobs at Windsor Salt.
When teachers learned that their pension funds were invested in SCIH they said NO! They would not support a brutal U.S. anti-labour corporation attacking the working conditions, health and safety and job security of the salt miners and support staff, their families and community. The teachers took a bold stand. They rejected the mantra that where pension funds are invested is a business decision to achieve the highest returns and that issues related to the social and natural environment are not their concern. Teachers said NO![1] The concerns teachers expressed represent the desires of the majority of Canadian and Quebec workers that both workplace funds and government plans, including the Canada Pension Plan, not be used to invest in war production and ventures that harm people or the environment.
On March 30, the environmental organization STAND.earth issued a report on investments by Canadian public pensions and banks in contractors which profit from contracts that enable U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out repression and violence in the U.S. The report reveals that the Canada Pension Plan, nine other public pensions, and all major Canadian banks, as well as Desjardins, have investments in ICE-contracted companies including Palantir, CoreCivic, Geo Group, General Dynamics, CACI, L3 Harris and AT&T.
Picket March 16, 2026, by Retired BC Teachers demanding all BC
public
pensions divest from war profiteering and climate collapse.
The Minister of Finance Francois-Philippe Champagne is directly responsible for the Canada Pension Plan. When asked for comment about the report, Champagne's office spokesperson John Fragos told the Canadian Press that the investment strategies of Canadian pension funds are "theirs to own, and guided by independent and professional boards of directors who oversee, among other things, risk management and investment policies." He said that questions should be directed to them.
This is the typical cowardly stand of government ministers. These are matters of serious concern to the working class and people of this country but Champagne is incapable of elaborating why funding police repression and war production, and the extreme violence of the Trump administration is okay.
The fact is that the federal government has also awarded contracts and subsidies to ICE contractors including Palantir's Canadian subsidiary which received a $14.4 million software contract in 2020. The Ottawa-based tech company JSI which provides wiretapping tools to ICE will receive $1 million in federal funds to commercialize AI products for police and security agencies. This is NOT okay!
Excerpts from the report issued by STAND.earth follow:
"Combined, public pensions, including CPP, have more than U.S.$2.5 billion invested in ICE contractors. Other public pensions include: Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), Public Sector Pension (PSP), Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO), British Columbia Investment Management (BCIM), Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), Alberta Investment Management Corp (AIMCO) and Vestcor Inc (which manages New Brunswick public pensions). Canadian and U.S. public pension funds have more than $11.3 billion invested in the above listed ICE-contractors.
"Canadian banks TD, RBC, Scotia Bank, CIBC, and BMO have financed more than $23 billion in loans and bonds to a subset of these companies since 2020. These banks, as well as Desjardins, also have extensive investments, often through their asset and wealth management divisions, in many of the named companies to the tune of at least $9.8 billion. In total, banks globally have issued more than $218 billion in financing to the above listed ICE-contractors since 2020.
"Companies were chosen based on available data and having been issued contracts since 2025 with ICE or Homeland Security. AT&T is the exception, with a multiyear contract with ICE that runs from 2021 to 2027. The companies are Palantir, a tech and surveillance company ($1.8 billion contract), private prison companies GEO Group ($800.9 million) and Core Civic ($294.8 million), weapons manufacturers General Dynamics ($17.2 million) and L3 Harris ($4.4 million), and telecommunications and IT companies CACI ($70.1 million) and AT&T ($90.7 million issued in 2021, running until 2027)."
Windsor Salt Workers' picket, March 3, 2023
Note
1. See Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Major Investor in U.S. Company Attacking Windsor Salt Workers, Workers' Forum, March 10, 2023.
(With files from STAND.earth, Canadian Press)
This article was published in
Volume 56 Number 3 - March-April, 2026
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/M560314.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca