"No Profits from Palestinian Death" Campaign
Current and retired teachers who took the leadership of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) to task at the April 18 Annual General Meeting (AGM) have also launched the campaign "No Profits from Palestinian Death." They indicate in a statement that OTPP's presumed continuing investment in weapons manufacturers like RTX and Textron are a direct violation of the express policy of the plan's affiliates. For example, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) has a policy that states explicitly: "Pension plans to which OSSTF/FEESO members contribute should not invest in companies that contribute to killing, torture, deprivation of freedom, or other violations of human rights."
A policy of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association states: "Wherever possible and reasonable the plan [should] not invest in corporations or their subsidiaries, domestic or foreign, that produce munitions, armaments, or technologies of war, and [should] divest itself of any current holdings in said corporations."
All of this, they say, requires heeding the International Court of Justice and the many international human rights law and genocide scholars who have said Israel is very likely using weapons they believe their pension monies are invested in to commit genocide.
The teachers write that under OTPP's "responsible investment"
policies, it has committed to "an ongoing process to identify and
assess companies associated with severe controversies." They
then ask what controversy could be more severe than one relating to
genocide?
Given their pension plan's stated holdings in two major arms manufacturers that are "directly complicit in the killing of over 12,000 children in Gaza, leaving thousands more with life altering physical and mental injuries," the teachers maintain that they have the duty, as do the leaders of the four teacher affiliates that comprise the Ontario Teachers' Federation (OTF), to demand that OTPP divest from these companies immediately.
As part of their ongoing campaign, the teachers are encouraging members to write the OTPP and the OTF to demand that their pension plan fulfil its duty by divesting immediately from weapons manufacturers that directly contribute to and profit from the U.S./Israeli genocide on Palestinians. An information form and template for a letter can be found on the World Beyond War Canada website here.
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 32 - May 9, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS543210.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca