Six Canadian public pension funds have invested at least USD$1.6 billion in companies and arms manufacturers supporting Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.
According to researchers with Labour For Palestine, who analyzed these investments and shared their findings with The Breach, this figure only accounts for equities traded on U.S. stock exchanges, meaning the full extent of their investments is likely greater. Labour for Palestine is an advocacy group composed of researchers and activists who work with labour groups to support Palestinian solidarity.
The pension funds with these investments are:
- Canada Pension Plan (CPP), the mandatory pension plan for all Canadian workers outside Quebec;
- PSP Investments, which invests the pensions of public service employees and members of the military and RCMP;
- Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System;
- Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan;
- Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which manages the pensions of 6 million Quebecers;
- and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, which invests on behalf of the province’s public sector.
The Labour For Palestine researchers compiled data on which of these pension funds have invested in companies on the BDS (Boycott, divestment and sanctions) National Committee’s list of corporations benefiting from Israeli apartheid, as well as select arms and military aviation manufacturers.
Some companies benefitting from the investments from Canadian pension plans are multibillion-dollar weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin. Others, like Hewlett-Packard (HP), are known for selling computers but also supply hardware and data centres to the Israeli military and police.
Together, these pension funds have invested at least USD$884 million in weapons manufacturers that include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Honeywell Aerospace, which build fighter jets such as the F-15, the F-35 “stealth jet,” and the M-346.
Last year, Boeing’s CEO Ted Colbert went to Tel Aviv to boost a deal to sell 25 F-15IA fighter jets, an upgraded model of the company’s F-15EX, to Israel. “My visit is about making sure that it is absolutely and positively clear that we remain committed to serving Israel,” Colbert said at the time.
Boeing has said its older F-15 model can carry “more weapons than any other fighter in its class,” and launch “hypersonic weapons up to 22 feet long and weighing up to 7,000 pounds.”
Also in 2023, Israel agreed to buy $3 billion worth of F-35s from Lockheed Martin with money provided by the United States.
Aviation analysts, drawing on videos posted online by the Israeli Air Force, say that F-15s and F-35s are both being used to strike Gaza with bombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds. Israel’s strikes have killed over 24,000 Palestinians and have razed an estimated 70 per cent of the strip’s civilian infrastructure to the ground.
Israel’s air force also has 30 M-346 jets produced by Honeywell, which analysts say are used for training but cannot be loaded with live bombs.
A ‘direct connection’ between investments and ‘unfolding genocide’
Hassan Husseini, an organizer with Labour For Palestine, said, “What we are witnessing is a direct connection between these weapons manufacturers and the killing of Palestinians in Gaza during this unfolding genocide.”
The investment of public pension funds in these companies speaks to an ever-widening gap between workers who contribute to these funds and the investors who decide where to invest them, Husseini said.
“We know that pension investment rules and the financialization of pension funds have led to this gap,” he said. “Of course, investors hide behind laws and regulations and fiduciary responsibilities, but ultimately we argue they need to take into account ethical investing.”
Workers, he said, have been stripped of their ability to have a say in the ethical calculus behind these investments.
“A lot of us have no idea that our pension money is being invested in such a dubious and questionable manner,” Husseini said. “We believe that through education, we can raise the question of the complicity of some of these investments in apartheid and genocide.”
None of the pension funds identified by Labour for Palestine responded to questions sent by The Breach.
Vital moment for BDS movement
Husseini said this is a critical moment for workers to become involved in the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
The BDS movement began in 2005 as a Palestinian-led grassroots effort to counter international economic support for Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. One of its central tenets calls for institutions such as banks, universities, and pension funds to divest from “Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid.”
The implicated companies include Intel, which operates its largest manufacturing facility in Kiryat Gat, 30 kilometres north of the Gaza Strip, currently undergoing a $25-billion expansion with funding from the Israeli government; Chevron, which operates several oil assets in Israel; and Caterpillar, whose D9 bulldozers are modified and used for ground offensives by the Israeli Defense Forces, including, according to Forbes, in their current operations in Gaza.
According to Labour For Palestine’s research, Canadian pension funds have invested at least USD$703 million in these three companies.
“Generally speaking, these funds are not under much obligation to divulge any of this to their membership,” Husseini said. “That’s why we require concerted effort and collective action to urge these big, multibillion-dollar funds to divest.”
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What are the best actions Canadians can take to stop our pension funds being used for military aggression?
Organize to gain transparency of your pension funds. Join others already organized.
Publish names and contact addresses for PR dept. or the CEOs of these companies . Eg….CPP
Speak to your financial advisor and move your money to sustainable ethical practices.
Excellent information! As people paying into these pensions we should be able to lobby for ethical
Investment.
The funding to support Israel defend itself is good for many reasons. The use of our CPP money under the guise of sustainability is what needs to be questioned.
A nauseating fact that good investment can include the global war machine. After all we are in a near total global mobilization period of defense systems. No thought is ever given to who might be the recipient of death from these acquisitions. War = death. Death = saddness. Why are we investing in sadness? Unfortunately I don’t have the answer. I am a common person swayed by opinions and news events from around the world. Could we also say that the electronic media technology we are using here is likely also in those bombs? That won’t drive us to renounce our phones, computers, TV sets etc. though will it? The cross contamination of investments in such a highly globalized world almost makes it impossible to be 100% certain every dollar you invest is being used in a noble cause. Certainly I didn’t intend my money go to such a cause but investors in auto companies don’t sit back and fret that a lunatic may use one to drive home after getting drunk. Ending the dreams of a family of 6 as well as leaving an empty hole in the hearts of loved ones left behind. How does a common man unravel such a complicated accusation? I personally hate war. I feel it is the highest expression of failure that men resort to deciding who is right based on the size of their bombs. Failure. Now on the flip side if a weapon is used to suppress an aggressor from destroying a greater peace do we call it a bad weapon or a good weapon? Just like the car that could be used by a drunk or the same car a man to get to work to feed his family. Or the phone, computer, TV etc used to aid both sides of every conflict. Where does the madness begin and where does it stop? In the human heart of course. A sure way to prevent this sadness would be to simply return to the commands: “love God above all and your neighbor as yourself”. The misuse of goods would surely begin to subside. Again, I despise war, but I am confused at how I am complicit if a lunatic decides to misuse a device to do harm. Speak to the lunatic. Change his mind. Your accusation makes me feel that every dollar I spend is dripping in blood and there is nothing I can do about it yet you imply it is my fault. Sounds like a lose-lose situation to me. Build on the Rock not the sand and you will begin to see change for the better. My heart bleeds for the innocents in all conflict. The answer to relief from this pain begins in our hearts. Unless the heart changes nothing new will ever come.