University

CUSA to consider Israeli boycott

Motion would call on Carleton to develop ‘Socially Responsible Investment’ policy

Carleton University Students’ Association will be voting on a motion this week to call on the university to adopt a “Socially Responsible Investment” policy to be applied to the institution’s pension fund. The motion is intended to endorse the Students’ Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) Divestment Campaign. Full motion is posted below.

Motion to encourage Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) of the Carleton University Pension Fund

Whereas Carleton University, through its pension fund, invests a total of $2,426,757.12 in BAE Systems, Motorola, Northrop-Grumman, and Tesco Supermarkets, equivalent to 0.35% of the total value of the pension fund;

Whereas each of these companies is potentially involved in significant violations of international humanitarian law, including grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention amounting to war crimes by contributing extensively to some or all of these violations by:

• Manufacturing weapons and weapons components that are used to kill and maim
Palestinian civilians;
• Materially supporting and economically developing the illegal Israeli settlements
in the occupied West Bank, thereby entrenching the occupation of Palestinian
land; and by
• Perpetuating Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza and its discriminatory practices and
policies against Palestinians, both in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT),
and within Israel;

Whereas Carleton University currently has no binding socially responsible investment policy, thus allowing it to invest in and profit from corporations engaging in unethical behaviour;

Be it resolved that CUSA endorse the following three campaign recommendations put forward by the Students’ Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) Divestment Campaign, intended to encourage socially responsible investment of the Carleton University Pension Fund:

• That the Carleton University Board of Governors, via the Pension Fund Committee, immediately divest of the Pension Fund’s stock in BAE Systems, Motorola, Northrop Grumman, and Tesco;
• That Carleton University refrain from investing in other companies involved in violations of international law;
• That Carleton University work with the entire university community to develop, adopt, and implement a broader policy of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) for its Pension Fund and other investments, through a transparent and effective process.

Moved: Reem Buhaisi

Seconded: Alex Hunsberger

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