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However, eight months into the current genocide, the Canada Pension Plan has increased its investment in war crimes, and potentially genocide, to over $16 billion. Take a moment to let the Canada Pension Plan know you demand they divest from companies complicit with war crimes and genocide. This includes over a quarter-million dollars invested in companies deemed by the UN to be in violation of international law, specifically, Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi Le-Israel, Booking Holdings, Israel Discount Bank, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, Motorola Solutions, and Shufersal Ltd. The Canada Pension Plan also includes companies potentially involved in the Israeli genocide being committed on on the Palestinian people of Gaza through weapons and arms companies such as General Dynamics, L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin Corp, Rheinmetall, Northrop Grumman Corp and others. Surveillance companies such as Palantir Technologies, companies involved in house demolitions such as Mitsubishi Corp, companies stealing resources from occupied Palestine such as Chevron Corp and Heidelberg Materials AG, along with many other companies complicit in war crimes are part of the Canada Pension Plan portfolio. WSP continues to dominate the Canadian public equity fund of the Canada Pension Plan with a value of $3.4 Billion. This amount has increased from $1.68 Billion in 2020. In the fall of 2022, that a submission was made to the UN to add WSP to the UN database. This was submitted by Al-Haq and Just Peace Advocates, and endorsed by 105 organizations, and we would expect the UN would seriously consider adding WSP to the update now underway. The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians – Canada (“ICJP – Canada”) has provided the Government of Canada with notice of intent to seek the prosecution of Canadian officials who are allegedly complicit in Israel’s war crimes. ICJP Canada is also considering expanding the scope of its initiative to pursue accountability of Canadian companies who are allegedly complicit in Israel’s war crimes. Like Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court applies to both state actors and private individuals. The latter makes it an offence to “aid, abet or otherwise assist” in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity”. The CPPIB (Canada Pension Plan Investment Board) is entrusted with fiduciary responsibility of the Canadian’s public pension plan and thus is expected to undertake enhanced due diligence to ensure that its investments are in line with Canada’s responsibility under international and domestic law. Read more about CPPIB’s investments in war crimes and, potentially, genocide. Our demands:- CPPIB take immediate steps to divest from the companies listed on the UN database and ensure that no future investments include any companies on the UN database.
- CPPIB review its current holdings based on the companies identified by AFSC Investigate and Who Profit, and divest from all companies involved in support of occupation, war crimes, apartheid, and genocide.
- CPPIB to divest from WSP unless CPPIB can influence WSP to withdraw from the Jerusalem Light Rail project and to make a public statement that it has done so.
- CPPIB put in place a transparent process to ensure that companies are vetted for violations of human rights and international law. This would involve reporting back publicly on the review that CPPIB committed to undertake in this regard in 2021.
Send a letter
See the full list at:CPPIB investment in war crimes and potentially genocide increases to over $16 B in 2024
The following letter has been sent to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board May 31, 2024 Canada Pension Plan Investment Board One Queen Street East, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M5C 2W5 Dean Connor, Chairperson, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) John Graham, CEO, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) Edwin D. Cass, Senior Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer (CPPIB) Dear Chair Connor, CEO Graham, and CIO Cass, We are writing to you regarding The Canadian Pension Plan (CPPIB) investment in funds related to Israeli-occupied Palestine and Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. We have been monitoring the human rights situation in the occupied Palestine territory (oPt) and the occupied Syrian Golan and are concerned that investments within the Canadian Pension Plan portfolio may facilitate activity that constitutes a war crime under international law. Beyond this, with the recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) provisional ruling of plausible genocide by Israel against the Palestinian people of Gaza, these investments may be complicit with genocide. This is the fifth year we have conducted analysis, and we again write to you to ask for a response. In particular, in March 2021, you indicated you would conduct a review. We are still waiting to hear from you about the result of that promised Review. Has the review been undertaken, and if so what are the results and when will it be made public. Based on the CPP’s March 31, 2024 annual listing of equity holding, the CPP seems to be invested in 7 companies for a value of $264 million that are listed in the United Nations (UN) Database of companies complicit with human rights violations The UN Database was released on February 12, 2020 in the Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (A/HRC/43/71) after the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the oPt, including East Jerusalem. There are currently 97 companies listed by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. This investigation followed the United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 31/36 which defined the Database by reference to specific human rights violations include the following: (a) The supply of equipment and materials facilitating the construction and the expansion of settlements and the wall, and associated infrastructure. (b) The supply of surveillance and identification equipment for settlements, the wall and checkpoints directly linked with settlements; (c) The supply of equipment for the demolition of housing and property, the destruction of agricultural farms, greenhouses, olive groves and crops; (d) The supply of security services, equipment and materials to enterprises operating in settlements; (e) The provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport; (f) Banking and financial operations helping to develop, expand or maintain settlements and their activities, including loans for housing and the development of businesses; (g) The use of natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes; (h) Pollution, and the dumping of waste in or its transfer to Palestinian villages; (i) Captivity of the Palestinian financial and economic markets, as well as practices that disadvantage Palestinian enterprises, including through restrictions on movement, administrative and legal constraints; (j) The use of benefits and reinvestments of enterprises owned totally or partially by settlers for developing, expanding and maintaining the settlements. UN Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) reaffirmed that settlements have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation under international law. As we have indicated both in regard to the 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 CPPIB annual reports we are very concerned that the CPPIB has these investments. Now that the 2024 year-end holdings are public it is even more concerning that still no action has been taken. Since you received the initial letter in March 2021 from over 70 organizations and 130 individuals including former MPs, UN Rapporteurs, lawyers, academics, and others, well over 10,000 letters have been sent to you, some with copies to the Federal Minister of Finance. We note that other than the original commitment by CPPIB staff to undertake a review that no response has been received. This is very concerning especially given these are the public pension plan funds of millions of Canadians. CPP investments that are on the United Nations Database: The Canadian Pension Plan based on its March 31, 2023 report is invested in the following companies that are listed on the UN Database of business enterprises considered to be in violation of international law.
| Bank Hapoalim (e,f) | 2,177 | $28.00 |
| Bank Leumi Le-Israel (e,f) | 2,637 | $30.00 |
| Booking Holdings (e) | 29 | $141.00 |
| Israel Discount Bank (e,f) | 2,142 | $15.00 |
| Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (e,f) | 259 | $13.00 |
| Motorola Solutions (e,d) | 62 | $30.00 |
| Shufersal Ltd (e.g) | 731 | $7.00 |
| Company | Shares | Value (Millions) |
| BAE Systems | 1,355 | $31.00 (note this is duplicate so was adjusted in subsequent letter) |
| Honeywell International | 85 | $24.00 |
| Leidos Holdings | 152 | $27.00 |
| Rheinmetall | 46 | $35.00 |
| Safran SA | 694 | $213.00 |
| Thales SA | 100 | $23.00 |
- We would ask that the CPPIB take immediate steps to divest from these funds, and to do a review to ensure no other investments are included now or into the future from the UN Database.
- We also note that companies from the UN Database in the CPP Global Equity Indices, and so would ask that you review your current holdings and remove any that have companies from the UN Database, and put a transparent public process in place to ensure that these funds do not include any investments from the list going forward. We ask you to consider WSP’s complicity, and divest, unless you can influence WSP to withdraw from the Jerusalem Light Rail project and make a public statement.
- Put in place a transparent process to ensure that companies are vetted for violations of human rights and international law. This would involve reporting back publicly on the review you committed to undertake.
[1] S.C. 2000, c. 24. [2] R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46, ss. 22.1-22.2. [3] 2009 QCCS 4151 at para. 176. [4] See e.g. Garcia v. Tahoe Resources Inc., 2017 BCCA 39; Araya v. Nevsun Resources Ltd., 2017 BCCA 401 (pending appeal on different issue). Note: companies added such as Chevron, Lockheed Martin and Palantir are concerning. The CPPIB would seem to be focused on profit through war and occupation, not human rights and international law. Now over $30B with this increase in CPPIB
$24 Billion of our public pensions invested in Israeli war crimes
The CDPQ has investments of $14B in war-crimes-and-genocide-complicit companies even as the International Court of Justice considers Israel’s genocide in Gaza