Take a minute to write to the CEO and Chair of the CDPQ. Demand that they divest from war crimes and genocide.

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The CDPQ December 31, 2023 year-end report includes over $14 billion of investments in companies complicit with Israeli war crimes and genocide. This represents just over 3 percent of the CDPQ total holdings of $434 billion.

The CDPQ had investments totaling $1.5 billion in seven companies listed in the United Nations database of companies engaged in certain Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT).

In addition, the CDPQ had over $12 billion invested in companies that AFSC Investigate has shown are involved in specific human rights violations as part of the Israeli occupation. This includes a $4.2 billion investment in Montreal-based WSP, up from $3.5 billion in 2022.

Israeli settlements in the OPT were declared contrary to international law by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2004. In 2016, the UN Security Council reaffirmed that the establishment by Israel of these settlements constitutes a flagrant violation under international law. In 2021, Canadian Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the OPT, concluded that the settlements amount to a war crime. The Caisse's investments in companies operating in these settlements therefore make it complicit in this violation of international law and this war crime.

On January 26, 2024, the ICJ ordered provisional measures in a case brought by South Africa against Israel for its alleged breaches of the Genocide Convention in its actions in Gaza. In its Order the Court found that the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide was “plausible”.

This year, the analysis therefore also considered the CDPQ’s investments in weapons companies identified by World Beyond War as involved in arming the Israeli military. This represents an additional $731 million invested in companies beyond those listed by the UN and AFSC.

While the ICJ has yet to rule on the merits of South Africa’s case against Israel, in her most recent report, entitled  Anatomy of a Genocide, Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the OPT, concludes there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met. Thus, there are reasonable grounds to believe that companies involved in arming the Israeli military are complicit in genocide, as is the Caisse by investing in those companies

See full details of CDPQ investments in 2023

Investments in Previous Years by the CDPQ

This is the third year that an analysis has been conducted of the CDPQ holdings in relation to the OPT, with similar results.

2021

2022 with update after G4S divested from Policity

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Several investments highlighted:

WSP Global

On September 15, 2022, Al-Haq and Just Peace Advocates submitted a report to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, requesting that WSP Global Inc. (WSP), a Canadian company, be included in the UN database. The submission was made by 105 organizations from around the world, including Canada, and supported by eminent personalities, including former UN Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in the OPT Michael Lynk, John Dugard and Richard Falk, and linguistics professor emeritus Noam Chomsky.

The submission provided comprehensive information in regards to WSP’s contract with Israel to plan and design the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR), which contributes to the maintenance of the Israeli settlements East Jerusalem, occupied and annexed in violation of international law.

WSP thus facilitates the transfer of part of the occupying power's population into the OPT, in violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.Through its active support of Israel's settlement enterprise in East Jerusalem, WSP is involved in flagrant and systematic violations of the fundamental human rights of the Palestinian population.

We call on the CDPQ to use its influence to get WSP to withdraw from its contract for the JLR, just as the CDPQ did with Allied Universal in regard to its G4S investment in Policity, the Israeli police school.  

Palantir

Also notable in its December 31, 20223 holdings is the CDQP’s re-investment in Palantir.

CDPQ dropped Palantir in 2022 when the stock plummeted 70 percent, but was again invested in this company in 2023. Palantir provides its Artificial Intelligence (AI) predictive system to Israeli security forces to jail people in the OPT because they fit the “terrorist profile”.

Palantir provides the same mass surveillance tools to law enforcement agencies and police departments, circumventing warrant procedures, thereby giving police access to vast amounts of information about individuals. The use of law enforcement databases gathered from the Israeli military skews the predictive power of the AI analysis to focus upon the types, locations, and people in the database. Human rights organizations deplore this type of policing (footnote 1).

Investing in Weapons and Arms Manufacturing

As noted above, CDPQ investments in weapons and arms manufacturing companies identified by AFSC Investigate include General Dynamics, General Electric, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Rolls Royce, amounting to more than $350M.

Additionally, CDPQ is invested in companies on World Beyond War’s Canada : Stop Arming Israel list but not in the UN Database or identified by AFSC Investigate:

The CDPQ has more than $1 billion of investments in military and weapons manufacturing companies that are complicit in war crimes and perhaps genocide.

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In Summary

In total, the CDPQ holds $14.232 billion of investments in companies that are complicit in war crimes and a number of these investments are associated with arms and weapons exported to Israel and possibly used in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The CDPQ Board and its senior executives should know that the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians Legal Working Group for Canadian Accountability (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 natural persons. The latter makes it an offence to aid, abet or otherwise assist in the commission of war crimes and the crime of genocide.

The CDPQ needs to take seriously the problem with their investments in companies complicit in war crimes and potentially supporting genocide.

We renew the call we have been making for the last three years for the CDPQ:

• To divest from companies in the UN database, WSP Global and companies identified by AFSC Investigate as complicit in the Israeli occupation,

• To review its portfolios for any other investments that are in violation of international law, and

• To put in place a transparent process to ensure that companies are vetted for violations of human rights and international law.

The concerns raised are also in the broader context of ethical investment related to Quebec’s public fund investments including in mining, fossil fuels, private health care and other issues of justice and humanitarian concern.

We ask the CDPQ to take all steps necessary to ensure that the activities of all companies included in its portfolio are in compliance with international law.

We remind the CDPQ that, in Canada, parties that are complicit in war crimes, including corporations, are liable to criminal prosecution under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

Initiated by:

Palestinian and Jewish Unity

The Canadian BDS Coalition

Just Peace Advocates