WHEREAS the University Pension Plan (UPP) was intentionally designed to “give plan members an equal voice in plan management” and provide more “member control over the future direction and outcomes of their pensions”;

AND WHEREAS the UPP has articulated its “responsibility to promote the health of capital markets and the financial, social, and environmental systems on which capital markets rely” as a core investment belief;

AND WHEREAS the UPP has operationalized that belief in part through its Responsible Investment and Investment Exclusion policies, the latter of which currently excludes direct and indirect investments in entities producing certain kinds of weapons prohibited by treaties to which Canada is a party, and in entities causing or contributing to adverse social impacts that are sufficiently egregious; 

AND WHEREAS the UPP voluntarily excluded all direct and indirect investments in entities domiciled in Russia within three weeks of that country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, stating that “breaches of international law have no place in UPP’s portfolio”;

AND WHEREAS the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) has highlighted the benefits of a jointly sponsored pension plan in terms of greater member input and transparency from our first deliberations in 2018 over joining the UPP; 

AND WHEREAS UTFA has a particular stewardship obligation as the only labour group at the University of Toronto (UofT) with its own permanent seat on UPP’s Employee Sponsor Committee; 

AND WHEREAS UTFA has exercised this stewardship obligation in part by passing a similar resolution in February 2024 calling on the UPP to implement an immediate screen on any new investments in oil and gas and to announce a rapid timeline for complete divestment from the oil and gas industry so as to align the UPP with the obligations laid out in Investing to Address Climate Change: A Charter for Canadian Universities;

AND WHEREAS the International Court of Justice issued a Court Order on January 26, 2024, concluding that Palestinians in Gaza had plausible rights to protection from genocide and that Israel’s military operations in Gaza pose a real and imminent risk of irreparable prejudice to those rights; 

AND WHEREAS the International Court of Justice issued an Advisory Opinion on July 19, 2024 concluding that Israel’s policies and practices towards the Occupied Palestinian Territory violate several peremptory norms and fundamental principles of international law and render Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful, and further concluded that all States are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and that all States are also under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;

AND WHEREAS to implement that Advisory Opinion, on September 18, 2024, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution urging States to refrain from recognizing Israel’s presence in the Territory as lawful and to ensure that they do not provide aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the occupation, to take measures to prevent their nationals, companies, and entities under their jurisdiction from engaging in activities that support or sustain Israel’s illegal occupation, and to halt the transfer of arms, munitions, and related equipment to Israel in cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;

AND WHEREAS other UPP Plan Members – including United Steel Workers Local 1998 and Canadian Union of Public Employees Locals 1230 and 3902 at UofT and the Trent University Faculty Association – have passed resolutions calling on the UPP (1) to implement an immediate screen on any new investments in military industries in general and from companies supplying the Israeli military specifically and announce a rapid timeline for complete divestment from them; (2) to implement an immediate screen on any new investments in, and announce a rapid timeline for complete divestment from, entities engaged in activities that support or sustain Israel’s illegal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and those that support or sustain an illegal occupation of any other territory;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that, consistent with (a) UPP’s current exclusion of direct and indirect investments in entities producing certain kinds of weapons prohibited by treaties to which Canada is a party, in all entities domiciled in Russia, and in entities causing or contributing to adverse social impacts that are sufficiently egregious (see Investment Exclusion, p. 8); and (b) UPP’s statement that “breaches of international law have no place in UPP’s portfolio”, UTFA call on the UPP to

1. Announce and implement an immediate screen on any new investments in, and a rapid timeline for complete divestment from, all direct and indirect holdings in entities that manufacture or distribute arms, ammunition, implements or munitions of war, where there are reasonable grounds to suspect they may be used by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and elsewhere where they could be used to commit or facilitate

– a serious violation of international humanitarian law, a serious violation of international human rights law,
– an act constituting an offence under international conventions or protocols relating to terrorism to which Canada is a party,
– an act constituting an offence under international conventions or protocols relating to transnational organized crime to which Canada is a party, or
– serious acts of gender-based violence or serious acts of violence against women and children;

2. Announce and implement an immediate screen on any new investments in, and a rapid timeline for complete divestment from, all direct and indirect holdings in entities engaged in activities that support or sustain Israel’s illegal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and those that support or sustain an illegal occupation of any other territory, including Russia’s occupation of the Crimean peninsula; and

3. Incorporate these divestment commitments into its Investment Exclusion policy; 

And it is further RESOLVED that UTFA

4. Direct its representative on the UPP Employee Sponsor Committee to advocate for this resolution within the UPP and provide regular updates to Council and Executive members on the status of its implementation.