Hundreds of UBC students gathered outside of the Nest on Friday afternoon at a march led by the UBC Social Justice Centre (SJC) and the Divestment Coalition.
The march was organized as a call for UBC to divest from companies that are complicit in human rights violations.
Students, professors and UBC alumni gave speeches outside of the Nest before moving to the Koerner Library, where UBC Interim President Deborah Buszard’s office is located.
The attendees of the event were animated and energized, shouting chants like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” A giant inflatable gorilla was stationed outside the Nest where the march began. It was equipped with its own sign: “Solidarity to land defenders everywhere.”
Matthew Cheesman, a third-year UBC student and organizer with the Divestment Coalition, named Lockheed Martin, Teck Resources Limited and Pan-American Silver as some of the most troublesome of UBC’s investments during an interview with The Ubyssey.
“The most obvious, and perhaps most egregious, is Lockheed Martin,” Cheesman said. “They manufacture attack helicopters and F-16s. A university, of all places, has no business investing in a company that sells weapons explicitly for death.”
Mariam Abdelaziz is a fourth-year UBC student, chair of the SJC and founder of the Divestment Coaltion. She, along with Cheesman, helped organize the march.
“As it stands, UBC does not have a human rights criteria for its investments,” Abdelaziz said. “UBC is investing in companies that are complicit in Israeli apartheid, companies that dispossess Indigenous land defenders and companies which manufacture weapons of war. We will not sit idly while our university funds colonial violence, environmental destruction and oppression.”
UBC currently has a Responsible Investing Strategy that focuses on environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles, which was endorsed by the Board of Governors in 2020.
Fourth-year literature student Alejandro Herrera, who joined in on the march, said he hopes that UBC Investment Management (IMANT) “implement humanitarian criteria for their investments.”
In a written statement to The Ubyssey, UBC Treasurer Yale Loh stated that UBC IMANT “invests in pooled funds and selects external fund managers based on criteria including risk, rate of return, and adherence to environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles.”
Loh said the university is “aware of some community concerns around specific investments” and that university officials are “constantly considering” how to better incorporate their ESG beliefs. He noted that such consideration must be done “in conjunction with financial returns and risks on investments.”
Abdelaziz mentioned the need for productive communication between UBC IMANT, the SJC and the Divestment Coalition.
“This is a conversation we’ve been trying to start with them for several years,” she said.
Cheesman said he hoped collaboration would lead to the creation of a test portfolio where the Board of Governors would “begin the process of telling their fund managers to draw up plans to divest from human rights-abusing companies.”
In 2019, student activists were able to pressure the university to start divesting from fossil fuel companies. Now, UBC IMANT has pledged to fully divest from fossil fuel companies by 2030 or sooner.
Cheesman and Abdelaziz said the pledged fossil fuel divestment is not enough. They maintain that the SJC and Divestment Coaltion’s vision for change is holistic and intersectional.
“We care about Israeli apartheid, we care about land defenders in Latin America and the Philippines,” Abdelaziz said. “The Board of Governors cannot separate these issues and act as if they’re distinct.”
Canadian documentary filmmaker and UBC climate justice Professor Avi Lewis spoke on the financial implications of irresponsible investing at the march.
“It’s the money that is at the source of this crisis,” he said. “We need to follow the money through the blood to justice.”
“It’s really inspiring to see so many students coming together to send a clear message,” Abdelaziz said. “And our message is for the UBC Board of Governors: we will not sanction violence through your investments.”
This article was updated at 12:22 p.m. on Monday, March 27 to update Matthew Cheesman and Mariam Abdelaziz's titles.