Students demand UBC divest from companies complicit in human rights violations, call for AMS support

On September 19, Student Strike for Palestine UBC held a rally inside the Nest to demand UBC divest from companies organizers say are complicit in human rights violations against Palestinians.

A Student Strike organizer said during the rally that UBC has ignored student calls to divest and condemn the genocide in Gaza. According to a United Nations-appointed independent expert, there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

“We will not be ignored anymore. We have to escalate. We have to do what hits UBC where it hurts. We have to hit their money. We have to do a student strike,” said the organizer.

Students, including encampment organizers People’s University UBC, have previously advocated for UBC to divest from companies complicit in human rights violations.

In 2022, UBC rejected calls from student groups such as the AMS, Students for Palestinian Human Rights and the UBC Social Justice Centre to divest from companies complicit in Palestinian human rights violations and to endorse the boycott, divest, sanction (BDS) movement.

In a December 2023 statement and on May 28 at a House of Commons standing committee meeting, UBC President Benoit-Antoine Bacon reaffirmed UBC does not support BDS.

In May, Bacon said UBC’s endowment “does not directly own any stocks in the companies identified by the movement.” Instead, “capital is held in pooled funds and managed by external investment managers.”

UBC president says endowment fund doesn’t ‘directly own’ stocks targeted by divestment demands

Bacon also said UBC is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment, a United Nations-supported framework of principles that set a responsible investing standard, and that the university’s investment managers adjust their investment strategies based on environmental, social and governance principles.

UBC denied The Ubyssey’s request for comment regarding this protest.

Student Strike organizers called on the AMS to support the student strike during the rally. Since 2022, the AMS has not commented on Palestinian solidarity or BDS.

Since the rally, the AMS has not released a public statement regarding the strike or campus Palestinian solidarity movements. The AMS also did not respond to The Ubyssey’s multiple requests for comment by press time.

“Palestine and all these issues feel very far away … They’re literally on the other side of the world, but our money here is going directly to companies that fund a genocide,” said UBC student Skyler Sauer.

Sauer said students can affect change that impacts Palestine while at UBC because “these arms don’t come from nowhere.”

“You don’t get a bomb for free. Nobody’s handing them out. You have to pay for them with billions and billions of dollars, and those dollars come from the US government, from the Canadian government and lots of other governments and investments,” said Sauer.