After a summer of rallies and protests, Wilfrid Laurier University disclosed a portion of their investment portfolio back in August.
Of these investments, Expedia, Siemens and Airbus, three companies under the capital market company, Boston Parners Global Investors, work with companies that fund Israel. While Laurier has now done a partial disclosure of their investments, they have yet to disclose the companies they invest in under CBRE Global Alpha Feeder Fund, IFM Global Infrastructure and the JF Global Equity Fund.
“We want a full disclosure. They’ve only given us a partial one, and we’re still working on getting the school to give us a full disclosure of their investments in Israel,” said Sarah Keddin, the director of outreach for the Middle Eastern Students’ Association at Laurier (MESA).
The PJC asks that Laurier takes steps to divest and boycott any companies that are found to have contributed to the ongoing killing of the Palestinian people.
“Both UW and Laurier put on an ethical facade and they pretend to care about moral values. They both claim to support decolonization and Indigenization,” said Nancy, the president of the PJC, who did not wish for her last name to be disclosed. “Yet they are both invested in companies that materially benefit from the genocide and the illegal occupation of Palestine.”
During the months of May and June, Nancy and Keddin, the vice-president of the PJC at the time, met with Provost and Vice-President of Laurier Heidi Northwood to discuss the disclosure of Laurier’s investment portfolio.
“[We asked for the] disclosure of investments because we are the students and the money that they invest mostly comes from our tuition money. So, as students, we have the right to know where our tuition money is going and where the money is being invested,” Nancy said.
Nancy said that the PJC believes the Laurier administration chose to disclose some of their investments due to rallies across Waterloo and Brantford that highlighted the frustration Laurier students felt towards the university’s continual silence.
“I wouldn’t say it’s because, you know, the kindness of their heart, but because they did feel the pressure from the Laurier student community, from both campuses, and from the UW campus, because Laurier students also were a part of the UW encampment as well,” Nancy said.
As of March 31, Laurier invests $184.1 million with Boston Partners Global Investors. Under this investment portfolio, the school invests around $128.8 thousand in the travel company, Expedia, $3.68 million in the technology company, Siemens and $2.9 million in the travel company, Airbus.
Expedia contributes to the continued occupation of Palestine through their choice to list accommodations that reside on land stolen from Palestinians without disclosing that they reside on Israeli settlements. This resulted in the United Nations Human Rights Council in their database of companies involved in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) on June 30, 2023.
Siemens has contributed through their in 2018 to supply 330 electric cars to the Israel Railways electrification project that crossed into the occupied west bank. On Oct. 6, 2022, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) called for a boycott EuroAsia Interconnector and their complicity in Israel’s apartheid and settler colonialism through business with Israeli authorities in transport, traffic and population control.
In 2018, with the Israel Aerospace Industries to provide them with drones to survey Palestinians. Further, Airbus was discovered to have attempted to secure export licenses to provide Israel with weapons and technology from 2008 to 2021.
After being asked for an interview regarding Laurier’s current investments, Boston Partners said in an email to The Cord, that Laurer chose in June to enhance its responsible investing practices and disclose, on an annual basis, its investments on the holdings level where applicable.
