Calling on McGill University to do better on climate crisis mitigation
By Divest McGill
The climate crisis is one of the most pressing public health and social justice issues in modern society. Climate change is already threatening the health and safety of people around the world, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities and exacerbating existing inequalities. A recent IPCC report has named fossil fuels as one of the major sources of emissions fuelling this crisis. Current and planned fossil fuel projects are already too much for the climate to handle in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius, after which there will be disastrous consequences. Without immediate action, this goal could become unreachable.
Divest McGill, along with many students, staff, and community members, is concerned that McGill University is not doing its part to mitigate this crisis. As of January 2020, the university holds around $32 million in fossil fuel investments. This includes almost $3.5 million invested in TC Energy Corp, the company responsible for the Coastal Gas Link (CGL) pipeline crossing through sovereign and unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. This project has sparked strong resistance from the Indigenous nation whose territory it will cross through as the decision was made without their consent, and would destroy the land for future generations. Indigenous land defenders and their allies have been met with brutal police repression, yet McGill continues to fund TC Energy.
McGill profiting off of settler colonialism is far from new. The university is founded on wealth built through the slave trade and colonial enterprise, including the wealth of James McGill, who enslaved at least five African and Indigenous people, two of whom were children who died at the age of ten. McGill was also saved from bankruptcy in 1847 by taking money from the Six Nations Trust Fund, and has yet to repay that debt, which is worth about $1.7 billion today.
Divest McGill is a student advocacy group that began in 2012 “calling on McGill University to acknowledge and address the urgency of the climate crisis by withdrawing the direct (segregated) investments of its endowment fund from the fossil fuel industry”. Our work follows the Just Transition framework, a bottom-up transition to a regenerative economy that prioritizes justice for marginalized groups and overturning existing power imbalances. The Divest movement is largely inspired by student movements to divest from South African apartheid in the 1980s. Thanks to student activism, McGill became the first Canadian university to divest from apartheid in 1985.
Since our inception, we have tried for years to obtain change through the Board of Governors channels, by giving presentations, filing reports, making petitions, organizing rallies, and even hosting a diploma-return ceremony. The Board of Governors is composed of senior executives from the Bank of Montreal (BMO), Power Corporation of Canada, the National Bank of Canada, Metro, Inc., HSBC Bank Canada, and Redbourne Properties Inc. As they represent the largest voting bloc, it’s no surprise that the university has repeatedly refused calls to divest from fossil fuels. Elected members from the McGill Community face obstacles when attempting to make changes that go against the Board’s wishes, causing several members to resign in protest, including Professors Ehab Lotayef, Darin Barney, and Derek Nystrom. There is also a concerning lack of transparency surrounding the board’s meetings and inner processes. This undemocratic nature makes it hard for students to have their concerns listened to.
In response to the Board’s failures to divest from fossil fuels, Divest decided to occupy the McCall MacBain Arts Building on the institution’s downtown campus. The main priority of this action was not to make demands to the administration, but rather to engage students, staff, faculty, and community members in our movement. As stated in our manifesto available on our website, we aimed to “create a festive, autonomous space for learning” and enact the changes we are fighting for. Throughout the two-week-long occupation, we hosted regular teach-ins, reading groups, and discussion sessions to build community and provide meaningful education to participants. We also hosted regular general assemblies to demonstrate what a democratically-led university community could look like in contrast to the current Board of Governors (McGill Board of Governors is currently not democratically elected).
“This space is an opportunity for us to engage in meaningful conversations with other members of our community, listen to the struggles they are facing, build trust and relationships, and organize together to change the functioning of the University," explains an anonymous participant.
We would like the McGill Administration to immediately divest from TC Energy, divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies by carbon-reserve, which may only be achieved through a change in governance structures. Over twelve Canadian universities, including the other major Montreal universities (Concordia, UQAM, Université de Montréal), have already committed to divestment from fossil fuels, and it’s past time for McGill to follow suit. Climate change is already a serious public health problem, and it is urgent to act now in order to prevent further harm. By continuing to support this industry, McGill’s actions are exacerbating the climate crisis and funding the violation of Indigenous sovereignty over their land which they have taken care of since time immemorial. Due to the undemocratic nature of the Board of Governors, students are not able to control where the thousands of dollars they pay the university annually are going. A democratic governance structure would give the students and community more say in where their money is going, and allow McGill to invest in areas that would benefit the community, not fossil fuel executives.
As outlined above, we are in a state of climate emergency. Frontline communities around the world are currently experiencing its disastrous effects compounded with repression when trying to defend their lands. Experts are saying that averting this crisis will require a drastic change in lifestyle and a pivot away from one of the most polluting industries: fossil fuels. Despite all of this, McGill continues to invest in the industry, supporting this ecological destruction and police brutality against Indigenous land defenders and their allies.
Many major Canadian universities have already committed to it, and doing so would send a powerful message to other institutions. Even if this were purely a “symbolic gesture”, as principal Suzanne Fortier puts it, it would be meaningful for McGill, as one of Canada’s top universities, to demonstrate a strong stance against the fossil fuel industry by acknowledging the social and ecological harm it causes and ceasing to invest in it. Divestment is not idealistic or performative, but rather a necessary step towards the Just Transition needed to prevent climate disaster while fighting for justice for marginalized people.
About the Author:
A member of the Divest McGill community together with the support of the Divest McGill wrote this for the McGill Global Health Perspectives.
You can learn more about Divest McGill here: https://www.divestmcgill.ca/