October 2025 update:
After nearly two years of pressure from authors and book
workers, the Giller Prize has ended its partnership with Scotiabank, but it is
unclear who is funding the 2025 prize, whether the Giller Prize’s partnership
with the Azrieli Foundation will end after 2025, and whether its in-kind
partnership from Indigo Books has ended. To date, Giller Executive Director
Elana Rabinovitch has only given vague and indirect statements to the media and
the public regarding these funders.
In addition to the Azrieli Foundation, this year’s prize and
gala is funded through what Rabinovitch has called “anonymous donors,"
which raises serious concerns of transparency and accountability.
We will continue to boycott until it is clear
the Giller has severed ties with Indigo Books, the Azrieli Foundation, and all
organizations complicit in genocide as sponsor.It has been over one year and one month since Israel began its genocide of Palestinians. While the United Nations reports the number of Palestinians murdered as 43,000, medical journal The Lancet has projected that a more accurate number is likely closer to 180,000 when taking into account those buried under the rubble, and deaths caused by famine, disease, and the destruction of infrastructure. Israel has bombed hospitals, schools, and apartments with impunity, and have escalated their attacks into Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran.
Yet the Giller Prize remains complicit in artwashing by allowing sponsors like Scotiabank, Indigo and the Azrieli Foundation to use Canadian literature to obscure their participation in genocide.
Authors and readers have spent a year demanding the Giller cut its ties to these corporations, and the Giller Foundation responded by doubling down on its commitment to Scotiabank. Reporting from The Walrus revealed that the Foundation silenced authors participating in Giller events from speaking about Palestine, and that Giller organizers had a direct hand in pushing the criminal charges of the protestors who disrupted the Prize’s 2023 broadcast. The Foundation’s executive director has since taken to e-mails and social media to harass and disparage authors criticizing these partnerships.
In July, dozens of authors withdrew their books from consideration for this year’s prize, and past Giller nominees and winners pledged to withhold participation from Giller programming and publicity.
As a result of this boycott, Scotiabank’s made a (still partial) $400 million divestment from Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems’ own CEO also cited this nationwide organizing as the reason for the company's share price dropping by 10%. This organizing in which art workers have played a substantial and visible role has been part of the ongoing pressure placed on Scotiabank across multiple arts sectors.
As the 2024 Giller Prize is set to be announced on November 18 without any tangible action by the Giller Foundation to drop its complicit sponsors, we are expanding and extending our boycott. Now, we are calling on all Canadian authors and book workers to stand in solidarity and join the picket line — for as long as it takes until our demands are met.
We refuse to submit our books for Giller consideration, or to participate in any Giller events, promotion, or programming until the prize drops its ties to sponsors invested in the oppression of Palestinians, including Scotiabank, Indigo Books, and the Azrieli Foundation.
There’s strength in numbers, and the solidarity we’re building is the only way to create an arts community that isn’t bound to corporate blood money. This boycott is our red line in Canadian publishing. Join hundreds of authors and book workers stand against Israel’s genocide in Palestine. By acting together we can keep arms out of the arts.
Read the full list of boycotting authors and book workers here
