Adding your name to this petition indicates that you agree with the following statement.
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We, the undersigned Victoria University students and community members, call on the Victoria University Board of Regents to divest the University’s holdings in fossil fuel companies. We call on the Board to announce its intent to cease any new investment in the fossil fuel industry, whether in revenue-producing properties or marketable securities, and to divest these same holdings from the 200 companies with the largest fossil fuel reserves.
The evidence is incontrovertible: fossil fuel corporations have no place in our society given their historical and contemporary perpetration of environmental, social, and bodily harm. There is now no way to pretend that continuing to invest in fossil fuel corporations is in line with the spirit of related international decisions; supporting these companies in any way is inconsistent with the commitment to keep global warming under 2°C [1] or to recognizing the rights of the Indigenous and other marginalized peoples whose lands are stolen for and poisoned by, fossil fuel extraction, and who have and continue to resist such extraction [2].
Our society can no longer rely on ‘business as usual’ strategies to resolve the climate crisis, and disrupting the status quo must begin with decisive action on the part of our society’s most prominent cultural and knowledge-producing institutions, such as universities. Moreover, greenwashed solutions such as Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors and net zero commitments amount to nothing more than empty promises due to their failure to address the root causes of the climate crisis.
In light of UofT's recent announcement to divest its endowment from fossil fuels by 2030 [3], Victoria University's silence on its own endowment is inexcusable and disgraceful. A growing collection of internationally-renowned universities have signaled their intent to divest from fossil fuels―most notably Harvard, UBC, and half of all UK universities [4]―and UofT’s decision to divest has already been followed by commitments from other Canadian universities [5]. Victoria University cannot be an exception to this rapidly developing rule of divestment, and continued inaction on this issue will only serve to demonstrate that Vic is falling further and further behind the times. Most notably, no other federated college at UofT has thus far indicated an intention to divest. Divesting Vic would set the stage for St. Michael’s and Trinity Colleges to do the same, and strengthen Vic’s reputation as one of UofT’s and Canada’s most forward-thinking academic institutions.
Ultimately, the refusal to divest is incongruous with the ideals of higher education and in violation of the Board of Regent’s fiduciary duty to secure safe, healthy, and peaceful futures for Vic’s community members amidst the climate crisis. We strongly urge the Board of Regents to act swiftly and decisively on fossil fuel divestment.
Authors:
Leila Tjiang ‘22, Board of Regents Member
Jerico Raguindin '23, Board of Regents Member, VUSAC President
Liam Sinclair-Thompson ‘23, Board of Regents Member
Cam Miranda-Radbord ‘25, Board of Regents Member, VUSAC Equity Commissioner
Zoe Lazaris ‘23, Board of Regents Member
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Any questions can be directed to erin.mackey@mail.utoronto.ca
*** This statement borrows language from a 2018 petition with the permission of the original authors (
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dxt5FLSp7zV3UJW1soVCPI1IoRs6XSriOAO32vSJLvo/edit?usp=sharing)
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[1]
https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement[2]
https://www.ienearth.org/indigenous-resistance-against-carbon/,
https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/12/20/One-Month-After-Arrests-Wetsuweten-Return-Block-Pipeline/[3]
https://www.utoronto.ca/news/u-t-divest-fossil-fuel-investments-create-climate-positive-campus[4]
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/02/opinion/divestment-fossil-fuels-harvard.html,
https://news.ubc.ca/2019/12/05/ubc-declares-climate-emergency-and-moves-forward-on-two-key-divestment-initiatives/,
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/13/half-of-uk-universities-have-committed-to-divest-from-fossil-fuel[5]
https://www.divestcanada.ca/successes/