Pro-Palestinian rally outside Quebec pension fund offices as Victoria Square encampment enters 12th day

Pro-Palestinian protesters who set up an encampment at Montreal’s Victoria Square last month rallied in front of the offices of Quebec’s pension fund Wednesday afternoon.

The protesters have been asking the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) to cut ties with Israeli institutions it accuses of being complicit in the war between Israel and Hamas. The group wants to meet with CDPQ president and CEO Charles Emond to discuss their demands.

“When people learn what their money is being invested on, they are shocked and they want to protest against that,” said Benoît Allard from the Divest for Palestine Collective, one of the encampment organizers.

Protesters are also calling for the Quebec government to shut its office in Tel Aviv.

So far communication between the parties has been almost non-existent. The Divest for Palestine Collective says the “silence” by the CDPQ and CAQ government is “appalling.”

“Really, we’re waiting for a real answer that really addresses the demands we’ve been expressing so far,” Allard said.

Prior to the rally, the front entrance of the CDPQ was vandalized with red and black paint. The Divest for Palestine Collective says it wasn’t involved, but adds it understands the frustration of those who committed the act.

In a statement first sent to CityNews last week, and again on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the CDPQ says the pension fund is “not making any new investments in a war zone until further notice.”

“Our direct exposure to Israel represents less than 0.1% of our portfolio.”

According to the statement, the CDPQ has $5 billion invested in companies like WSP and Alstom.

“Alstom has assured us that it has no ongoing activities within or in relation to Israeli settlements in the disputed Palestinian territories and has formally requested to be removed from the United Nations list; and WSP holds a contract inherited from an acquisition which aims to ensure quality control of a transport project,” the statement reads.

Montreal firm works on Jerusalem transit system

The Divest for Palestine Collective accuses WSP, a Montreal-based project management firm, of contributing to the “maintenance of the Israeli colonies in East Jerusalem” because it designed the Jerusalem light metro system.

In an email to CityNews, WSP says it was hired as a technical consultant to “review and monitor the engineering work” for the Jerusalem light rail transit system.

“This project serves to meet the transportation and movement needs of the region’s inhabitants, and we are engaged to ensure its quality,” the company said. “In all of our global operations, we consider the wider community’s concerns and address those concerns to the best of our abilities. We respect human rights throughout our operations and reassess situations as required to ensure our operations remain in line with our values and ethical principles.”

“It’s supervising an expansion of a project linking illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, which is against international law, but for the CDPQ it’s not a big deal,” Allard told CityNews.

The CDPQ’s other investments, it says, are with multinationals like Expedia, Airbnb or Alphabet. The CDPQ adds it “expect(s) them to adhere to the highest standards wherever they operate.

“CDPQ ensures at all times that it complies with its legal obligations and international standards in all jurisdictions where it operates.”

The Divest for Palestine Collective maintains the CDPQ has $14.2 billion invested in 87 companies “complicit in Israeli occupation.” That figure comes from a year-end report published by the CDPQ in 2023.

“The CDPQ talks about its investments in Israel, but we are not talking about investments in Israel specifically,” Allard explained. “We are talking about investments in all companies complicit in the ongoing occupation in Palestine. Also, they are minimizing their involvement.”

Victoria Square camp approaches 3rd week

The “Al-Sumud People’s Encampment,” the first such camp in a public space in Montreal, went up June 22 at Victoria Square. Similar camps went up on the grounds of McGill University and UQAM, with the latter having since been dismantled.

The SPVM and the City of Montreal say they are continuing to monitor the Victoria Square encampment and the protesters there.

Police officers intervened last Monday after some protesters tried to topple the Queen Victoria statue. They were also present the following day during a counter-protest.

“People are justifiably angry,” Allard said. “We are going to stay here until out demands are met.”

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said last week the SPVM is watching to make sure nothing gets out of hand.

“They’re making sure that it’s being done in a proper way, and any type of anti-Semitism or Islamophobia or discrimination is not accepted in Montreal,” Plante said.

–With files from Swidda Rassy