Letter: Vote Yes for Divest

LettersEamon Toohey — Published November 8, 2016

Or that this industry is responsible for ravaging our planet’s climate, putting indigenous and marginalized peoples in a position that can only be described as environmental racism? How about that Concordia’s investments make us responsible for these effects?

For all the administration’s talk of becoming a next-generation university, our investment principles are still stuck in the past. The pre-composting, lead paint, climate-denying past. Fossil fuels are going the way of the dinosaurs they’re made from – they’re getting scarcer and less profitable by the day. Soon, they’ll be no different from the coal industry they replaced. Just look at the returns on Concordia’s investments; the trial-period divested funds have done exceptionally well, while the past two years have seen our fossil fuel investments flounder.

But besides the economics of it, our fossil fuel investments are unethical. The fossil fuel industry is responsible for dramatically rising cancer rates among indigenous populations, and forces them off the paltry land they still hold stewardship over. The Dakota Access Pipeline was rerouted with blatant disregard for the Standing Rock Sioux – if we know fossil fuels are too dangerous for our communities, why are they any less dangerous for First Nations communities? They’re killing our planet, our environment, and actual human beings.

As long as Concordia keeps its investments in dirty energy, the university has blood on its hands. And no amount of proxy voting or entryism is going to change that. Join Divest Concordia in demanding our investments be removed from the fossil fuel industry and be redirected towards a renewable future!

—Eamon Toohey