IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2026
As Israel continues to escalate its violence across occupied Palestine and Lebanon, Canada continues to fund its crimes. This groundbreaking report, analyzing investment data from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), exposes the complicity of more than 100 Canadian financial institutions. This includes 11 pensions, 8 banks, 7 insurers, and 85 investment managers. Each of these financial actors play a significant role in Canada’s own settler colonial project, as well as the exploitation and colonization of lands and peoples globally.
Using five main sources (Who Profits, AFSC Investigate, UN Database, Canada Stop Arming Israel hosted by World Beyond War, and Don’t Buy Into Occupation), we identified investments in companies participating, broadly, in seven types of activities:
- weapons manufacturing / supply and/or military support
- security services or supplies
- construction equipment, materials, or services for the demolition/destruction of occupied land/property
- services or utilities that support settlement maintenance
- exploitation of natural resources
- providing banking / financial operations or support
- surveillance / identification equipment, materials, or support
Pensions: In total, we identified over $78 billion USD of complicit investments from Canadian public-sector pension plans.
| AIMCo | Alberta Investment Management Corporation | $608,782,009 |
| BCI | British Columbia Investment Management Corporation | $4,345,607,001 |
| HOOPP | Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan | $8,830,502,291 |
| IMCO | Investment Management Corporation of Ontario | $2,141,981,469 |
| PSPIB | Public Service Pension Investment Board | $7,988,507,878 |
| OMERS | Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System | $3,425,202,996 |
| OTPP | Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan | $291,742,046 |
| CPPIB | Canada Pension Plan Investment Board | $36,350,609,125 |
| CDPQ | La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec | $13,545,029,147 |
| CPCPP | Canada Post Corporation Pension Plan | $826,073,963 |
| Vestcor | (Owned by the New Brunswick Public Service Pension and New Brunswick Teachers Pension) | $623,949 |
| Total | $78,354,661,874 |
Banks: In total, we identified over $294 billion USD of complicit investments from Canadian banking institutions.
| BMO | Bank of Montreal | $57,879,902,388 |
| RBC | Royal Bank of Canada | $108,306,650,000 |
| CIBC | Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce | $21,171,126,201 |
| BNS | Bank of Nova Scotia or Scotiabank | $34,319,213,156 |
| TD Bank | Toronto Dominion Bank | $42,915,091,676 |
| Desjardins | Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec | $3,515,300,321 |
| Vancity | Vancity Credit Union | $219,923 |
| NBC | National Bank of Canada | $26,530,775,384 |
| Total | $294,638,279,049 |
Insurers: In total, we identified over $91 billion USD of complicit investments from Canadian insurance companies.
| Manulife | $23,928,177,582 |
| Canada Life | $16,158,564 |
| Allstate | $1,508,805,460 |
| Empire Life | $493,432,013 |
| Intact | $237,303,336 |
| Sun Life | $65,561,788,127 |
| Fairfax | $30,577,233 |
| Total | $91,776,242,315 |
Other investment managers: In total, we identified $61.2 billion USD of complicit investments from other Canadian investment managers.
The complicit companies include notorious weapons manufacturers like Elbit Systems and Lockheed Martin, Canadian suppliers such as CAE and BRP, and commonly known companies like General Electric and PayPal.
The Canadian financial sector is complicit in the ongoing violations of international law by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and occupied Syrian Golan (oSG) through a variety of institutional practices and policies, as well as through their direct investments. These actions and omissions contravene international law, including those articulated in the 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion.
International humanitarian law (IHL) is binding on all actors where activity is closely linked to armed conflict, including business enterprises, even if they don’t take part in active hostilities. Investment managers who make investments in war-crimes-complicit companies are either wilfully blind or recklessly indifferent to the effect of their investments regarding war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ‘plausible’ genocide.
Read the full report: Divesting from Israeli Occupation, Apartheid, and Genocide
Quotes:
“It can be dizzying to grasp just how many Canadian institutions have been complicit in a system designed to surveil, oppress, maim and murder Palestinians. This report handily breaks down the many different ways our financial system have bankrolled and profited from Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign, and serves as an invaluable roadmap to anyone seeking to finally disentangle ourselves from it.” — Michael DeForge, member of the No Arms in the Arts campaign
“This report shows that HOOPP exited five weapons manufacturers over the course of 2025 (Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Palantir, and Textron) representing holdings that exceeded $258 million USD at their peak. We brought these issues to HOOPPs attention and now the companies are not listed on their SEC disclosure. We are continuously monitoring their disclosures and have improved our ability to audit their positions. We also note that HOOPPs complicit investments also increased over 2025 from $7.5 billion to over $8.8 billion USD. Our next step is to engage HOOPP on the 4 companies listed on the UN database. Healthcare workers’ retirement savings should not be funding the destruction of healthcare systems. We will keep pushing!” — Nour E., “HOOPP Divest Now” Campaign Lead, Ottawa Healthcare Professionals for Palestine (OHCP4P)
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. Our analysis is limited to the public disclosure required by the US SEC. Not all financial institutions are forced to disclose, and not all companies must be listed on the investment statements. For example, investments in companies that are only listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, like the Canadian company Héroux-Devtek, will not appear on quarterly SEC filings. This also means Israeli companies not listed / registered under US security laws, such as Israeli banks, will not be included in this analysis. Therefore, the figures represented in this report are likely largely underestimated.” — Becca Steckle, Research + Policy Analyst at Just Peace Advocates
Contact
Just Peace Advocates, info@justpeaceadvocates.ca
