Approximately $115 million of McGill University’s $1.9 billion endowment fund is invested in 111 companies or entities complicit in the Uyghur genocide. These companies span 18 industries and various levels of complicity, from direct investments in companies utilizing forced labour programs as well as other practices that aid in the genocide, including surveillance technology, technology that assists in the detainment of Uyghurs in East Turkestan (Xinjiang), and funding of the CCP directly through investments in Chinese government bonds.

We found 673 separate investments in these companies. Of the worst offenders, 15 are partnered with the XPCC (Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a paramilitary corporate conglomerate sanctioned by Canada, designed to suppress and colonize the Indigenous people of the Uyghur Region), 7 are reported to have participated in labour transfers (the CCP's name for a policy of using Uyghur slave labour), 8 are reported to be involved with surveillance in the XUAR region, and 6 companies appear on U.S. sanctions lists.

Jinko Solar and Zijin Mining are two companies complicit in Uyghur forced labour within the XUAR that McGill invests in. Jinko Solar publicly accepts "surplus labor transfers." It also invested 3 billion yuan in an industrial park that has an internment camp and a high security prison a short walk from their headquarters. They are partnered with the XPCC. They are also linked to another company on this list, Daqo New Energy, which does not participate in labour transfers, but is partnered with the XPCC, buys raw materials from companies likely tainted with Uyghur forced labour, and sells polysilicon to a number of solar panel companies, also likely or certainly tainted with Uyghur forced labour, including Jinko Solar. Zijin Mining’s participation in labour transfer programs is also well-documented.

Two of the technology companies involved in surveillance which McGill invests in are Alibaba, which sold cloud computing technology to the Xinjiang government for surveillance; and Tencent, which helps operate “smart prisons” in Xinjiang.

There are many more examples.

Currently, McGill's Investment Policy states it is committed to incorporating ESG factors into their investment process. Yet they also state that in 2021-2022, China equities were segregated from emerging market equities and a “China specialist fund manager” was hired, to better manage “the nuances of investing in China with experienced and locally based investment professionals, [expanding] the China opportunity set that is expected to improve the Endowment Fund investments’ diversification and alpha potential.”

If McGill has at its disposal this kind of oversight for Chinese investments, surely it can do better to ensure ESG factors are being upheld, even when Chinese investments are lucrative and have "alpha potential."

McGill's complicity is our complicity as McGill students. Our tuition dollars make up this endowment fund. We cannot allow McGill to continue pouring our money into aiding an ongoing genocide. 

On January 12, McGill's SSMU is holding a General Assembly. We want this issue to be addressed at that meeting, and to hold a vote there on divestment. If you are in favour of this discussion, please sign this petition so we can put this important issue on the meeting's agenda. We need 100 signatures FILLED OUT HERE: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_c_IkZbjPRPBPCn5CsR0RAtJoExcBEf8EfsuxUvsGqs/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you all.