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Advocacy groups and labor unions are calling on La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (Caisse) to divest from dozens of companies they allege are complicit in violations of Palestinian rights.
On June 18, the Quebec Coalition URGENCE Palestine and Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement pour une paix juste released an analysis of La Caisse’s 2025 annual report, arguing that, as of Dec. 31, 2025, the pension fund had $26.4B invested in 81 companies whose activities they alleged are linked to “genocide, occupation, colonization and violations of the Palestinian people’s rights.” The groups, together with several labor unions, also sent a letter to La Caisse calling on the pension fund to immediately divest from those holdings. Together, the organizations represent approximately 488,000 workers who contribute to the Quebec Pension Plan and the Pension Plan for Employees of the Government and Public Bodies, two of La Caisse’s largest depositors.
In a response published in La Presse, Charles Emond, president and chief executive officer of La Caisse, defended the fund’s approach and said the organization is willing to meet with the signatories to discuss its investment practices.
“The concerns raised regarding the humanitarian crisis in Palestine and the role institutional investors can play are legitimate,” he said in his response. “This is a subject we are discussing with our teams, with all the necessary rigor given a situation we have repeatedly condemned. However, certain statements made about La Caisse in the letter from the CSN, the FAE and other union organizations deserve to be clarified. And the proposed solution needs to be examined more seriously.”
Emond noted that La Caisse’s direct geographic exposure to Israel represents 0.04% of its overall portfolio, or less than $250M, with the remainder held through a small number of external managers. He also said La Caisse has prohibited any new investments in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, a step he said few institutional investors have taken.
According to Emond, more than $10B of the holdings identified by the groups are concentrated in Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon. He argued that the divestment campaign makes little distinction between companies directly involved in the defense sector and multinational technology, consumer and automotive firms whose products and services are used globally, including Ford, Toyota, Coca-Cola and Meta.
“While several public fund managers hold the same securities – sometimes in much larger proportions – and while La Caisse has taken concrete steps by prohibiting any new investment in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territory, which it is among the only institutional investors in the world to have done, it is striking to see that La Caisse is also being heavily targeted,” Emond wrote.
He further argued that divesting from 81 multinational companies would require withdrawing from a substantial portion of the global economy and could hinder the fund’s ability to fulfill its mandate on behalf of Quebec pension beneficiaries. Emond also rejected comparisons with La Caisse’s decision to exit Russian assets following the invasion of Ukraine, noting that those investments were subject to Canadian government sanctions, whereas the companies targeted by the campaign are global multinationals with only a portion of their activities connected to the conflict.
While reaffirming La Caisse’s commitment to sustainable investing, Emond said the fund would continue to engage with companies through direct dialogue and shareholder voting where appropriate.
“Our approach to sustainable investment is clear: where we are a significant shareholder, we act directly and will continue to do so,” he said. “In other cases where our influence is more limited, we use the levers at our disposal – including shareholder voting – to make our expectations known and encourage companies to move in the right direction.”