Students put an end to the occupation of a hall of the University of Montreal on Saturday by singing victory.
They claim to have won the case of the university authorities, who demanded the total withdrawal of their institution’s investments from the fossil fuel sector by 2025.
They were about thirty to have set up tents in the hall of honor of the Roger-Gaudry pavilion while one of them had started a hunger strike. A petition of some 4,400 signatures was also sent to the rector and five student associations had gone on strike to demand that their establishment free itself from its portfolios of shares invested in the fossil fuel industry.
One of the spokespersons for the student group L’Écothèque announced on Saturday the university’s position in favor of divestment. A plan will be proposed by Rector Daniel Jutras by 1er June so that the university divests by 2025 of the listed shares of the fossil fuel industry that it holds directly or indirectly in its endowment fund, explained the spokesperson, Vincent Blondeau.
UdeM had not yet responded to questions from The Canadian Press on this subject, late Saturday afternoon.
UdeM’s endowment fund has $14 million invested in the oil, gas and fuel industry, publicist Geneviève Omeara said by email earlier in March.
There is no change yet on the side of the pension plan, which is managed independently, according to Mr. Blondeau. UdeM’s pension fund invests nearly $78 million in the oil and gas sector, according to Ms. Omeara’s email.
“However, the fact that the endowment fund is going to move, we think it’s going to have a knock-on effect on the pension plan, and then it’s going to [le] look bad if he doesn’t follow the rest of the institutional policy,” said student spokesperson Vincent Blondeau in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Transparency
The students also praised the transparency and communication channels that opened up as a result of their mobilization.
“We had no idea what [le fonds de dotation qui permet notamment de financer des bourses] was invested. The report was only two fairly brief pages. There, we managed to have carbon indicators that will be added to this report as well as the percentages of investments in the different sectors,” explained Mr. Blondeau.
In addition, he judges that a “direct line of communication” with the rector has been opened, whereas the students were not previously able to dialogue with the senior administration of UdeM.
Meetings will take place regularly, including one on Monday, according to a publication by L’Écothèque on social networks.
Hunger-strike
While the students were dismantling the tents at the Roger-Gaudry pavilion on Saturday noon, Vincent Blondeau felt that the hunger strike of another student, Vincent Vaslin, created a “sense of urgency in the negotiations”.
“There were occupations at McGill, at Concordia, but there was no time factor. The university could tolerate the occupation. […] Whereas we didn’t really have the choice of having a deadline. The negotiations had to succeed, because Vincent had stopped eating,” Mr. Blondeau reported.
Friday, Vincent Vaslin was transported to the hospital for examinations, after 110 hours of hunger strike. He was finally able to start eating again in the evening, when UdeM began to accept certain requests.
On Saturday, the striker was doing well.