The spring sun warmed dozens of protesters on Tuesday as they marched through Carleton University’s academic quad echoing chants such as, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” and “Israel bombs, Carleton pays, how many kids have you killed today?”
Organized by Carleton for Palestine and other campus groups, students were marching to demand the university’s Board of Governors divest from companies with ties to Israel and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
They also hoped to promote Carleton University Students’ Association’s petition to hold the university accountable for investing in companies they say are complicit in human rights violations.
Some protesters wore keffiyehs, which are scarves representing Palestinian sovereignty. Many held signs criticizing Carleton’s administration with messages like “Divest from apartheid” and “We CU investing in genocide.”
“Our money is going towards purchasing the weapons that are killing innocent people,” said Kailey Dewar, a member of Carleton’s Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering Society.
The university has invested in three companies that reportedly have been linked to deportations from the U.S., according to a December 2024 document obtained by the Charlatan. The document identified these companies as engineering firm Capgemini SE, biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and information services provider Thomson Reuters.
In a November statement, the CUSA council said the university also invests in a fourth company, financial holdings company Fairfax, which it said “engages directly with the U.S. bail industry.”
CUSA also released a statement in February alleging the university “holds over $34 million in financial holdings directly tied to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
The Charlatan has not been able to independently verify the university’s reported investments.
Asal Durrani, the president of the Carleton University Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, said situations in the Philippines and Palestine are not isolated. Instead, Durrani said they are part of a larger global scheme.
“The U.S. war machine is responsible for funding and providing weaponry to the occupiers of Palestinian land,” he said.
Following the speeches and chants, protesters marched through campus to Richcraft Hall to confront the Board of Governors during their meeting.
Abby Thompson, a fourth-year social work student, said she noticed the protest while eating lunch outside and joined to voice her concerns about a lack of action from Carleton.
“We talk a lot about land acknowledgements with regard to Indigenous Peoples in Canada, but how are we just going to acknowledge that and move on, especially when similar problems are happening around the world?” Thompson said.
Protesters walked to Herzberg Laboratories and convened in front of the parking garage. Several cars were blocked by the demonstration, causing traffic to stand still.
Members of Students for Justice in Palestine offered a young woman at the front of the line a flyer with a QR code to the petition and urged her to sign it. Agitated and in tears, she declined.
Three Carleton Campus Safety Services officers emerged from Richcraft and watched over the situation.
The university has not addressed the Charlatan’s questions about divestment.
The demonstration progressed to Vincent Massey Park where Bessan Amer, a member of Students for Justice Palestine gave closing remarks.
“This protest was an escalation with the Board of Governors because it’s been almost a year of protesting outside,” she said. “We just want our university to stop being complicit in genocide when there are students in Gaza that do not have the same accessibility to education as us.”
Thompson said the protest turnout was a positive indicator of where the movement is heading at Carleton.
“It is easy for students to put their heads in a box and focus on just themselves, but after all the mental effects of protesting and enduring, it is nice to see people putting themselves out there and doing their best.”
Featured image by Kathan Kapoor/the Charlatan
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