THE MCGILL TRIBUNE V o l u m e 5 , N u m b e r 12
P u b lis h e d b y t h e S t u d e n t s ' S o c ie t y o f M c G i l l U n iv e r s it y
C o u n c il P re ssu re s D a ily
A b s e n t e e s A id D iv e s t m e n t by Sophie Wilson Over the chants of several hundred demonstrators last Monday, the Board of Governors voted overwhelmingly in favour of divestment of the $45 million worth of stocks and holdings McGill has in South Africa-related corporations. The vote was unanimous for divest ment from "financial institutions which have not adopted a policy of making no further loans to the government of South Africa or its agencies," and for a second motion to "dispose in an order ly and responsible fashion of the University's holdings in corporations which are controlled directly or in directly by South African interests." The third and fourth motions of the proposal put forward by student Gover nor Amy Kaler were passed in votes of 17-4. These called for divestment from "corporations with direct investments in South Africa", and for no future in vestment in such corporations and financial institutions until they themselves disinvest from South Africa. Also passed was a motion to review the question of divestment next Oc tober, and every October thereafter ad i n f i n i t u m , "to see what action is ap propriate in the light of subsequent events." Of the twelve governors earlier pin pointed by students as having conflicts of interest, only three attended the Board of Governors (BoG) meeting last Monday. They were twenty-one members present of a possible forty-four voting governors. Governor Gretta Chambers explained in a radio interview that "all governors don't come to all meetings." She speculated that the governors who stayed at home "may be practically against this particular but morally in favour" of sanctions against South Africa. Seen as crucial to the Board's accep tance of the student-initiated call for divestment was the eleventh hour deci
sion of the Committee to Advise on Mat ters of Social Responsiblity to endorse the resolution. The BoG committee is chaired by Don MacSween, a governor who warned Kaler at last month's BoG meeting that she would need to present good "arguments against the arguments against divestment." On Monday, MacSween himself championed such arguments. Explain ing that "students are triggering us to re think", he claimed that continuing in vestment "is no force for change" in South Africa today. While there are some who say that divestment is not a lasting opposition and "we need to stay on the board in order to have a voice in South Africa” , MacSween noted that all the efforts of the last 10 years of "con structive engagement" have not brought about the abolition of apar theid. During the remainder of the long, drawn out meeting, there were several Board members who did argue for the validity of constructive engagement, however. John Hallward related the ad vice given to him by Jewish refuseniks in Russia, advice to "go for under the table quiet results,... the o n l y way to get results." Governor Ballon voiced the well worn cry for equal concern for in justices committed all over the world, and pointed out that McGill is not vocal about "Russians shooting up Afghanistan". Said Ballon, "It bothers me that we are as a community far more aggressive is stating our piece to the far right than the far left. In my opinion, • there is no difference between the two." Hallward later suggested that, instead of divesting from corporations with in vestments in South Africa (Kaler's third motion), McGill should instruct its secretary-general to write to those cor porations asking their chief executives to "commit their corporations to in-
Crawhall exhorts divestment demonstrators Photo—Ezra Greenberg
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Divestment To Take Year Or Less T r ib u n e N e w s S ta ff
In the dizzy and idealistic aftermath of the startling success of McGill's divest ment activists at last week's Board of Governors meeting, one important question remains outstanding. How ex actly does the University go about disposing, in an "orderly and responsi ble fash io n ," of the roughly $45-million-worth of securities it holds in South Africa-connected companies? The answer is, of course, to sell the stocks and bonds to less discriminating investors on the open market. But McGill's administration would prefer to sever links with the antinomian capitalists without incurring significant capital losses or diminishing the return on the University's investment protfolio. The surprising decision, which forced cynical T r i b u n e editors to discard a pre written article entitled "Divestment Re jected," was also unusual in that, ap parently, little consideration has been given to how the divestment process will actually be effected. At other universities, divestment campaigns have presented to administrators detail ed programmes for selling South African securities with minimal loss to the university's portfolio. Bearing in mind the possible pitfalls of the procedure, the Administration has already embarked on divestment, says McGill Treasurer Stuart J. Budden. "The whole process started the next day" after the meeting, he said, when the chairmen of the Board committees on social responsibility and investment were contacted about the decision.
Budden noted that no time limit had been set for total divestment, but sug gested the procedure would be com plete with a year. He said the Invest ment Committee was not scheduled to meet again until next February but speculated it will probably meet before that time. However, in an interview with CBC radio, Governor Gretta Chambers cited a University of Toronto study which predicted orderly divestment would take four years. Other observers have quoted a figure of two years. Budden felt the process would not take that long because CAMSR "has a jump" in identifying corporations link ed to South Africa, so "it's not like they'll have to go out and write all the companies" that McGill invests in to verify that they invest in South Africa. The motion adopted by the Board calls for the Investment Committee to dispose of the offending assets on the advice of the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAM SR). But the procedure will doubtless be complicated by the opinions of the three firms which actually manage the investment portfolio, and of the Univer sity administrators concerned about the well-being of McGill's endowment. Budden said the Investment Commit tee would be considering how to' dispose of the securities without taking a capital loss on the deal, "but we may not have that choice." He also express ed personal concern that the replace ment stocks would not earn as high a rate of return as those McGill presently continued on page 5
T u e s d a y 26 N o v e m b e r , 1985
Alcan, one of the affected donors
Photo—Peter Duval
by Glenn Pierce Issues concerning the M c G ill D a ily dominated the Students' Council meeting last Thursday. The D a ily , according to its letter of agreement with the Board of Gover nors, which was signed when the newspaper became autonomous in 1981, must publish on campus. The D a ily 's lease for office space in the University Centre is up for renewal, and negotiations have not been going as smoothly as the newspaper had hoped. D a ily editor-in-chief Melinda Wittstock addressed Council on the issue. According to W ittstock, her predecessor Leela MadhavaRau, last Ju ly had negotiated an agreement with StudSoc president James Green. As far as the D a ily is concerned, said Witt stock, this agreement was sealed and only needed approval of Council. Wittstock said that the D a ily had been paying a nominal rent of one dollar per year, which was justified in that the D a i ly gives Students' Society preferential ad rate treatment. Wittstock also pointed out that the D a ily is a student organiza tion, and "we don't believe in rent for student organizations at all." According to Wittstock, Green had first asked $32,000 of MadhavaRau in July's negotiations. "These are Place Ville Marie rates which the paper could not pay," said Wittstock. Green and MadhavaRau eventually settled on one dollar per square foot, a total of $1,760. Council recognized this agreement only as tentative. The motion that Council passed after a lengthly discussion in confidential ses sion mandated the Executive to negotiate with the D a ily for a new lease with the condition that more "accoun tability for democratic procedures" be shown in the Daily Publications Society (DPS) constitution. Council refused to clarify the nebulous terms of this motion until time of further negotiation with the D a ily , which was set for Thursday. The motion could possibly be a result of pressure from various student groups on StudSoc to democratize the DPS constitution. Among these organizations is the PGSS (Post-Graduate Students' Society) which has requested StudSoc's assistance in the difficulties it has been having with DPS. c o n tin u e d o n p a g e 5
D o n a tio n s S ta n d . F ir m s Sa y
M A P D o n o rs U n co n ce rn e d by Stephen Hum The McGill Board of Governors' (BoG) surprise decision to divest totally from corporations with ties to the apar theid régime in South Africa has spark ed speculation as to what effects the move will have on the McGill Advance ment Program's (MAP) carefully balanc ed applecart. Acheived at a tumultuous meeting of the Board last Monday, this signal vic tory for the divestment movement in Canadian universities, càugheboth pro ponents and opponents of divesment alike off-guard. Officials at McGill University must soon begin constructing a timetable for the divestment of McGill holdings from a list of companies with ties to South Africa; meanwhile, many of the affected companies still seem unsure as to how to respond to BoG's Decision. Some McGill officials have expressed reservations over the Board's newly minted pojicy. In an interview broadcast on CBC Morning radio, David Bourke, Secretary-General of BoG and a
member of its standing committee on investment warned that there may be repercussions for McGill in its relation ship with various corporations which have supported McGill in the past. "If you've been supported by a longtime friend and you say that friend is doing something wrong, you may begin to lose that friend." remarked Bourke, somewhat cryptically. If old acquaintances are forgot, then this might have an adverse affect on MAP, McGill's campaign to raise $61 million by 1987. At the halfway point, the program has raised $49 million. But, MAP Director, John Heney, disagreed with Bourke's comments. "We don't anticipate any sort of 'retaliation' and we're not going to go looking for it." According to Heney, one company even called him up after the meeting to assure him that their pledged donation stood. Initial reaction from some of the af fected companies was cautious. The position of Alcan Aluminium Ltd. (whose president David Culver, is a member of BoG) was typical: "We
don't want to tell McGill what to do any more than we want to have some one tell us what to do." said Alcan official Ferand Leclerc. Leclerc stated that BoG's action wouldn't affect future re quests by McGill for donations. Ken Lamb speaking on behalf of Du Pont Canada, whose parent company has operations in South Africa, express ed sorrow over the move. "I'm sorry that it happened on the basis of some rather minimal holdings we have there," said Lamb. Lamb refuses to comment on whether this incident would alter DuPont's will ingness to support McGill financially. DuPont Canada has contributed . $300,000 to MAP. Some companies seemed still to be fighting past battles. An Imasco Ltd of ficial asserted that divestment did not concern them at all. The spokesman denied that Imasco had any ties with South Africa. In a list published in the M c G ill D a ily , Imasco was listed as a subsidiary of B.A.T. Ltd. (U.K.) which has operations in South Africa.