The University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union approved a motion to make its Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Committee permanent.
The union passed the motion on Feb. 26 during a special general meeting following a “long and heated discussion,” the university’s student newspaper The Varsity reported.
The committee’s mandate is to advocate for the university “to refrain from investing in all companies complicit in violation of international law.” This includes firms that “[profit] from the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, directly [benefit] from the construction of the Wall and Israeli settlements, [are] economically active in settlements, and [profit] from the collective punishment of Palestinians.”
Prior to the vote, some two dozen members walked out of the room in an attempt to force an end to the meeting by causing it to lose a quorum, which had been set at 150 members. But enough stayed to maintain the number needed for a vote.