vol. cXXXvi, no. 23
T he UniversiTy
of
ToronTo’s sTUdenT newspaper since 1880
4 a pril 2016
DIVESTMENT
U of T rejects fossil fuel divestment recommendations
Protesters called for divestment at several marches, including one from Sid Smith to Simcoe Hall on November 2014. MILAN ILNYCKYJ/CC FLICKR
President supports “firm by firm” approach instead DEVIKA DESAI
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
Following over three years of student led advocacy and the striking of a Presidential Advisory Committee on Divestment from Fossil Fuels, the University of Toronto will not be adopting recommendations to divest immediately from firms complicit in anthropogenic climate change, accord-
ing to a copy of the official administrative response obtained by The Varsity. Instead, Gertler proposed taking a “firm-byfirm” approach, which advocates a targeted and flexible approach to divestment. This approach includes incorporating environmental, social, and governance-based factors (ESG) “instead of a blanket divestment approach.” THE DECISION “So we’ve decided to operationalize or really move the work of the committee in three ways,” said Gertler, in an interview
with The Varsity. “One [of the ways] is by accepting the idea of targeting, in which we have singled out particular firms, egregious firms. The second is that the university’s position on whether or not to invest in firms could change over time, if [a blacklisted firm] changed its behaviours, they could be considered eligible for investment.” The third way, according to Gertler, is to reconcile the university’s need to uphold its judiciary responsibility with its desire to do something positive for the planet, by incorporating ESG factors into the analysis of climate risk.
“There is growing acknowledgment of the idea that those firms that adopt sound ESG practices reduce risk over time and may offer better long term value for investors,” reads a portion of the president’s report. According to the report, the main advantage of such an approach is that it would tackle the effects of climate change, while fulfilling the university’s fiduciary obligations. Gertler explained that the work done to assess the ESG factors wouldn’t necessarily be Continued on PG 3
THE VARSITY INVESTIGATION
Knox College criticized over protection of resident safety College denies mishandling mental health issues, sexual assault IRIS ROBIN NEWS EDITOR
Content warning: attempted suicide, sexual assault Hannah* quit her job as a Knox College don after she lost confidence in the college administration’s response to two situations concerning resident safety. The first of these
was when a student came to her with chronic suicidal ideation. The student was a substance user and had attempted suicide before. Hannah said that she spoke to the administration on several occasions about her concern for the resident’s safety but that no action was taken. Only when Hannah threatened to resign did the administration get involved. A month later, the resident was rushed to
emergency and a fatal overdose was prevented; the resident’s friend called 911. Robert Adams, director of finance and administration at Knox College, denied that such events had happened. “That information is incorrect and it’s inaccurate,” he told The Varsity. “I can assure you that to the best of my knowledge, there is no documentation or notes that a person has attempted suicide on Knox College property.”
Adams stated that all such incidents are documented. “We have a don journal, and when the dons are made aware of things, they write all the notes in the journal, or they will send us emails.” Hannah told The Varsity that she communicated the incident to the administration, along with electronic documentation outlining the incidents leading up to this one in the preceding months. Continued on PG 4
INSIDE Defying perception
The pressing concern of Indigenous oppression Comment PG 10
Don’t call it a comeback
Minister of Science Kristy Duncan talks about the scientific state Feature PG 14
Richard Linklater
The oscar-nominated director discusses his career Arts PG 16
All we do is win win win (historically)
A timeline of U of T Olympians that have achieved greatness Sports PG 23