your pension
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- Published on Thursday, 18 October 2018 08:56
- Written by editor
The CPP just massively upped its investment of our retirement savings in the two largest for-profit prison corporations responsible for horrific immigration detention of thousands of children and families in the US.
Tell the CPP Investment Board to divest our money from Geo Group and CoreCivic.
A,
Tens of thousands of children and families are being detained in horrific conditions against their will in US immigration detention centres run by massive corporations like Geo Group and CoreCivic.
And the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) has quietly and massively increased its investment in these corporations that are ripping families apart by more than 1300% in the last year.
Our retirement savings should... not be funding brutal human rights abuses.
The CPP works for people in Canada to make the best investments possible and has guidelines for social responsibility. It needs to hear from us -- its investors -- to let it know that we won’t allow our pensions to fund for-profit prison companies.
Please join me in telling the CPP Investment Board to divest from Geo Group and CoreCivic now.
While we were watching images of children being ripped from their parents and locked in cages, the CPP was quietly increasing its investments in Geo Group by almost 13 fold and more than doubled its investment in CoreCivic from 2017 to 2018. Our pensions are now invested to the tune of almost $6 million in the two biggest for profit prison corporations in the US.
CoreCivic and GEO Group are private-prison companies that have built many of the detention centres that house the families Trump's policies have torn apart. Sixty per cent of immigrants incarcerated under the Trump administration are held in private prisons built by these companies.
As a mother, I find it appalling to know that my money is being invested in the for-profit detention of children, and the separation of families. It has to stop.
This is also a critical moment to force pressure on the CPP: starting this month, CPP Investment Board is hosting public consultations that are only held once every two years. That makes now the most critical and impactful moment for the CPP to hear from us.
SumOfUs is working to stop profit prisons and the prevent families from being torn apart. When we found out that tech companies like Microsoft had multi-million dollar contracts with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) who literally steal children away from their families at the borders, over 73,000 members like you signed a petition. And we delivered that petition right to Microsoft’s door in Seattle and let executives know we won’t stand idly by while it supports child detention.
We know that, as contributors to the CPP, if we work together we have the power to shift the investments and ensure that our money isn’t funding brutal for-profit prisons.
Thanks for all that you do,
Amelia, Emma, Angus, and the team at SumOfUs
More information:
'Deeply concerning': Canada pension fund invests in US immigration detention firms, The Guardian, 12 October 2018.
Who has most to gain from Trump’s immigration policies? Private prisons, The Washington Post, June 29 2018.
66 children still separated from families, CBS News. October 16 2018.
Detention by the Numbers, Freedom from Immigrants. 2018.
SumOfUs is a community of people from around the world committed to curbing the growing power of corporations. We want to buy from, work for and invest in companies that respect the environment, treat their workers well and respect democracy. And we’re not afraid to stand up to them when they don’t.
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