As educators, we are horrified to have witnessed the systematic destruction of the education system in Gaza- also known as scholasticide. This term refers to the systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention or killing of teachers, students and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure. In 2024 UN experts warned that attacks on Gaza’s education system“are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society,” (UN) Not only has Gaza experienced scholasticide, but also the devastation of the health care system, the destruction of water infrastructure, domicide or the destruction of homes and an Israel-made famine.

The most respected human rights organizations in the world – including the UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, Medecins Sans Frontières or Doctors Without Border, and Israel’s own human rights organization B’Tselem – have all documented multiple war crimes committed by the Israeli military and released their unequivocal condemnations of the genocide. In B’Tselem’s report, Our Genocide, Israeli human rights experts clearly emphasize that genocide is not an event but comes from a process and the development of Israel’s apartheid system over many decades has clearly laid the groundwork for this to occur.

As Ontario teachers we have spent much of our lives committed to the express duty mandated by the Teachers Profession Act to “promote respect for human rights” and to “critically examine the issue of the impact of militarism and war on children” (OTF Bylaws)

OTPP investments are directly complicit in the killing of 30% of children in Gaza, leaving thousands more with life altering physical and mental injuries, so it is very much our duty to demand the plan divest from these companies immediately. These investments violate our professional code, make a mockery of any claims to a moral compass, but also present grave violations of international law and violations of Canada’s own Crimes Against Humanity & War Crimes Act.

As of today both the Ontario Secondary Schools Teachers Federation (OSSTF) as well as the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO), representing over 140,000 Ontario teachers have written to the Pension Plan President, Jo Taylor, demanding he stop investing in weapons of war in our name. 

Taylor has ignored these collective demands saying that weapons play an “essential role” that “delivers returns” to plan members.  

We say not in our name. 

We say, Divest From Illegal Occupation, Apartheid & Genocide Now!