less than four minutes into the awards ceremony for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the evening’s host, comedian Rick Mercer, was attempting a joke about Alice Munro when two young people quietly appeared next to him onstage holding signs that read, “Scotiabank funds genocide.” After a moment of shocked silence, another protester shouted from the floor, “Scotiabank currently has a $500 million stake in Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems is supplying the Israeli military’s genocide against the Palestinian people!” Mercer awkwardly grasped at the signs, ripping one of them.
The cameras cut away, and the band struck up. Within seconds, event staff were ushering the protesters into the hands of police. Awarded annually to a work of Canadian fiction, the Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller.
Initially, the purse was $25,000; it has since grown to a very generous $100,000. Winning, or even just being shortlisted, can be a game-changer for an author, dramatically boosting book sales and unlocking new opportunities. That the evening’s main sponsor, which joined the prize in 2005, has an outsize investment in an Israeli weapons maker appeared to be news to many in the room; several attendees walked out.
At the time, Scotiabank’s asset management arm held investments totalling approximately $500 million in Elbit Systems Ltd., a company that builds drone technology, guided missiles, and other weapons use.