The Giller Award has separated from its main Scotiabank sponsor more than a year after the members of the literary community began to protest the bank ties with an Israeli weapons manufacturer.
The Giller Foundation, which manages the richest fiction award in Canada, said that its 20 -year relationship with Scotiabank ended Monday.
But the organizers of the No Arms in the Arts campaign say that their boycott of the literary institution will continue.
“The boycott will remain while the giller retains the Azrieli and Indigo Books Foundation as sponsors, two entities also finance the current oppression of the Palestinians and the silencing of free expression in Canada,” Michael Deforge, organizer with Canlit responds and does not have Weapons in the arms. The arts told CBC News in a statement. “One below, two to go.”
Noor Naga, who was preselected for the award in 2022 for his novel If an Egyptian can’t speak EnglishHe said he wanted the Giller award not to take so long to cut the ties with Scotiabank. Naga was one of the first signatories in a letter that highlights Scotiabak’s participation in an Israeli weapons manufacturer and asked that the giller drop the sponsor.
“We want you not to get so much out of the entire Canlit community that you press them, and we are waiting to see what will happen to its other sponsors,” he said.
The Giller Foundation did not address the protests in its statement on the separation of Scotiabank.
“After the discussions, Scotiabank and the Giller Foundation decided that the best way to follow was the end of the association,” said executive director Elana Rabinovitch in an email.
She refused to comment on the cause of change or which part began these discussions, but in a written statement of the foundation, she said that Giller was “indebted” to the bank.
“His support has helped transform the Giller Award into one of the most important literary awards in Canada, and we hope to build on that legacy as we move forward in an exciting new era,” Rabinovitch said.
The Foundation said “will explore new opportunities and collaborations.” Rabinovitch did not answer questions about the future of the prize or if the bag shrunk.
When Scotiabank joined the ranks for the first time with the Giller Foundation, the Valía $ 25,000 prize. Over the years, it increased to $ 100,000.
The prize was named Scotiabank from 2005 to last September, when the prize returned to its original name: a movement that Rabinovitch said it was destined to keep the focus on “the award and art itself”, instead of politics .
Stake in the criticized Israeli weapons manufacturer
The Giller Award has been involved in controversy since the 2023 ceremony, when pro-palestinian activists interrupted with signs that said “Scotiabank fondan the genocide.”
The protesters opposed Scotiabank’s mass participation in the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. Its weapons technology has been documented using Gaza and the West Bank occupied by Israel.
The ceremony was held in November 2023, less than a month after Israel declared the war to Hamas after an attack by the militant group that killed 1,200 people in Israel and saw dozens of Israeli hostages taken.
According to the Ministry of Health of Gaza, more than 11,000 Palestinians had already been killed in the subsequent bombing of Gaza from the 2023 ceremony. More than 46,000 have been killed by the last counts, many of them women and children.
Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer, has been subject to scrutiny for the use of its drone technology in Gaza and in occupied West Bank. This is what is behind the estimated participation of $ 500 million of Scotiabank in the company, and why the protesters are asking the bank to disintegrate.
Several of the protesters were arrested, and Canlit responds formed to support them. He included Giller’s previous winners as Madeleine Thien and Omar El Akkad, as well as Sarah Bernstein, who took home the award that night. The charges against most protesters were removed in December 2024.
Since then, the group launched a boycott against the giller as part of the No Arms in the Arts campaign and protested outside the ceremony last year.
Michael Ondaatje, Suzette Mayr and other previous winners have also asked Scotiabank to deviate from Elbit systems.
A Scotiabak representative said by email that the bank had no comments about his separation from the giller, apart from the foundation’s statement. In 2023, Scotiabank was the largest foreign shareholder in Elbit systems, but since then it has reduced its participation at least three times.
Links to Azrieli Founation, Indigo
The protesters also oppose Giller’s associations with Indigo, about the beneficial organization of the CEO Heather Reismman that supports the officers of the Foreign Israel Defense Force, as well as the Azrieli Foundation, partly for its connection with its connection with The Israeli real estate company Azrieli Group, which has a participation in Bank in Bank Leumi. The United Nations Human Rights Office has included the Bank Leumi in a list of companies involved in activities related to settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Both Indigo and the Azrieli Foundation still appear as sponsors on the giller website.
Naga said Rabinovitch and the Giller Foundation have not recognized calls to cut ties with Indigo and the Azrieli Foundation. He suggests that they are only cutting ties with Scotiabank in an effort to “save their reputation, instead of a kind of genuine political awakening,” he said.
Avik Jain Chatlani, who took out his debut novel This country is no longer yours Giller’s consideration last year, he said he has no plans to present future works.
“The Giller Foundation realized this in November 2023. We are now in February 2025 and have done so in silence, after months and months of pressure,” he said.
“It is an insincere movement.”
