What does antiracism mean for EIG?

As Ibram X. Kendi puts it “We are either supporting policies that are leading to racial inequities and injustice […] or we’re supporting policies and pushing policies that are leading to justice and equity for all.”

In recent weeks several articles on what antiracism means for investors have been published (for example in Fortune, Forbes, CNBC and Quartz). In the same vein, an article published in the Financial Post gives an overview of diversity (or lack thereof) in Board membership in Canada.

All this got me thinking about what antiracism might mean for EIG. As a first step, I’ve taken a look at our investment portfolio (both community investments and equities, 30 organisations in all) to see if the organisations we invest in are thinking about antiracism or taking any concrete actions. The results of this quick survey are below.

We’re now reflecting on whether EIG should engage more actively in this issue as a group and, if so, in what way. We’ve had some ideas, which you’ll find at the end of this article, but would really like to hear your thoughts on this. Let us know what you think.

Some of the organisations we invest in specifically set out to serve excluded and/or immigrant communities:

• Microcredit Montreal and Fonds microcrédit are examples from our community portfolio that specifically serve immigrant and more marginalised communities, who may have difficulty receiving loans from the traditional banking sector. Similarly, Desjardins Caisse d’économie solidaire invests in initiatives such as social housing and development of an inclusive economy; and the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) works with low income and excluded populations to support their integration into mainstream markets.
• Stantec supports the National Organisation of Minority Architects which is dedicated to eliminating racism within the architecture profession.  

More recently, and following the murder of George Floyd and death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, some of the organisations we invest in made specific comments or donations:

• Costco published a message from their CEO to members and staff.
• Desjardins published a message affirming solidarity with Black Lives Matter and donated a total of $60,000 to Afrique au Féminin, Pour 3 Points and CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals.
• Ecotrust Canada wrote a blog article in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
• Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure published a message from the CEO to staff.  
• Oikocredit published a message committing to racial justice.
• Scotiabank donated a total of $500,000 to the Careers Education Empowerment Centre for Young Black Professionals and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. Scotiabank also provides Aboriginal Financial Services  and has an Indigenous Employees Resource Group. It is part of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, and holds the Gold level for Progressive Aboriginal Relations. Read about EIG’s engagement with Scotiabank on Indigenous People’s rights here.

About one third of the organisations (12/30) that we invest in definitely have visible minorities on the board. More than half of Oikocredit’s board is from a visible minority, but it is an outlier in our portfolio. The other 11 organisations that I could quickly identify visible minorities on their boards are as follows[1]: Equities investments: Automatic Data Processing (1/11), Church & Dwight (1/10), Costco (1/11), Herman Miller (1/9), High Liner Foods (1/10), Interface (1/8), Scotiabank (2/12), Westport Fuel Systems (1/8) and Xylem (2/10). Community investments:  Desjardins Caisse d’économie solidaire (1/6) and Microcrédit Montréal (2/7). The other 18 organisations either don’t have visible minorities on their boards (10 by my count), or this information was not quickly apparent (8 - for instance no pictures of board readily available on their website).

Hiring and promotion practices are another angle to look at antiracism from. What does senior leadership look like? As with board diversity, it is a mixed bag. The Executive Director / CEO of MEDA and Microcrédit Montréal are women of colour. Another 9 organisations have at least one person of colour in a leadership position (Equities investments: Automatic Data Processing, Canadian National Railway, New Flyer Industries, Scotiabank, Stantec and Xylem. Community investments: Desjardins Caisse d’économie solidaire, Ecotrust Canada, and Oikocredit). The remaining organisations don’t have visible minorities among their senior management (12) or this remains unclear (7).

With that quick and incomplete portrait of our investments, here’s a list of questions we’ve been thinking about. You may well have others. We encourage you to let us know your thoughts.

• Do you think this is a topic that EIG should engage with further? In what way?
• Would you like to participate in a discussion with partners about the next steps for EIG?
• Is antiracist investing something that you have been thinking about or reading about? Do you have any resources to share?
• Are there parts of an assessment of our investments that you would like EIG to look into?
• Do you have any comments about other aspects of the organisations that we invest in and how they relate to antiracism?

We’d be happy to get your input in whatever way you prefer:

• in the Comments box below this article (requires authorization, contact eig.gie.montreal@gmail.com if you are not yet authorized);
• by email: eig.gie.montreal@gmail.com
• by Facebook Messenger from the EIG Facebook page;
• by phone/text message: Heidi Monk, 514-686-1583 or Judy Bird, 514-609-8775.

Over to you J

---

[1] Note that I did a quick assessment, and may have missed people who are less visibly from visible minorities. I share my findings, because I think it gives a quick picture of the boards we invest with.