The Giller Prize has (finally) cut ties with Scotiabank.
After fifteen months of protests, boycotts, and pressure campaigns (from Can Lit Responds, No Arms in the Arts, and other activist groups within the Canadian literary community), the Giller Prize—Canada’s most prestigious and lucrative literary award—has ended its decades-long partnership with lead sponsor Scotiabank.
According to a statement issued to Canada’s Globe and Mail, the partnership between the Giller Prize (which awards $100,000 to its winner and $10,000 to each of its shortlisted authors annually) and Scotiabank (one of the largest international investors in notorious Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems Ltd) is over as of today.
The reputational damage suffered by the Giller Foundation, as well as its executive director Elana Rabinovitch, since the 2023 ceremony was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protestors, has been significant. [Here is a full timeline of the events leading up to the 2024 ceremony.]
The 2024 ceremony, which went ahead in November despite more than 200 Canadian authors having refused to submit their books for Giller Prize consideration, became something of a debacle:
Outside the gala, dozens of authors and book workers formed a picket line and staged a “Boycott Giller” counter gala, while across Canada, a series of simultaneous events were held to centre Palestinian liberation and the writers who have committed to boycotting the Giller Foundation. The winner on the night, Anne Michaels, in her somewhat baffling acceptance speech, didn’t mention Palestine or the boycott or the writers killed in Gaza, but did declare that she was “standing here tonight in solidarity with Canadian publishers and booksellers.” The speech, which Michaels then posted to X, was roundly condemned, and Michaels has since deleted her account.
Despite today’s announcement, the Giller Foundation is likely to remain under fire due to its ongoing partnership with organizations tied to both the Israeli military and the Israeli real estate sector. These include Indigo Books, Canada’s biggest bookstore operator, which is controlled by Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman (Schwartz and Reisman founded the HESEG Foundation, which funds scholarships for foreign soldiers with the Israel Defense Forces), and the Azrieli Foundation (the charitable counterpart to Israeli real estate company The Azrieli Group, which has investments in West Bank settlements deemed illegal under international law).
