Canada’s public pension fund increased its investments in companies “complicit” in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians by more than $23 billion in the year ending March 2026, a new report has found.
“I’m not easily surprised, but what was somewhat surprising is that CPPIB [Canada Pension Plan Investment Board] almost doubled its investments [...] to $54.8 billion this year,” said Becca Steckle, a research and policy analyst at Just Peace Advocates, the human rights organization that published the report.
The one-year boost represents an increase of 82.6 per cent.
“That’s also up from about $20.3 billion two years ago,” said Steckle. “So it’s more than doubled if we’re looking back over two years.”
The investments represent a doubling down on Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide, the report alleges.
The Canada Public Pension Investment Board (CPPIB), or CPP Investments, is responsible for investing the pensions of 22 million Canadians from all provinces and territories except Quebec.
Workers make mandatory contributions from their paycheques into the fund, which is worth $793.3 billion, according to CPPIB’s website.
CPPIB states on its website that it has “a singular objective: to maximize long-term investment returns without undue risk.”
The investment board did not respond to a request for comment regarding Just Peace Advocates’ report.
CPP Invests in Palantir, Lockheed Martin
Just Peace Advocates used five sources to determine which companies to list as “complicit,” the report states: Who Profits, AFSC Investigate, UN Database, Canada Stop Arming Israel, and Don’t Buy Into Occupation.
The allegedly complicit companies provide weapons, surveillance and security technology, demolition equipment, banking services, and other products to the Israeli government and military, the report says.
CPP’s investments in such companies include:
- $1 billion in Palantir, which provides software platforms to both Israel and the U.S., and which the UN has said may be providing Israel with technology to create automated lists of military targets;
- $5.2 billion in Amazon, which provides storage for some of the intelligence information Israel collects via mass surveillance of Gaza’s population;
- $1.8 billion in Exxon Mobil, which may be facilitating fuel supplies for the Israeli tanks and jets;
- $10.8 billion in NVIDIA Corp, a major AI company that is allegedly used by the Israeli military;
- $700 million in Caterpillar, a manufacturer of armoured bulldozers used by Israeli forces to destroy Palestinian homes;
- $344 million in Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of F-35 jets used to drop bombs as heavy as 2,000 pounds on Gaza.
“Canada is deeply integrated and supportive of Israel’s illegal occupation and its settler colonial project. That’s not new,” said Steckle. But the investments made in 2025 show CPPIB “shamelessly” continuing to invest in “Israel’s crimes” despite larger segments of the population understanding what’s at stake, she said.
Kathleen Copps, a 75-year-old retired teacher in British Columbia, said she would protest the fund’s investments at its next public meeting later this year. Copps receives a pension from CPP.
“Every working Canadian is either paying into it, and then when you get to be a certain age, you are receiving the benefits from it. So I feel, in a way, we are funding the genocide, which is horrifying,” Copps told The Maple.
She said that at past meetings, staff from CPP Investments have reacted poorly when questioned about investments in weapons and oil companies.
“They wanted to look like they were in charge, and, you know, we’re way past that point now,” said Copps. “After seeing the horrific and sickening images in Lebanon now, and in Gaza, and knowing that they’ve increased their funding, it’s just really inexcusable.”
