What if you invest responsibly, but your bank doesn’t? This year’s “Don't Bank on the Bomb” report shows that your Canadian bank may be investing in companies that produce nuclear weapons. Check out this post to see if your financial institution is banking on the bomb, and if it is, take action!

PAX and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), regularly publish a report that details nuclear weapons producers and their investors. Their newest report, Untenable Investments, published in February 2024 finds that there are currently 287 financial institutions that invest in 24 nuclear weapons producers in the world. The good news is that there were 306 investors in the last report, so we are down 19 investors! Every year, the number of financial institutions investing in these companies decreases, showing that divestment is working. 

There are no Canadian companies producing nuclear weapons, but there are producers from some of our allied countries: the United States, United Kingdom, and France. A full list of countries who produce nuclear weapons can be found in the report. 

Just because Canada doesn't physically produce nuclear weapons, doesn’t mean we aren’t complicit. Investments are one way that Canada shows its support for nuclear weapons, and it does significant damage. When billions of dollars from investments go towards creating these weapons, it funds their creation. And where do these investments come from? It could be your own bank!

In Canada, there are 13 financial institutions which invest in a nuclear weapon producing company. This year, Canadian institutions invested a total of $36,601,000,000 USD in investments - that’s $50,365,538,070 ($50 billion) Canadian Dollars going towards the most indiscriminate weapon to ever exist! Some bad news is that this number is up significantly from the number last year. Canada is now investing almost 15 billion CAD more into nuclear weapons. Here is the list of financial institutions that have invested in one or more of the 24 nuclear weapons producing companies*:

1. AGF Management:Jacobs Solutions
2. BMO Financial Group: Boeing; Fluor; Jacobs Solutions; Leidos; Peraton; RTX
3. Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board: Airbus Group 
4. CI Financial: Jacob's Solutions 
5. CIBC: Bechtel; Honeywell; L3Harris Technologies 
6. Manulife Financial: Airbus; Huntington Ingalls Industries 
7. Mawer Investment Management: BAE Systems; Thales 
8. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan: Safran 
9. Power Corporation of Canada: Northrop Grumman; Safran; Textron 
10. Royal Bank of Canada (RBC): Airbus; BAE Systems; Boeing; Fluor; General Dynamics; Honeywell; Jacobs Solutions; L3Harris Technologies; Leidos; Lockheed Martin; Peraton; Rolls-Royce; Safran
11. Scotiabank: General Dynamics; Honeywell; Huntington Ingalls Industries; Jacobs Solutions; L3Harris Technologies; Leidos; Northrop Grumman; Peraton; RTX
12. Sun Life Financial: General Dynamics: Honeywell; Jacobs Solutions; L3Harris Technologies; Leidos; Northrop Grumman; Rolls-Royce; RTX; Thales
13. TD Bank: Airbus; BAE Systems; General Dynamics; Honeywell; Huntington Ingalls Industries; Jacobs Solutions;  L3Harris Technologies;  Leidos; Lockheed Martin;  Northrop Grumman; Peraton; Rolls-Royce

If your financial institution is on the list, now is your chance to take direct action against nuclear weapons. Call, write, or email your bank and let them know what you think. Speak with customer service, and just let them know you don’t want your money invested in nuclear weapons companies. To make it easier for you, ICAN has a letter that you can copy paste and just add your and your bank’s name. 

Mines Action Canada was shocked to see that the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan is also investing in a nuclear weapons producing company, Safran. We believe that if teachers knew their hard earned pension money was being invested into this company, they would object. We think we can get the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan to reconsider this investment, and hopefully drop them off the list for next year. We have written a letter specifically to target this investment, which you can download here. You can send them an email: [email protected], or write a letter to this address: 5650 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, M2M 4H5.

The bank’s job is to listen to your concerns. Telling your bank your concerns makes a difference- as we mentioned, 19 investors have dropped off the list since last year. We need to keep this momentum going and continue to put pressure on our financial institutions to invest responsibly. For more tips on how to express your concerns to your bank, visit this page on the Don’t Bank on the Bomb website. Let us know how your call goes by emailing us at [email protected].

Your money matters and so does your voice - so let’s use them to abolish nuclear weapons!

*Full information on Canadian Investments: