Teacher federation votes to ask pension fund to drop Talisman

The executive of the Ontario Teachers Federation -- the umbrella organization for Ontario's 144,000 teachers -- has asked the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund to sell its shares in Talisman Energy.

In its regular bulletin to members in June, the OTF said the executive took the action after receiving a letter from Talisman CEO Jim Buckee about its involvement in Sudan. "The Executive is not satisfied that Talisman's response indicated that the company is taking sufficient action," says the OTF newsletter.

Talisman has been the focus of heated action by activists and shareholders for more than a year after the company began operations in Sudan. Sudan is ruled by a brutal dictatorship waging human rights atrocities on its population and which is responsible for a protracted civil war in the country.

In a report in February, Canadian government envoy  John Harker concluded that oil revenue is contributing to the civil war in Sudan. On May 3, a shareholder resolution calling for an independent audit of the company's Sudan operations received 27 per cent support. While it failed to pass, the resolution received the largest support ever in Canada for a shareholder proposal on a social issue.

The vote by the OTF will fuel a growing debate in Canada about whether it is more appropriate for social investors to divest from Talisman, or to continue to hold their shares and pressure the company to produce evidence that its operations are contributing to humanitarian development.

The pension fund, Canada's largest, is one of the biggest investors in Talisman, holding more than $190 million in company stock. While the OTF decision has some weight with the pension fund trustees, the fund is jointly trusteed by the OTF and the Ontario government. Officials of the Talisman Divestment Campaign caution that a vote by the OTF may not be enough to persuade the pension fund -- which has long opposed social investment initiatives -- to divest. 

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