Our pensions are financing their war (BC)

Whether we like it or not, whether we’re even aware of it or not, the B.C. provincial government is actively involved in underwriting the illegal U.S. occupation of Iraq and the ensuing butchery being inflicted on Iraq’s civilian population (now estimated at over 100,000 dead). (1) The B.C. government controls the BC Investment Management Corporation, which in turn controls $63 billion in pension fund investments for the Municipal Pension Plan, the College Pension Plan, the Public Service Pension Plan and the Teachers Pension Plan. (2) As of March 31, 2004, these investments included $4.6 billion worth of stock in 251 corporations producing war materiel and/or contracting to provide goods or services to the Pentagon. (3)

These investments include stock holdings in 39 of the top 100 Pentagon contractors, including the seven largest: Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics, United Technologies and General Electric. (4) It also includes 5 of the top 10 ammunition and explosives manufacturers (5), all of the top 4 fuel and lubricant contractors (6), 7 of the top 10 guided missile manufacturers (7), 5 of the top 10 armoured vehicle manufacturers (8), 5 of the top 10 weapons producers (9), and 8 of the top 10 aircraft manufacturers. (10)

<snip - plenty of details - snip>

A complete listing of these 251 companies is available at www.leftturn.ca

What all of this means is that if you’re a nurse or a physiotherapist or a floor cleaner or a pharmacist in any hospital in the province, if you’re a kindergarten teacher or a university professor, if you work on a garbage truck in Kamloops or programme computers at city hall in Victoria, if you work for ICBC, if you’re a firefighter, if you’re a ferry worker or a BC Transit driver, if you work for BC Hydro, or if you’re a provincial government employee – if you’re one of the more than 350,000 British Columbians whose pension plan investments are made by the BC IMC – your pension contributions are being used to finance the war in Iraq. <snip>

http://www.sevenoaksmag.com/features/60_feat2.html

I'm a US citizen now, but am purchasing property in B.C. and planning to apply for a Maple Leaf card soon.

One of the (many) reasons I want to leave this country is because I do not want to finance (in Seven Oaks' words) "pirate raids and pillaging adventures in all corners of the world".

I've bookmarked Seven Oaks to read later. I had not heard of this publication before and it looks like a great source of information.