The Giller Prize and the ‘Indigo 11’

 

How Canada’s most prestigious literary prize is weaponizing its wealth and power against pro-Palestinian speech

Since October 7, 2023, the Toronto Police Service has made 92 arrests of demonstrators and organizers protesting Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Police have acted against the many protests, sit-ins, occupations, visual interventions, picket lines and boycotts that have mobilized activists across a broad range of sectors. What is striking, however, is that 16 of those arrests (over 17 percent of the total number) have been focused on one sector in particular: the Canadian literary world.

On November 13, 2023, a broadcast of the Giller Prize gala was interrupted by protestors calling attention to lead sponsor Scotiabank’s investment in Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. At the time, Scotiabank had $500 million invested in Elbit, making them the company’s largest foreign shareholder. Three people were arrested for their alleged involvement in the disruption that evening, and were criminally charged. A fourth arrest was made months later, and a fifth just over a week ago.

In the days that followed the gala, an open letter with more than 2,100 signatories from Canada’s literary community was penned demanding the charges against the protestors be dropped. The No Arms in the Arts campaign launched the following March, in dissent against the links between cultural institutions like the Giller and the companies fuelling and supporting the genocide, with an emphasis on Scotiabank. After months of obfuscation from the Giller Foundation, which funds and presents the annual award, nearly 40 authors pledged to boycott the prize altogether. Authors pulled their 2024 Giller-eligible fiction releases from consideration, and past winners and nominees refused to participate in any publicity around the prize going forward. According to the campaign, the boycott will end when the foundation drops all sponsors who are materially supporting the oppression of Palestinians. This includes Scotiabank, but also the Azrieli Foundation, the charitable wing of an Israeli real estate empire with past and present economic ties to illegal West Bank settlements, and Indigo Books.

The “Indigo 11” was the term given to individuals who, in the early hours of November 22, 2023, woke up to the Toronto Police violently raiding their homes. Some had their belongings tossed and their doors knocked off their hinges. Parents were handcuffed in front of their children. Their alleged crime was the postering of windows at an Indigo location in downtown Toronto. The flyers depicted Indigo CEO Heather Reisman’s face, and accused her of being complicit in the siege on Gaza. The charges—mischief, criminal harassment and conspiracy—were described by the police as “hate-motivated.”  (more...)

The Giller Prize and the ‘Indigo 11’