Giller Foundation ends its decades-long partnership with Scotiabank, following protests and new juror resignations

The Giller Foundation has ended its decades-long partnership with Scotiabank following months of sustained pressure from protesters, authors and publishers who pledged to boycott Canada’s most prestigious literary prize.

Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023, protesters have demanded that the Giller Prize cut ties with Scotiabank over its investments in an Israeli arms manufacturer.

In a statement shared with the Star on Monday, the foundation behind the Giller Prize expressed its gratitude to the banking institution, and said it plans to “explore new opportunities and collaborations that continue to support and inspire both emerging and established authors.”

“This partnership has been instrumental in elevating Canadian fiction and supporting authors across the country,” the statement read.

The decision to sever ties with Scotiabank comes following the resignation two jurors from the Giller Prize’s 2025 jury. The jury was announced on Jan. 15.

Aaron Tucker, who is the author of seven books, confirmed to the Star on Monday that he withdrew from the Giller Prize jury on Jan. 18, citing Scotiabank’s sponsorship and continued investments in Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer.

“I made a mistake in agreeing to be on the jury and it is against my principles to associate myself with this sponsorship,” Tucker wrote in a statement he shared with the Star.

“At the bottom of it all, I thought I would feel pride at being on the jury, but very quickly realized I felt shame the most. This was not something I could have known ahead of time, but something that revealed itself. While I knew that I would never feel 100% good about being on the jury, this internal shame surprised me and pointed me towards my choice.”

Alberta-based poet and author Jordan Abel also confirmed to the Star that he has withdrawn form the jury, citing “ethical reasons.”

The original five-person jury included authors Loghan Paylor, Deepa Rajagopalan, Tucker and Abel.

Over the past 14 months, the Giller Prize has been targeted by protesters who have sought to draw attention to Scotiabank’s ties to Elbit Systems.

The Giller Foundation’s executive director Elana Rabinovitch did not say whether the protests impacted the decision to cut ties with Scotiabank. “We are enormously grateful to Scotiabank for their support over the last two decades,” she told the Star via email.

Scotiabank has sponsored the Giller Prize since 2005. A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment on the end of the partnership.

Jody Chan, a poet and organizer with CanLitResponds — a group of authors and cultural workers who have led the campaign against the Giller’s partnership with Scotiabank — said the group celebrates this “victory.”

“The end of the Scotiabank partnership is a direct result of the No Arms in the Arts campaign waged by hundreds of boycotting authors and book workers alongside cultural workers across the country,” they told the Star.

In November, CanLit Responds released a list of nearly 400 hundred Canadian authors, editors and publishers — including former Giller Prize winners and finalists — who refused to submit their books for Giller consideration, or to participate in any Giller events, until the prize dropped its ties to sponsors “invested in the oppression of Palestinians, including Scotiabank, Indigo Books, and the Azrieli Foundation.”

Chan confirmed to the Star that the boycott will continue.

Emails shared with the Star show that Rabinovitch, privately assured authors earlier this year that the organization was parting ways with the bank. But just weeks later, the literary prize appeared to abruptly change direction, publicly doubling down on the partnership.

In mid-July more than 40 authors, including several past winners of the Giller Prize, signed another open letter calling on the Giller Foundation to end its partnership with Scotiabank and other sponsors which they claimed were “directly invested in Israel’s occupation of Palestine.” The signatories also said they were withdrawing their works from consideration and pledged not to participate in the Giller’s programming until their demands were met. A separate letter calling for a boycott of the prize garnered roughly 300 signatures from members of the literary community.

The Giller Prize was established in 1994 by Canadian philanthropist Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife, Doris Giller, a literary writer and former Toronto Star journalist who died from cancer the previous year. Jack’s daughter, Elana, has acted as the prize’s executive director since 2004.