Employees check an Elbit Systems Ltd. Hermes 900 unmanned aerial vehicle at the company's drone factory in Rehovot, Israel, on June 28, 2018.Each of Canada’s Big Six banks has money tied to controversial Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems Ltd. through the banks’ wealth management subsidiaries and clients. But the holdings of Bank of Nova Scotia, which has faced months of protests against the bank’s sponsored arts events over its Elbit stake, still dwarf all the others.
The company’s role in the war has thrust Scotiabank into the spotlight because of the bank’s sponsorship of some of Canada’s biggest arts events and organizations. Hundreds of Canadian artists and authors have The Elbit stake held by Scotiabank’s 1832 was big enough in 2022 to merit disclosures in the company’s annual report, at 5.06 per cent, or roughly US$368-million that December. 1832 hasFilings show that Bank of Montreal – which is a day-one sponsor of the Stratford Festival, a partner to Toronto and Montreal’s biggest symphonies, and provides US$200,000 annually to the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction – holds 10,182 Elbit shares, worth nearly US$2.1-million, through BMO Asset Management Corp.
None of the arts organizations named in this story responded to comment requests, except for organizers of the Shields Prize, who declined to comment. 1832′s Elbit stake is largely the work of one man: portfolio manager David Fingold of the Dynamic Funds family. Scotiabank acquired Dynamic in 2011 from wealth manager Dundee Corp., where Mr. Fingold managed multiple funds.