Nowadays, anti-smoking statistics and campaigns are just as routine as smoking itself. In light of this, a
number of politically savvy U of T students formed a group called
E-BUTT (Education-Bringing Youth Tobacco Truths) to help fight the
“war against tobacco.” What better place to start than at
home – the University of Toronto invests a whopping 10.5
million dollars in several tobacco companies, including Japan Tobacco, Altria Group and Rothmans Inc.
On January 16th E-BUTT held its first press conference to address
U of T’s unethical investments.
E-BUTT claimed that U of T’s economic
affiliations are “unacceptable… especially given [the
university’s] first class medical, dental, nursing and pharmacy
schools and its Department of Public Health Sciences.” They
expressed strong disapproval that U of T “would attempt to profit
from an industry that manufactures products that addict children and
inflict unparalleled levels of harm at both an individual and societal
level.” E-BUTT announced its official divestment petition –
backed with the support of 400 U of T students and staff members
– which urges university president Dr. David Naylor to divest
100% of U of T’s tobacco stocks.
The group attacks U of T’s tobacco
investments on three major grounds. First, that of hypocrisy: the
investment is in clear violation of the university’s own
investment policy, which adopts the Yale Criteria of Social Injury.
This guideline prohibits investments that have an “injurious
impact on consumers, employees, or other persons.” Secondly,
E-BUTT claims that U of T’s investments are highly unethical.
Finally, E-BUTT speaks on behalf of the U of T community by remarking
that students do no want their tuition money going towards unethical
practices. In addition to these solid points, E-BUTT explains that the
tobacco investments are extraneous – U of T assigns a paltry 10.5
million dollars to shares in tobacco out of a total stock market
investment of two billion. This comparatively small sum can only result
in negligible profit.
By keeping its shares in tobacco, U of T is
helping to propagate the notion that tobacco is a “normal
industry.” Although there are many ethically ambiguous
industries, there is no other product on the market that is 100%
detrimental to its consumers—no ifs, ands, or buts, there is
absolutely no level of safe exposure to tobacco products. Michael Perley, the Director of the Ontario Campaign for
Action on Tobacco, claims that the tobacco industry successfully
establishes itself as a viable industry while at the same time
“[operating] outside the norms of any definition of ethical and
responsible business practice.” Andrew Stark, E-BUTT supporter
and professor of Strategic Management, distinguishes the tobacco
industry from other industries by pointing out that there is no
pluralistic debate surrounding the benefits and drawbacks of tobacco
use. He acknowledges the pluralism surrounding huge topics such as
alcohol consumption, disarmament and nuclear power; “however,
this seems not to exist in the case of tobacco: university researchers
for some time have taken only one position, and that is that tobacco is
bad.” E-BUTT takes the position that the tobacco industry is not
only unethical, but emerges as the most
unethical industry.
E-BUTT member and spokesperson Albert Gaudio reiterates that it is “unfeasible,
perhaps impossible, for an institution as large as U of T to maintain
an ethically pristine portfolio. Nonetheless, we must be cognisant that the tobacco industry presents us
with what can only be described as an ethical special case.”
Unfortunately, David Naylor (who was unavailable for comment) has
failed to give any explanation for why U of T continues to invest in
tobacco thus far. The simple explanation is that tobacco stocks make
good money, but E-BUTT counters this with a chilling statistic:
tobacco-related deaths and illnesses cost the Canadian health care
system and economy more than 17 billion dollars a year, a figure that
national tobacco profits do not even approach. This is a bigger health
epidemic and financial drain for Canada than AIDS, suicide and
homicide combined. Additionally, tobacco will kill half of long-term
users.
E-BUTT will hear a final decision from Dr.
Naylor in mid-May. Until then E-BUTT will continue to educate about the
ethical issues surrounding Big Tobacco. They encourage students to
write letters of complaint to Dr. Naylor via the executive secretary,
at kim.derrek@utoronto.ca.
