NEI Investments and Desjardins Investments are banning investment in companies that manufacture cluster munitions, which are air- or ground-launched artillery that open up mid-flight to release hundreds of bomblets that disperse over a large area and hit targets.
Cluster munitions (also known as cluster bombs) have been banned under international humanitarian law. In November 2014, Canada passed legislation to make it illegal for Canadians to make, use or trade these weapons anywhere in the world—or to aid, abet or counsel such activity.
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“These are indiscriminate and abhorrent weapons, responsible for thousands of civilian deaths,” says John Kearns, CEO of NEI Investments. “The implications of the new cluster munitions act have not been widely discussed in the investment industry, but […] we want to demonstrate how you can exclude these weapons from the entire investment universe.”