This Business Does NOT Advance Human Rights!!
Boycott MEC Now
A year and a half ago, it was discovered that Mountain Equipment Coop, headquartered in Vancouver, was carrying Israeli products and even partnering with an Israeli company, Source Vagabond, that brags of its connections with the Israeli military. Concerned activists across Canada tried in vain to convince both MEC leadership and those attending the 2009 Annual General Meeting to stop carrying these offensive products. There were meetings with the CEO and other officers, letters and emails, and a vibrant campaign around a resolution introduced at the 2009 AGM. However, none of these efforts were successful in convincing MEC to halt their ties with Israeli companies and MEC management reportedly even played an active role in defeating the resolution to not carry Israeli products. All of this, despite their pronounced commitment to ethical business dealings that “can advance human rights”.
And recently, to add insult to injury, MEC leadership introduced several special procedural resolutions for the 2010 AGM that would make it much more difficult to highlight the legitimate debate and criticism brought to the previous AGM. These special resolutions were regrettably passed and so now, MEC has the distinction of not only being complicit in supporting Israeli military war crimes and apartheid, but also adopting bureaucratic and anti-democratic means to squash further debate. Most of the activist campaign so far has been directed towards calling on MEC members to express their disapproval over the handling of Israeli products and, of course, to not purchase them. However, we feel the time has come to call for a boycott of MEC as a company that has shown it is neither ethical nor cooperative nor democratic. Please read the statement below put out by Canada Palestine Association, ask your organization and friends to endorse it and email your endorsement to [email protected] for inclusion on our website. Then inform MEC of your position by emailing [email protected] and their CEO at [email protected]. Lets tell MEC that consumers in Canada do not need hydration systems from a company whose products are “field-tested” and used by the Israeli military, very likely in the assaults on Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Tell MEC this kind of business does not advance human rights and we will have no part of it.
The Canada Palestine Association in Vancouver, BC calls upon all Palestine solidarity organizations and all those who support Palestinian human rights in Vancouver and Canada to focus their efforts on imposing a general boycott on Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC). Despite efforts to engage in constructive dialogue on various occasions, MEC has refused to divest from Israeli products. Within the framework of International Humanitarian Law, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all relevant international conventions, the Canada Palestine Association:
- Considers importing products manufactured in factories that have ties with the Israeli state or any of its instruments such as the “Israeli Defense Forces” as morally abhorrent and detrimental to efforts to uphold Palestinian human rights, and
- Calls upon all Palestine solidarity organizations and individual supporters of Palestinian human rights to impose a general boycott on Mountain Equipment Coop until it cuts all ties with Israel.