Two jurors for the prestigious Giller Prize resigned weeks before the award severed ties with its lead sponsor, Scotiabank.
Canadian authors Jordan Abel and Aaron Tucker stepped down from the five-member jury for ethical reasons just days after being named to the panel for the $100,000 fiction prize.
Giller executive director Elana Rabinovitch declined to confirm whether the resignations or ongoing protests influenced the early termination of the Giller’s long-standing partnership with Scotiabank, stating only via email, “I wish them well.”
The Giller Foundation has faced mounting pressure since November 2023 to drop three sponsors over their ties to Israel, particularly a Scotiabank subsidiary’s investment in Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.
Abel and Tucker were discreetly removed from the juror list on the Giller website sometime between their Jan. 15 announcement and Monday’s news of the Scotiabank split.
In a statement, Tucker said he initially believed he could “tolerate” the Giller’s funding structure for the sake of supporting writers but later reconsidered.
“As I read more and learned more and listened more, I found myself unable to continue as a jury member. I should have taken the time to do this before I said yes, and not rushed naively into my choice,” said Tucker, an author of seven books, including Y: Oppenheimer, Horseman of Los Alamos.
Abel, a Nisga’a writer and recent Governor General’s Literary Award winner for Empty Spaces, confirmed that neither he nor Tucker plans to return to the jury, despite the Scotiabank partnership’s dissolution.
The remaining jurors—Dionne Irving, Loghan Paylor, and Deepa Rajagopalan—are all recent Giller finalists.
Many authors and literary professionals have joined a boycott of the Giller Prize, vowing to withhold submissions or participation until the award also severs ties with Indigo Books and the Azrieli Foundation.
Protesters oppose Indigo’s sponsorship due to its CEO’s charity supporting Israeli Defense Force officers from abroad, as well as the Azrieli Foundation’s link to Israeli real estate firm Azrieli Group, which has a stake in Bank Leumi. The UN Human Rights Office has listed Bank Leumi among businesses involved in settlement-related activities in occupied Palestinian territory.
The initial protests erupted at the 2023 Giller ceremony, just a month after Israel declared war on Hamas following a deadly attack in which the militant group kidnapped multiple Israelis. Israel reports 1,200 people were killed in the attack.
Gaza’s health ministry states that more than 46,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, have been killed in the subsequent bombardment.
Source: Swifteradio.com
