TORONTO — Two Giller Prize jurors withdrew from their positions in the weeks leading up to the literary award's split from its lead sponsor Scotiabank.
Canadian authors Jordan Abel and Aaron Tucker say they dropped out for ethical reasons days after being named to the five-member jury for the $100,000 fiction prize.
Executive director Elana Rabinovitch did not say whether the resignations or ongoing protests had anything to do with an early end to the Giller's decades-long partnership with Scotiabank, only saying of the departures by email: "I wish them well."
The Giller Foundation has faced sustained pressure since November 2023 to cut three of its sponsors over their relationships with Israel, most notably a Scotiabank subsidiary's investment in Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.
Abel and Tucker were quietly removed from a list of jurors on the Giller website sometime between their announcement Jan. 15 and news of the split with Scotiabank on Monday.
In an emailed statement, Tucker said he was never fully on board with the Giller's funding, but initially thought it was something he could "tolerate" for the sake of uplifting writers.
"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 the novel "Y: Oppenheimer, Horseman of Los Alamos."
Both Tucker and Abel — a Nisga'a writer who most recently won the Governor General's Literary Award for his novel "Empty Spaces" — say they have no plans to return to the Giller jury, despite the end of the partnership with Scotiabank.
The remaining jurors are Dionne Irving, Loghan Paylor and Deepa Rajagopalan, who are all recent Giller finalists.
Many authors and other workers in the books sector have joined a boycott of the Giller, saying they won't submit their works or engage with the prize until the award also severs ties with sponsors Indigo Books and the Azrieli Foundation.
Protesters object to the Giller's partnerships with Indigo for its CEO's charity that supports Israeli Defense Force officers from abroad, as well as the Azrieli Foundation, in part for its connection to Israeli real estate company Azrieli Group, which has a stake in Bank Leumi. The United Nations Human Rights Office has included Bank Leumi on a list of businesses involved in activities relating to settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The initial protests at the 2023 ceremony came just a month after Israel declared war on Hamas over an attack in which the militant group kidnapped scores of Israelis. Israel says 1,200 people were killed in Hamas' initial attack.
Gaza's health ministry says more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent bombardment, many of them women and children.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 4, 2025.
Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press
