Connecting the dots
Connecting the dots: Coastal GasLink & Royal Bank of Canada’s corporate colonialism
Exactly one week before RBC’S annual shareholder meeting in Saskatoon, a large force of RCMP C-IRG raided a Gidimt’en village site and arrested five land and water defenders, mostly Indigenous women, including Chief Woos’ daughter.
On behalf of the RBC-financed Coastal GasLink pipeline, the raid accompanied a search warrant for theft under $5000 with no clear relation to the Gidimt’en village site. This comes weeks after the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) announced the initiation of “a systemic investigation into the activities and operations of the RCMP "E" Division Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).”
As the primary financier of Coastal GasLink, RBC continues to fund projects in Canada and around the world that lack free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples, and destroying lands from British Columbia, to Central America, East Africa and beyond.
In the days leading to this police action, RCMP C-IRG were found patrolling Wet’suwet’en traplines and cultural use areas, harassing and intimidating Wet’suwet’en members and disrupting our constitutionally protected cultural activities. Members of a private security firm hired by Coastal Gaslink pipeline, Forsythe, have also escalated harassment and surveillance efforts against Wet’suwet’en members in recent days.
Both the RCMP’s C-IRG unit and Forsythe private security are named as defendants in an ongoing lawsuit by Wet’suwet’en members, alleging a coordinated campaign of harassment and intimidation by police and private security attempting to force Wet’suwet’en people to abandon our unceded territories.
RBC is funding corporate colonialism & displacing Indigenous peoples from lands at gunpoint for fracked gas pipelines we cannot afford now or in the future.
This comes on the heels of more than 40 actions from coast-to-coast in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en at RBC branches including in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Montréal, Moncton, Halifax, and more.
On Tuesday April 4, we will gather for an evening panel discussion: “Who is financing the destruction of our lands?” We will come together to highlight RBC-financed fossil fuel projects around the world, and connect the dots of this corporate colonialism.
Then, on April 5, hundreds of Indigenous water protectors, young people, and allies will rally in Saskatoon at RBC’s annual general meeting (AGM) today with a clear message: stop bankrolling Indigenous rights-violations, and divest from fossil-fueled climate chaos.
This harassment and intimidation is exactly the kind of violence designed to drive Indigenous land defenders from our homelands. The Coastal GasLink colonial project continues at the hands of industry’s private mercenaries–C-IRG.
RBC is dragging us backwards, endangering our culture and Wedzin Kwa on its path of destruction. In fact, the bank financed over CAD $10.8 billion of companies involved in fossil fuel expansion 2022 alone, a 45% increase over 2021 levels. This directly contradicts international climate agreements and RBC’s own public pledges.
RBC has the ability to act, but instead is doubling down on enabling fossil-fueled fires and floods, focusing on short-term profits at the expense of our collective future.
This is part of a rising global trend of shareholder resolutions for Indigenous Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and climate action. RBC must stop financing fossil fuel expansion, stop supporting Coastal GasLink & reinvest in climate-safe solutions while embracing the legal principle of free, prior and informed consent.
Follow along on Wednesday, April 5 via #RBCrevealed #ShareholderShowdown #AllOutForWedzinKwa