#RBCisKillingMe: Stop Funding Fossil Fuels and Respect Indigenous Rights

Across the world, huge financial institutions like RBC are pouring money into expanding tar sands, oil & gas, and coal production with no attention to the human rights of those impacted on the frontlines or the climate destruction these projects will lock in. 

RBC is the biggest funder of fossil fuels in Canada (5th in the world). It has poured over $200 Billion into fossil fuels since the Paris climate agreement was signed. RBC is also financing the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory, as well as countless other human rights violating and climate-wrecking projects worldwide. 

On November 1st, the UN climate conference in Glasgow (COP26) will begin, with a focus on climate finance. This gives us a crucial opportunity to pressure RBC into ceasing to finance fossil fuels and respect Indigenous rights. 

#RBCISKILLINGME is a slogan by the Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders at the Gidim’ten Checkpoint. The bank’s investments, steamrolling through unceded territory, are destroying the Land Defender’s basis of existence. With UNDRIP having been passed into law, the failure to secure free, prior, and informed consent is now illegal.

Following Wet’suwet’en Leadership and Land Defenders in Gidimt’en Checkpoint, as well as participating in a global day of action, Canadian climate activists will shine a spotlight on the planet-killing investments RBC continues to make, and articulate the need for a united front against those who profit from human rights abuses and climate destruction. 

The Land Defenders fighting for their lives and their Yintah (land) Gidimt’en Checkpoint, are Wet’suwet’en from Cas yikh (Grizzly House) Gidimt’en (bear) clan. In the graphic which will be our flag, the bear is taking on RBC’s lion and stopping it as it bites into a burning world. #RBCIsKillingMe is no metaphor. As Land Defenders stave off pipeline development, they fight for the lands that sustain them.

By taking action, you will join us in demanding that Canada’s worst fossil bank, RBC, respect the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples and stop funding fossil fuels immediately.

Register for the Ottawa RBC Day of Action

RBC’s fossil investments are literally killing us, but it doesn’t need to be like this. Movements around the world are uniting to stand up to the power of Big Finance and force them to change. As climate activists, we can help build such a powerful movement in Canada by uniting across regions and cultivating solidarity and ties with Land Defenders to take on the institutions behind climate destruction.

And we’re not just asking them to do the right thing; we’re taking action to shine a spotlight on the more than $200 billion dollars in destructive fossil fuel investments RBC has made since the Paris Accord, and rip away the curtain of their greenwashing so they have nothing to hide behind.