RBC Action Toolkit
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
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WET’SUWET’EN HEREDITARY CHIEF’S RESPONSE TO RBC LETTER - A TOOL KIT
DECEMBER 2021
In this toolkit, you will find template emails, shareable graphics, quick links and template social media posts to amplify the response from Gidimt’en Checkpoint What's happening:On October 19th 2021 The Gidimt’en Checkpoint from the Wet’suwet’en Members issued a letter to over 35 Coastal GasLink (CGL) investors and banks in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States. The letter demands investors and banks — including JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, RBC, Scotiabank, BMO, Royal Dutch Shell, and CaixaBank — cease and withdraw all support from Coastal GasLink and LNG Canada and highlights how financing the project violates Indigenous rights and breaks any investor commitments to racial justice, reconciliation, and social responsibility.
RBC sent this response letter on November 8th 2021 back to Gidimt’en Checkpoint leadership. The email response was sent from a basic company email address and was unsigned by RBC leadership.
In their email response they claim “RBC highly values the relationships we have with Indigenous Communities and the unique social, cultural and historic contributions that Indigenous peoples have made in Canada.” We know this to be false and if they really valued these relationships they would not be funding a destructive project that violates Indigenous sovereignty and ravages sacred headwaters through Wet’suwet’en territory.
In their letter they also claim “As stated in our Human Rights Position Statement, we respect the inherent right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination in accordance with international and domestic law.” Recent violence perpetrated on land defenders at the hands of RCMP further demonstrates that RBC does not actually practice what they claim are core values. Help us call out RBC for continuing to perpetuate colonial violence and oppression on Wet’suwet’en people, who have never ceded their right to exclusively use and occupy their territories, they are complicit in this violence by financing Coastal GasLink and TC Energy.
“Reconciliation isn’t financing a project that’s destroying our land, without our consent. Coastal GasLink has not engaged in respectful consultation with us. Backing this project implicates investors in perpetuating violence to our land and on my people,” says Molly Wickham, Gidimt’en, Wet’suwet’en Nation, Hereditary name Sleydo’. “If investors are serious about their commitments to social responsibility and racial justice, they must commit to not financing projects that threaten Wet’suwet’en sovereignty, violate our land and sacrifice our future. Otherwise, when companies talk of reconciliation, it’s just empty promises — and we’ve had more than enough of those already.”
The action that we are currently asking partners to take is amplifying the response letter and targeting RBC
In this toolkit, you will find template emails, shareable graphics, and template social media posts to amplify the response from Gidimt’en Checkpoint
Template Email for your Supporters
Please consider sending this email (or one like it) to your supporter base to help amplify the response letter OR a call to action._____________________________________________________________
Hello { {Name}}
RBC, the largest bank in Canada, is one of the biggest funders of the Coastal Gaslink project – a pipeline that would bring fracked gas to the coast for shipping overseas. For years now, the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have opposed the project, as the pipeline runs through their unceded land.
On October 19th 2021 The Gidimt’en Checkpoint from the Wet’suwet’en Nation issued a letter to over 35 Coastal GasLink (CGL) investors and banks in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States. The letter demands investors and banks — including JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, RBC, Scotiabank, BMO, Royal Dutch Shell, and CaixaBank — cease and withdraw all support from Coastal GasLink and LNG Canada and highlights how financing the project violates Indigenous rights and breaks any investor commitments to racial justice, reconciliation, and social responsibility.
RBC sent this response letter on November 8th 2021 back to Gidimt’en Checkpoint leadership. The email response was sent from a basic company email address and was unsigned by RBC leadership.
In their email response they claim “RBC highly values the relationships we have with Indigenous Communities and the unique social, cultural and historic contributions that Indigenous peoples have made in Canada.” We know this to be false and if they really valued these relationships they would not be funding a destructive project that violates Indigenous sovereignty and ravages sacred headwaters through Wet’suwet’en territory.
In their letter they also claim “As stated in our Human Rights Position Statement, we respect the inherent right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination in accordance with international and domestic law.” Recent violence perpetrated on land defenders at the hands of RCMP further demonstrates that RBC does not actually practice what they claim are core values. Help us call out RBC for continuing to perpetuate colonial violence and oppression on Wet’suwet’en people, who have never ceded their right to exclusively use and occupy their territories, they are complicit in this violence by financing Coastal GasLink and TC Energy.
RBC could stop this violation of Indigenous rights tomorrow, simply by pulling its funding for the Coastal GasLink project. Yet, the Bay Street bank continues to believe that a pipeline transporting fracked gas overseas is more important than averting the climate crisis and respecting Indigenous sovereignty.
Over the past five years, RBC has invested $200 billion in fossil fuel projects. It’s the industry’s biggest banker in Canada… and the fifth largest in the world. But despite its size, a movement is growing across the globe. More and more institutions are quickly realizing that fossil fuels are bad assets. Banks, insurance companies, foundations, universities, and private funds are shifting their money away from fossil fuels.
In order to stop the climate crisis, we need to stop the financing of fossil fuels.
Tell RBC to protect Indigenous rights and pull its money from the controversial Coastal GasLink LNG pipeline.
In Solidarity,
Name
Organization