Photo: Protest organizer, Kim Delagran (left) and Karen Harris (right), a member of the group, were chanting and singing at Saturday’s Climate Action Muskoka protest. The group was taking part in a national protest against the Royal Bank of Canada’s investments in fossil fuels and the ongoing infringement of Indigenous sovereignty. (Photo: by Danielle McPherson).
By Danielle McPherson
Protesters with Climate Action Muskoka joined movements across the country targeting RBC for its investments in fossil fuels and what they say is the ongoing violation of Indigenous sovereignty.
On Saturday, April 1, 2023, a rally took place in front of the RBC branch in Huntsville. It was one of approximately 30 across Canada in support of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs in northern BC who are opposing the construction of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline.
The project involves a pipeline spanning approximately 670 kilometres. From Dawson Creek, the pipeline’s route crosses through the Canadian Rockies and other mountain ranges to Kitimat, where the gas will be exported to Asian customers.
The RCMP special unit created to protect industrial projects has been criminalizing the Wet’suwet’en people for trying to protect their land and waters, said the protesters. Wednesday the RCMP unit arrested five people in the village.
RBC is behind the funding of the CGL pipeline and many other fossil fuel projects around the world. It is the fifth-largest investor in fossil fuels in the world and the largest in Canada.
“We are tired of RBC ignoring indigenous people’s rights. We are tired of RBC being the largest investor in gas and oil… we don’t need more oil and gas infrastructure,” said rally organizer Kim Delgran.
He added that RBC branches should be expecting more resistance from Canadians.
Karen Harris, one of the protestors who attended Saturday’s rally, encouraged people to look at alternative banks and to see where their money is being invested. “Take your money out of RBC, that’s exactly where they get it to fund gas. They fund both the expansion of existing projects and new ones,” said Harris.
While small in numbers, the protesters made their presence well known with cheers and a megaphone. Occasionally, you could also hear beeps of support from those who drove by, and from others, not so much.
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Mr. Cockram is correct.
Climate Action Muskoka is comprised of unserious and misinformed individuals. Climate Doomers who are members of the Cult of Climate Catastrophe are not serious thinkers and their ideologically driven opinions are without merit.
CAM unwittingly advocates anti-growth, pro-poverty, pro-starvation policies. They know not of what they speak.
The world, particularly the poor, developing world, needs oil, gas, plastics, ammonia, concrete etc. (i.e. all the things that the West has enjoyed for centuries and has allowed us to become wealthy and prosperous) to climb out of poverty and subsistence living.
Organizations like CAM want the developed world to take a gigantic step backwards in our quality of life and they want the developing world to never experience the quality of life that we take for granted in the West.
The world would starve without natural gas. Why? Because you need gas to make ammonia and you need ammonia to make fertilizer and you need fertilizer to feed the planet.
The computer I’m typing on and the pickup trucks the members of CAM own are loaded with plastics made from fossil fuels.
The list goes on and on.
Global energy demand is growing rapidly. The notion that this demand can be met with unreliable, expensive and less-dense forms of energy is as absurd as it is incorrect.
Canada could be 100% carbon neutral and it wouldn’t make a jot of difference to worldwide climate trends.
If these people were serious, rather than just grandstanding, they’d be calling for a multilateral agreement between the major carbon producers, of which Canada isn’t one.
Yes. Let’s watch the RBC follow in the footsteps of SVB. We don’t need the 97,000 jobs. Trust the left to come up with kooky ideas.
Royal Bank of Canada RBC use of Canadian customers money to fund many fossil fuels and the pipeline to Kitimat through Indigenous peoples lands is unethical, amoral and racist. The RCMP are criminalizing the right to protest on indigenous people’s own land.They arrested 5 people in their village for what is a constitutional Canadian right. This bank is behind the entire financing of the pipeline to the tune of over five hundred million. A national protest is a right, and the future of our children is at stake literally. I wonder if these white men don’t have children and grand children. The disrespect and greed they have shown our Indigenous people by stealing their lands again and again and again with the governments ok is hard to fathom.The banks have traditionally if you look at history wreaked havoc on people’s homes in 2008 in the USA meltdown over the selling of mortgages that were not affordable and millions of people lost their homes.Not one of those greedy, unethical bankers went to prison.They actually ended up richer because they rented the homes of people they had evicted.Thats what banks do. Governments in the USA have started talking about making these bankers responsible with the latest bank fiasco this year.Talk is cheap, action is needed to stop these greedy amoral men. Not just firing them they will just move to another CEO position at another corporation. Prison time is the only deterrent for sociopathic, greedy types. Asking them to do the right thing is a joke. The world economies almost crashed in 2008.The economists this year had similar concerns about banks that shut down irresponsible choices.The economies of our world are precarious right now. Another recession is almost a certainty and sadly probably a depression.Look at history again for ww2 and the great depression.The parallels are strikingly similar.Greedy types who get away with irresponsible bad choices that they are not held accountable for will never stop.The banks have brought down the world economies . The banks are funding fossil fuels and pipelines that are strongly helping the destruction of our planet and our children’s futures.
These protestors look ridiculous.
The people who go to work everyday at one of the big bank’s retail locations have no say or influence in what the institution chooses to finance.
Moreover, I know firsthand that members of this group own large pickup trucks.
The hypocrisy, the hypocrisy.