RBC Off Campus: National student day of action

While the mainstream media has turned away, Coastal Gaslink continues to desecrate Wet’suwet’en sacred land while RCMP continue to surveil harass land defenders every day. Every day, the Coastal Gaslink pipeline, which cuts Indigenous peoples off from their land and culture and threatens to put us over the edge of climate disaster, comes closer to completion. We can’t let the Wet’suwet’en down. We need to raise the heat on RBC more than ever.

Students groups across 13 campuses held actions and protests against RBCs presence on their campuses and in solidarity with Indigenous land defenders resisting fossil fuel expansion. Actions and protests took place at York University, the University of British Columbia, The University of British Columbia Okanagan, the University of Windsor, Lakehead University, McMaster University, the University of Toronto, the University of Calgary, the University of Ottawa, the University of Waterloo, the University of Alberta and McGill.

We demanded that RBC: 

1. Defund the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline
2. Respect free prior and informed consent of Indigenous nations
3. Divest from fossil fuels
   

We call on our student unions to: 

1. Kick RBC off campus
2. Switch to a credit union
3. Refuse sponsorships from the Big 5 Banks

As students, we have the power to make RBC drop the Coastal Gaslink project. As a critical demographic essential to their future growth, we know they care about what we think of them. That’s why they pour millions a year into our campuses, setting up on campus branches, offering prizes for opening accounts and sponsoring student run events. But we see through their marketing ploys. This is greenwashing, and we will not allow Big Banks that fund climate destruction and colonial violence to pretend to be our friends.

In April, RBC shareholders will come together to choose whether to respect Indigenous rights and align with climate science or to continue fueling colonialism and climate destruction. As students coming together across the country, we will shut down RBC branches across the country to make our demand loud and clear: RBC must defund CGL, respect FPIC and commit to divest from fossil fuels NOW. We call on our schools and student unions to stand up for climate and Indigenous sovereignty and kick RBC off our campus.

Read more: 

• CP24: Protest held at U of T against RBC
• The Varsity: Student sit-in forces closure of RBC branch inside UTSU Student Commons
• The Ubyssey: ‘RBC off campus’: Climate Justice UBC holds rally against RBC on campus
• CBC: Lakehead University students demand school cut ties with RBC for funding fossil fuel projects
• CTV: University of Windsor students join countrywide RBC protests
• TB News: VIDEO: LU students protest RBC fossil fuel financing
• Eagle Valley News: UBC Okanagan students join in nationwide protest against RBC