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December 9, 2024

National Students’ Union Letter: Calling on the Big 5 Banks to Divest from Fossil Fuels

National Students’ Union Letter: Calling on the Big 5 Banks to Divest from Fossil Fuels

Dear RBC CEO Dave McKay, TD Bank CEO Bharat Masrani, Scotiabank CEO Scott Thomson, BMO CEO Darryl White, and CIBC CEO Victor Dodig,

As representatives of student organizations, we are joining the global call to demand banks divest from fossil fuel projects and thereby stop financing the climate crisis and the violation of Indigenous rights.

RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO, and CIBC — Canada’s “Big 5” banks — are among the top global funders of fossil fuels, having financed over $1.12 trillion CAD in climate-wrecking fossil fuel projects since 2016. This financing includes key loans to the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline and Trans Mountain Pipeline, which do not have consent from and are actively opposed by Indigenous nations, including the Wet’suwet’en, and the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh respectively. 

The Big 5’s support for the fossil fuel industry stands in direct contrast to (1) their own commitments to students, and (2) higher education’s mission to prepare students for their futures. 

As student leaders, we have a responsibility to speak out. 

The Big 5’s investments threaten students’ futures by destabilizing our shared climate. This is not just a long-term threat — students are feeling the impacts of climate change now. Every year, we see deadly temperatures and catastrophic weather events overwhelming the planet.  Floods, fires, and unliveable temperatures not only interfere with students’ learning but are often detrimental to their health and wellbeing. For these reasons, students face alarming rates of anxiety due to concerns about their present and future in a rapidly warming climate. As long as powerful institutions continue to funnel billions of dollars into leading polluters, these problems will only get worse.

Bank investments in fossil fuels also contradict Canada’s commitments to Indigenous peoples as per the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The Coastal Gaslink project faces as much opposition as ever as the company desecrates Wet’suwet’en sacred land, and the RCMP and Coastal Gaslink’s private security continue to surveil and harass land defenders. By financing projects that are opposed by Indigenous rights-holders, the Big 5 are complicit in the criminalization of Indigenous peoples for simply living on their traditional territories. We express our solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs — the recognized title holders of land over which the Coastal Gaslink pipeline route presently passes — who have been defending their territory from the pipeline for a decade and persistently pleading for investors to divest. We support the Squamish Nation, Tsleil Waututh Nation, and Secwepemc Tiny House Warriors, who oppose the Trans Mountain Pipeline, and all land defenders resisting projects on their land without their consent.

While funneling hundreds of billions into fossil fuels on the one hand, the Big 5 have deceitfully crafted an image of being leaders in the path to a sustainable future and trusted allies to youth and students. Students see through these banks’ greenwashing and recognize the deep contradiction in promoting net zero commitments and climate investments while financing the leading cause of the problem. On March 2nd, 2023, students at 11 campuses across the country hosted protests calling on RBC to divest or otherwise be removed from their campuses. We support the student activists who are raising attention to the Big 5’s failure to live up to their convictions. 

This April 2023, RBC held their AGM in Treaty 6 territory in so-called Saskatoon. Indigenous delegates, youth and climate justice organizers traveled to Saskatoon to speak as proxies at the meeting. They were met with violent segregation and policing. RBC refused to take action for climate justice, and continued to greenwash as they doubled-down on their fossil fuel lending and projects that violate Indigenous sovereignty. Similarly, the other Big Banks also neglected to take action on Indigenous rights and fossil financing at their AGM’s this spring. 

This school year we are demanding the Big 5 take the climate crisis and Indigenous rights seriously.

We call on RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO, and CIBC to:

  1. Drop the Coastal Gaslink and Trans Mountain pipelines;
  2. Divest from Fossil Fuels: Immediately divest from fossil fuel expansion projects and phase out support for all fossil fuel projects by 2040;
  3. Respect Indigenous Peoples’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent as per the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People

We know that students are an important client demographic for banks. If these banks want to continue to receive students’ business, they will need to change their policies to reflect our values.

Until the Big 5 meet our demands, we will re-evaluate our partnerships with these banks, including bank accounts, sponsorships, and tenancy agreements, where appropriate, at each of our student organizations.

Sincerely,