On April 7th, Melina Loboucan-Massimo spoke at RBC’s AGM. Later, she joined a press conference alongside Wet’suwet’en Hereditary chiefs and Sleydo’ (Molly Wickam). Below is Melina’s statement in full:

“Good morning. My name is Melina Laboucan-Massimo. I am Lubicon Cree born into my community which is in the heart of the tar sands.

On paper, your bank has impressive-sounding policies on sustainability and respect for Indigenous rights. But I would like to quickly share the experience of how RBC investments have had quite the opposite effect with detrimental impacts.

For years, RBC has fuelled the climate emergency by heavily financing fossil fuels. I first spoke about the impacts of tar sands extraction in our homelands at the RBC AGM in 2009 and instead of listening - RBC has continued to cause immeasurable harm.

Within my lifetime, my community went from living in a thriving ecosystem (being able to drink clean water and breathe clean air) to instead being surrounded by immense environmental degradation.

My community and many other Indigenous communities have been forced to live in a fossil fuel impact zone where we repeatedly experience oil & gas spills, as well as toxic contamination from tar sands and fracking.

The area of destruction we are talking about in the tar sands is equal to creating an industrial wasteland the size of the state of Florida and is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. And why Canada has repeatedly failed to meet its international climate commitments and adequately reduce its emissions.

By funding tar sands projects, RBC continues to play a lead role in making this devastation possible.

By poisoning our air, land, and water - fossil fuel extraction threatens the very survival of Indigenous peoples and our planet is now at a tipping point. 2050 is NOT soon enough to act on climate. And net zero technologies like carbon capture and storage remain unproven.

RBC is leading those banks as the #1 funder of fossil fuels in Canada, and the 5th largest funder of fossil fuels globally.

What RBC is financing is not just numbers in a spreadsheet or dollars in a bank account. These are our lives that hang in the balance and our climate at stake.

RBC is financing cultural and environmental genocide. This is why over the years, First Nations in the tar sands have sought legal action against tar sands projects which poses a risk to RBC and its investments.

Dave McKay in your Globe and Mail op-ed, you said, and I quote, “We are not tackling climate change fast enough to succeed.” Why then is RBC actively harming our chances of success to adequately address the climate crisis - by doubling down on fossil fuel financing?

Will RBC commit to ending their continued financing of tar sands projects in hopes of adequately addressing the climate crisis?”

Despite public climate commitments, Indigenous reconciliation statements, and net-zero rhetoric, RBC has doubled down on fossil fuel financing. Canada’s major banks have increased their tar sands financing by 51% to $30.7 billion CAD over the past 2 years, with RBC leading the pack.
Read more on the #NoMoreDirtyBanks campaign here.