Did you know Canadian banks are some of the world’s worst for funding climate chaos?
Canadian banks like RBC and TD are major funders of Enbridge, flooding the company with billions to build tar sands pipeline Line 3.
Join us tomorrow for a flash rally with Stop the Money Pipeline to Defund Line 3!
Stop the Money Pipeline is a coalition of 150+ organizations dedicated to stopping the flow of money to the fossil fuel industry.
Stop the Money Pipeline has so far focused on the US banks financing Enbridge and its Line 3 tar sands pipeline – Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Union Bank and Citi. Now STMP is inviting Turtle Island solidarity to take on the Canadian banks together — the Canadian banks who are the top 5 funders of Enbridge: RBC, TD, CIBC, Scotiabank, and Bank of Montreal. Together, we’ll #DefundLine3 (and delay TMX).
The climate finance strategy is working; for example, as enormous pressure is brought to bear on insurance companies like Liberty Mutual, AIG and Chubb to step away from Trans Mountain, the harder insurance is to get, the lower the potential sale price, and the longer it will take to build.
Trans Mountain admitted as much when they petitioned Canada’s Energy Regulator to redact and hide the names of the companies insuring Trans Mountain last week after a series of protests and digital actions targeted the Vancouver offices of some of the companies.
By cutting the flow of money to Enbridge from Canadian banks like RBC and TD, the flow of capital funding construction dries up, delaying construction.
So too will TMX need financing for any potential sale — from the same banks financing Line 3. These banks have increasingly stringent rules on climate disclosure and investor pressure to decarbonize quickly – a “no tar sands investments” rule like the recent cross-industry “no Arctic drilling financing” rule would benefit both movements.
Join Stop the Money Pipeline TOMORROW to help unite the fights and collaborate on tactics with the #DefundLine3 movement.
“If you can stop the flow of money, you can stop the flow of oil.”
Our partners at Stop the Money Pipeline are running full steam to stop the Line 3 tar sands pipeline.
In the last three months, Water Protectors have been putting their bodies on the line to stop the construction of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline on Anishinaabe land in Northern Minnesota.
Facing freezing temperatures they’ve locked themselves inside sections of pipe, blockaded excavators and shut down construction with pianos. And they’re not stopping any time soon – that’s where you come in.
On the frontlines in Northern Minnesota activists are taking almost daily direct action to stop the construction. Water Protectors recently locked themselves inside a section of pipe, blockaded the entrances to construction sites, and locked themselves to trucks being used to carry Line 3 pipeline materials.
This steady direct action resistance forms cracks in the world of profit margins. As we learned at Standing Rock, Indigenous land defense poses a deep reputational risk to the financial institutions profiting from oil pipelines.
Activists all over the world are taking action to support the work on the ground — join the fight against Line 3 and together we can stop this toxic pipeline.
Learn more how you can help at the Stop the Money Pipeline Line 3 action centre.
On January 29 grassroots organizations across the country took to the internet and to the streets – covid safely – to send the message to RBC that its massive funding of fossil fuels is not ok.
XR Quebec took its Leo the Lion mascot to RBC for a demonstration, and supporters went into branches to deliver a copy of a letter from 40 Indigenous women leaders demanding that banks stop financing the tar sands (RBC is the second biggest funder of the tar sands in the world, after TD).
In Toronto, 350 Toronto hung a banner across the busy Gardner Expressway with a RBC logo dripping oil and the message “Fossil Banks No Thanks.”
Over 100 student strikers gathered online for an “action zap,” and also demonstrated at a RBC branch on UBC campus.
Meanwhile, the hashtag #FossilBanksNoThanks got trending, and readers of the Toronto Star were treated to an op-ed by a parent and former RBC customer describing why he switched to a credit union instead.
