We (students, staff, faculty, & community members) are calling on the UBCO Student Union to (1) speak out against RBC and (2) remove the RBC On Campus branch located on the first floor of the UNC building and replace it with an accessible credit union.  

What's the issue? Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline is being unjustly built through Wet’suwet’en First Nation Territory, and is currently being drilled under the sacred river Wedzin Kwa. Not a single Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief - whose authority and jurisdiction over the use of Wet’suwet’en land has been affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada - has consented to this pipeline project, and majority of Wet’suwet’en people stand in opposition to it, too. 

The CGL pipeline is part of the largest fracking project in Canadian history. When complete, the pipeline will produce 585.5 million pounds of CO2 emissions, every day. Since the start of construction, CGL has been issued over 50 warnings, 17 orders, and 3 fines for environmental violations (including for drilling the pipeline under Wedzin Kwa whilst salmon were still spawning, and for letting massive amounts of sediment flow downstream). 

The construction of this pipeline is in violation of: Wet’suwet’en Law, Federal Law, The Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedom, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Report (TRC), United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and various provincial and federal environmental regulations. 

What is RBC’s role in all this? RBC is the largest fossil fuel investor in Canada, the largest fossil fuel investing bank in the world as of 2022, and, most pertinently: the biggest financier of the CGL pipeline. If RBC removes their investment, construction of the pipeline will stop, and social, environmental, and legal justice for the people of Wet’suwet’en, for the land and animals, and for people in the world who drink water and breathe air, may be regained. 

Theory of change: Banks like RBC rely heavily on young customers. Pushback from universities and their students against RBC’s investment in this unjust pipeline project poses a credible threat to their future business. Active steps are currently being taken to find an alternative bank to replace RBC, ensuring that both domestic and international students may continue to do their banking on campus, with ease. 

The SUO is responsible to its membership, and we as students never consented to having an unethical corporation take up space in our student union building. The SUO must leverage their influence to push RBC to divest from the costly, unsustainable, and colonial CGL Pipeline. Removing RBC from the student union building shall represent an actionable leveraging of this influence. Sign this petition to support this pivotal action, calling on the SUO to speak out against the actions of RBC, and letting the SUO know you support an end to their partnership with the RBC branch on campus.