27 banks are funding a fracked gas pipeline through the heart of Wet’suwet’en land.
Right now in British Columbia, Canada, Indigenous Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and land defenders are resisting the construction of the controversial Coastal GasLink pipeline slated to cut through their territories.
On Wednesday, February 9, over 155 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) representing millions of members released a letter to the 27 banks financing the Coastal GasLink pipeline — a 670 kilometre fracked gas pipeline proposed through Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia, Canada — calling on the banks to divest and withdraw all financial support for this project on human rights, environmental, and climate grounds.
The letter urges the 27 banks, including top financier RBC, to align financing of infrastructure projects with human rights and climate considerations, including:
(1) Meet with Wet’suwet’en hereditary leadership to discuss their concerns, recent rights violations, and requests for an end to construction of the pipeline
(2) End financing of the Coastal GasLink project.
Gidimt’en Checkpoint is a reoccupation site of Cas Yikh (Grizzly Bear House) territory where Wet’suwet’en people are asserting their jurisdiction over their unceded land. Gidimt’en Checkpoint is seeking a meeting with the banks financing the Coastal GasLink pipeline and calling on them to cut off their financing and financial service relationship.
“Reconciliation isn’t financing a project that’s destroying our land, without our consent. Coastal GasLink has not engaged in respectful consultation with us. Backing this project implicates investors in perpetuating violence to our land and on my people,” says Molly Wickham, Gidimt’en, Wet’suwet’en Nation, Hereditary name Sleydo’. “If investors are serious about their commitments to social responsibility and racial justice, they must commit to not financing projects that threaten Wet’suwet’en sovereignty, violate our land and sacrifice our future. Otherwise, when companies talk of reconciliation, it’s just empty promises — and we’ve had more than enough of those already.”
The Coastal Gaslink pipeline and associated LNG terminal is the largest private fracked gas investment in Canadian history. The Wet’suwet’en nation has been resisting the construction of the fracked gas pipeline on their territories for more than a decade, and the hereditary chiefs of all five Wet’suwet’en clans have refused to give their consent to the project.
In November, as the southern half of British Columbia reeled from catastrophic rains and flooding, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) invaded Wet’suwet’en land and violently removed Wet’suwet’en land defenders and accredited journalists opposing the construction of the project. 32 people were arrested. These actions were decried by many, including Amnesty International and the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.
The financiers of this project, including the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), can stop these human rights violations immediately by pulling their funding.
