This spring, Jocey Alec, a Wet’suwet’en land defender and daughter of Dinï ze’ (Hereditary Chief) Woos, travelled to Toronto to voice concerns to leaders of Canada’s largest bank, which financed a pipeline running directly through her territory. She was allowed to speak for 11 seconds.It was three years after armed police raided Wet’suwet’en territory, enforcing a court-ordered civil injunction against anyone impeding construction of the pipeline, called Coastal GasLink, which will carry fossil fuels from northeast British Columbia across Indigenous territories to the coast.The pipeline was made possible with the help of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), which acted as the “exclusive financial advisor” to TC Energy, the company behind the pipeline’s construction. As “global lead coordinating arranger,” the bank also helped arrange loans for project construction financing.Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs fiercely opposed Coastal GasLink running through their unceded territory without their consent, while at the same time, five of six elected Wet’suwet’en band councils supported the project and signed agreements with the pipeline company and the B.C. government. The pipeline’s construction was finished last winter.
Source: RBC on defensive over fossil fuel critiques | The Narwhal
