Climate activists’ next battle will be for individual board seats

The group of three hereditary chiefs from the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in British Columbia had traveled across the country 2,700 miles (4,345 km) to Toronto. They had come to the Royal Bank of Canada headquarters hoping for an improvement in the bank’s climate policy. Instead, they got what they called an insult from its CEO.

RBC’s annual shareholder meeting, on April 7, was changed from in-person to online-only at the last minute, so the chiefs hung out in front of the office and dialed in. One by one, they asked CEO David McKay about the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, a 416-mile (670-km) project that will run through Wet’suwet’en land, and that of at least 19 other First Nations. Chief Na’Moks John Ridsdale and his peers voiced concerns about impacts on water quality and wildlife, the risk of spills, and the threat of global climate change. RBC, the world’s fifth-greatest lender to fossil fuel projects, is financing the pipeline.

McKay’s response was that the bank only takes on projects it deems environmentally responsible, and that the pipeline “meets the obligations of free and prior informed consent of First Nations.”

“Our jaws were literally laying on the floor,” said Sleydo’, a spokesperson for the chiefs. “We couldn’t comprehend that he was trying to tell our chiefs that he had their consent.”