Around fifty people demonstrated on Saturday in front of the head office of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), in downtown Montreal, to criticize its investments in fossil fuels.
The event began with a series of speeches and was to conclude with a walk of approximately 20 minutes through the city center.
The rally was one of several to be held across Canada on Saturday.
These events are part of a series of actions by the organizers, who describe themselves as a “multi-generational and multi-racial movement”, which must culminate in a demonstration in front of the premises hosting the RBC Annual General Meeting in Toronto , on April 11.
“This multi-day campaign will draw attention to the fact that RBC is fueling the climate crisis and directly financing violence committed across the world against Indigenous Peoples, from Turtle Island to Palestine , passing through the Gulf Coast, the Amazon and beyond,” the organizers said in a press release.
For 2022 alone, RBC would have injected $38 billion into fossil fuels, which would place it first among all Canadian banks in this area, they say.
RBC President and CEO Dave McKay recently indicated that the bank plans to disclose the ratio of its clean energy financing to its fossil fuel financing in its next climate report.
BloombergNEF calculated in its latest report that RBC provided $0.37 in clean energy financing for every dollar spent on fossil fuels.
With The Canadian Press