• Environmental justice

Fossil Fools Day and RBC’s 2024 AGM

• Fossil finance
• Report backs

It was a dreary, rainy Thursday in Etobicoke last week, but hundreds of people still marched up to the Toronto Congress Centre where shareholders were gathered for RBC’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). The crowd outside chanted “Wet’suwet’en solidarity!” and carried signs calling out the bank for acting like a climate criminal.

We also carried with us the support and power of the 42 Fossil Fools Day actions held at RBC branches just days before – dozens of communities who came together to take a stand against the bank’s corporate colonialism and greenwashing.

Inside the AGM, Indigenous and Black Land Defenders and their allies spoke powerfully about RBC’s violations of human and Indigenous rights and reckless investments in fossil fuels.

They were met with tight speaking limits, interruptions, and general disrespect from RBC executives — all part of a wildly transparent effort from RBC to limit criticisms against their climate and human rights record. You can read more about the Land Defenders’ experience inside the AGM here.

Despite RBC’s attempts to quell dissent inside the AGM, the Land Defenders’ message was backed up by the hundreds and thousands who gathered outside the conference centre and outside RBC branches in the days before; and by thousands more who took up the call online.

All together, here’s a snapshot of what we pulled off in the days leading up to the AGM to ramp up the pressure on RBC:

• We sent 2,368 emails to RBC CEO Dave McKay, calling on him to respect Indigenous rights and dump his dirty investments;
• We targeted RBC with hundreds of tweets using the hashtags #PrankTheBanks and #FossilFoolsDay, flooding their social media feeds with our movement’s demands;
• And over a thousand people participated in Fossil Fools Day, showing up to their local RBC branch as part of a coordinated Day of Action in 42 cities and towns, calling on RBC to stop financing fossil fuels and to respect Indigenous sovereignty. Your actions made the national news and definitely caught RBC’s attention!

Our efforts paid off. National and local media coverage of RBC’s AGM emphasized the pressure from Land Defenders and climate activists. From local outlets reporting on Fossil Fools Day actions to major business newspapers like Bloomberg and the Globe & Mail, every story about RBC’s AGM highlighted concerns about Indigenous rights violations and fossil fuel financing. Our movement dominated the AGM.

What’s more, through sustained pressure and negotiations in the lead-up to the AGM, our allies secured key commitments from RBC on both climate and Indigenous rights: one, to include the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent in its human rights statement; and two, to disclose its clean energy financing ratio in climate reports.

Last Thursday’s AGM left RBC on the back foot, scrambling to resuscitate their public image and to win back their shareholders’ trust. We were able to make that happen by showing out in force, in solidarity with Land Defenders and our movement allies, online and in person from coast to coast. And we’ll keep fighting until fossil fuel companies and their financial backers are finally held to account.