[R-G] Oil and water don't mix at RBC

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090309.WBnobodysbusiness20090309195849/WBStory/WBnobodysbusiness

Oil and water don't mix at RBC

Patricia Best, today at 7:58 PM EDT


At Royal Bank of Canada's annual meeting in Vancouver recently,  
executives faced more than grumblings from depressed shareholders and  
unhappy customers. A group of environmental and native activists made  
their way into the meeting to question the bank's involvement with oil  
sands development. The Rainforest Action Network (RAN), with offices  
in Edmonton and San Francisco, also staged a demonstration outside the  
annual meeting – and, at the same time, another one at RBC's Toronto  
headquarters.

The activists say the bank's status as a prominent Olympics sponsor  
and its 10-year, $50-million Blue Water philanthropic program (which  
funds fresh-water projects internationally) is incompatible with its  
role as a top financier of the Alberta oil sands, which many believe  
is a significant source of water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Three activists inside the meeting room took the opportunity during a  
question-and-answer session to make statements about this. One, Melina  
Laboucan-Massimo, who is a member of the Lubicon Cree Nation, said in  
a statement after the meeting: “If RBC is serious about supporting  
clean water, why are they financing projects that are contaminating  
the lakes and rivers around my community?” Her band is fighting a  
TransCanada pipeline to the oil sands through its territory.

Two other RAN representatives in the meeting asked RBC chief executive  
officer Gordon Nixon to come to Fort Chipewyan, in northern Alberta, a  
community affected by oil sands pollution, to see the situation for  
himself. At first, Mr. Nixon ignored the request. But when pressed a  
second time, he told them that while he wouldn't promise anything, he  
would consider it.