Hollywood celebrities call on RBC to stop financing B.C.’s Coastal GasLink project

They are throwing their support behind Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs and other leaders who are calling on the Royal Bank of Canada to withdraw its support.

Dozens of Hollywood celebrities are joining Indigenous leaders calling for big banks to stop funding the Coastal GasLink pipeline in B.C.

Actors Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio are among the celebrities who have signed on to the No More Dirty Banks campaign.

They are throwing their support behind Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and other leaders who are calling on the Royal Bank of Canada to withdraw its support from the northern B.C. pipeline.

According to the organization, RBC has invested more than $160 billion since 2015 to finance tar sands, fossil fuel extraction and transport.

RBC is also the lead financier of Coastal GasLink, the campaign states.

“With RBC as its financial leader, the controversial Coastal Gas Link project has shown a blatant disregard for Wet’suwet’en People, the will of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and the Canadian Supreme Court-recognized sovereignty of the unceded Wet’suwet’en territory,” reads the description on the website.

The campaign is asking RBC to withdraw support for the Coastal GasLink project, particularly as its company, City National Bank has extensive relationships with numerous Hollywood celebrities and companies.

“We have a responsibility to each other,” Ruffalo said in a press conference Wednesday. “And it’s time for good people and privileged people, like us, to do the right thing. To make other people, good people, uncomfortable. That’s the only way we’re going to break through this system of racism and harm.”