Two dozen protesters waved signs emblazoned with Rich Uncle Pennybags and chanted anti-Kinder Morgan slogans outside TD Bank in Sechelt as part of a weekend bank protest blitz involving nine TD Banks in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
“We are regular people who want a green environment for our children, our grandchildren,” said Bozena Whibbs, who co-organized the Sechelt event with her husband, Fred Whibbs.
Protesters urged TD Bank to divest from the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project, which will increase the amount of oil and gas running from Alberta to B.C.’s coast. With $731 million committed, TD Bank is spending the most of the project’s 26 participating banks.
“They pat themselves on the back with all the green initiatives they are doing and then they go ahead and fund Kinder Morgan,” said Fred Whibbs.
The bulk of TD Bank’s financing is based on personal and residential lending, with 6.5 per cent involving “environmentally and socially sensitive industries,” such as oil and gas, mining and forestry.
So far, the group has not received any direct response from the bank. “We’re not telling people to not go to the bank,” said Fred Whibbs, who is a client of the Sechelt branch along with his wife. “We’re basically telling the bank itself to divest themselves of the loans that they have put forward to Kinder Morgan.”
TD responded to Coast Reporter. In a statement the bank said, “TD respects the rights of people who wish to voice their opinions in peaceful protest. We understand and appreciate the diverse views Canadians have about energy development, and are participating in the discussion because it is an important dialogue that affects Canada’s future.” It also pointed to last year’s announcement that it has set a target of $100 billion in low-carbon lending, financing, and asset management by 2030.
While the Whibbs spent a week organizing the Sechelt protest, TD Bank divestment protests have been occurring each month for a year, said Thomas Davies, an organizer with Vancouver activist group Climate Convergence Coalition, which is spearheading the TD Bank divestment movement in the B.C.
He said the strategy is inspired by similar actions in Seattle. In February, city councillors voted to end a contract with Wells Fargo over its involvement with the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“We thought it was important to highlight TD Bank’s role in this,” Davies said. “One of the banks we visited is at the foot of Burnaby Mountain, blocks away from [Kinder Morgan’s] marine loading facility. The patrons and staff are in direct risk of the pipeline and of the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s facilities in their neighbourhood.”
Anti-Kinder Morgan protests – and arrests – have been ramping up lately, with more than 170 demonstrators arrested on Burnaby Mountain last week, including Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.
Burnaby Mountain and TD Bank branches aren’t the only protest sites. Last Friday, more than 60 people, half of them from the Sunshine Coast, protested outside the constituency office of Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky, in Horseshoe Bay. They expressed concern that increased tanker traffic threatens marine life in coastal waters.
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