Take one minute and write to Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) officials, President McKay, CFO Ahn, and Chair of the Board  Côté.

Let RBC know that we continue to insist they break relations with Palantir and other companies complicit with war crimes and genocide.

Stand in solidarity with the Gidimt’en Checkpoint, and call for the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) to defund Coastal GasLink.

Palantir provides Artificial Intelligence (AI) predictive systems to Israeli security forces, to identify people in occupied Palestine.

Palantir provides the same mass surveillance tools to law enforcement agencies and police departments, circumventing warrant procedures giving police access to vast amounts of information about individuals.

The use of law enforcement databases, gathered from the Israeli military, skews the predictive power of the AI analysis to focus upon the types, locations, and Palestinians currently in the database. Human rights organizations deplore this type of policing. In Canada, the way these data bases are constructed makes them unlawful.

RBC made these investments despite the controversy surrounding the September 2020 direct listing of PTI on the New York Stock Exchange. Palantir was criticized in the financial press for an unusual corporate governance structure.

RBC also has investments in Elbit, and the Royal Bank donated money to Israel/UJA after Oct. 7, 2023. According to Bank Track, RBC has investments in settlements. Also, investment indices include companies listed on the UN database.

RBC has $500M invested in companies on the UN database of companies complicit with war crimes. In addition, RBC has investments in ten other companies based on its last 13F-HR filing, that amount to over $16B investment in other companies identified in Canada's arming of Israel. Companies include General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, as well. These are in addition to the RBC support of Palantir.

Meanwhile RBC is financing Coastal GasLink

For years, Coastal GasLink – a pipeline that would transport fracked gas from northeast BC to Pacific transport ships – has been opposed by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs on their traditional land.

Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have been recognized by the Canadian and BC governments as having rights on the Yintah (traditional land). Yet they still face heavily militarized RCMP officers with machine guns and sniper rifles who violently arrested land defenders, elders, and journalists.

Fossil Fools Day is coming up on April 6th: join actions across the country targeting RBC to divest from the CGL pipeline violating Wet'suwet'en rights and companies arming Israel, such as Palantir. If you're near Toronto, join the rally targeting RBC's AGM on April 11th—stand in solidarity with the Indigenous delegation attending! Find these events and RSVP here: https://you.leadnow.ca/calendars/fossil-fools-day or make plans for your own event!