A group of A-list celebrities recently signed a letter to City National’s parent company, the Royal Bank of Canada, demanding that they defund the Canada Gas pipeline.
According to Fox News, the open letter pleads with the Royal Bank of Canada to “withdraw support from the Coastal GasLink pipeline, effective immediately” because they are “bankrolling the climate crisis and violating the rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
The signatures include more than 65 famous names. Mark Ruffalo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Stiller, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, and Robert Downey Jr., Josh Gad, Mariska Hargitay, Rooney Mara, Julianne Moore, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Schumer, and Marisa Tomei are among those asking for the bank to withdraw financial support.
When asked why celebrities were speaking on this, Ruffalo said it was because they have a platform and “people listen to us,” according to Canadian news site Global News.
He continued, “We have this privilege and we have to use it for the right thing. None of this matters if our children can’t drink the water, they can’t breathe the air, they can’t go outside, the world burns around them. None of this means anything anymore. We’re becoming desensitized to this insanity that we’re living in.”
The actor is known for taking stances on climate change issues specifically.
“We have a responsibility to each other,” Ruffalo explained during 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.”
Several of those celebrities headed to social media, urging their fans to join in the fight against the pipeline. They used the hashtag #NoMoreDirtyBanks with their posts.
Ruffalo posted a video to YouTube explaining his stance.
“Right now, major banks like the Royal Bank of Canada are financing a fracked gas pipeline bulldozing through the land of the Wet’suwet’en nation in Northern British Columbia, Canada,” the activist actor said. “The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs never consented to this pipeline construction through their terrorities, which would risk the sacred headwaters of the Wedzin Kwa River, but here’s where it gets complicated.”
Ruffalo continued, “The Supreme Court of Canada recognized Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs as rightful title holders of the land, but corporations still get away with consulting only ‘elected leadership’ put in place by the colonial government.”
Thank you to everyone who signed this. The time to defund @CoastalGasLink is now. @RBC must withdraw from the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline now and stop financing fossil fuels. @CityNational Bank must protect its clients and honor their values. https://t.co/JVrCia9bhH
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) March 17, 2022
He also shared on Twitter his thanks for other Hollywood names who signed the letter with him. “Thank you to everyone who signed this. The time to defund @CoastalGasLink is now. @RBC must withdraw from the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline now and stop financing fossil fuels. @CityNational Bank must protect its clients and honor their values,” Ruffalo wrote on Twitter while sharing a link to the Hollywood Reporter article detailing the letter’s contents.
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