Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs Accuse RBC of Segregating Indigenous Attendees into Secondary Room at Annual General Meeting

A delegation of Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs are accusing the Royal Bank of Canada of segregating attendees at their Annual General Meeting.

Despite receiving the required proxies prior to the meeting, the delegation says they were denied entry to the AGM’s main room.

They say that they, along with other Indigenous and Black attendees, were separated into a secondary room during yesterday’s event.

From there, they say they were unable to speak with CEO Dave McKay face-to-face.

RBC is the primary funder of the Coastal GasLink pipeline which runs through Wet’suwet’en territory and has not received the Chiefs’ consent.

By attending the AGM, they had hoped to convince RBC to respect their title rights and to stop funding fossil fuels projects.

A pair of shareholder proposals also asked the bank to end the funding, and to operationalize free, prior, and informed consent from First Nations.

But RBC suggested shareholders vote against both of those proposals.

In an e-mailed response, RBC says attendees were sent to the second room only because the first was full, and that all attendees had a chance to speak.

According to the bank, all attendees who came to speak to a shareholder proposal were given a seat in the main room, regardless of arrival time.

They say that all attendees were treated fairly, and that members of other Indigenous communities were among attendees in the main room.

RBC is also denying allegations that they attempted to have the delegates arrested, and that they threatened violence against them.