The tar sands in Alberta are the most environmentally destructive and unsustainable source of oil in the world today. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) (Canada's largest and most profitable bank) is the leading financier of the tar sands. This mega-project is threatening worldwide progress toward curbing the growing climate crisis. It also robs First Nations communities of their health and culture by poisoning the nearby Athabasca River, and by turning critical wetlands and once-pristine stretches of Canada's vast boreal forest into desolate landscapes, marred by sprawling open-pit mines. We cannot allow RBC to bankroll and profit from this devastation and injustice.

The University of Western Ontario (UWO) can help to end those tar sands operations by cutting all financial ties with RBC. In the meantime, UWO's ongoing business relationships with RBC are unethical and unacceptable.

We, the signatories of this petition, call on both the UWO and the University Students Council at UWO to adopt a policy of refusing to invest in or do any business with RBC, unless RBC ceases all financing of tar sands projects, while compensating the affected communities for any economic, health, or cultural harm caused by those projects.

Our specific demands are as follows:

UWO
*   We call on the UWO Senate to adopt a resolution to insist that Western’s endowment funds will not be invested in RBC or any of its subsidiaries -- unless and until RBC stops financing tar sands projects.
*   While these tar sands investments continue, we call on UWO and the University Students Council to remove all ATMs owned by RBC from the Western Campus.
*   We demand that UWO return RBC’s money and fund the Economic Policy Research Institute and service learning program in a manner that is consistent with environmental justice.

RBC
*   We demand that RBC withdraw financing for all tar sands projects.
*   We demand that RBC pay reparations to all First Nations communities negatively impacted by tar sands projects.