TD Bank has poured $157 billion CAD into the fossil fuel industry between the Paris Climate Accord in 2016 and 2021. This is unacceptable.
The projects that TD Bank finances, including Enbridge's Line 3 and TC’s Coastal Gaslink pipeline, fuel climate destruction, violate Indigenous land and treaty rights, and threaten our collective future. The Line 3 and Coastal Gaslink pipelines do not have consent from the Indigenous communities they cross. Indigenous land defenders are actively resisting these projects.
We at AMUSE believe labour unions have a responsibility and obligation to stand with First Nation, Inuit and Metis communities as well as continuously recognizing our shared goals against capitalist exploitation. We denounce the forced exploitation of unceded Indigenous lands and the criminalization of Indigenous land defenders. Our parent union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), has been working to protect and defend the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and abroad for decades. The union’s Indigenous members work together to strengthen the labour movement’s commitment to Indigenous Peoples' rights through research, education, awareness raising and advocacy. Just this past June, PSAC organized a panel to discuss “decolonization in the labour community and what steps members can take to support decolonization and indigenization of ourselves and our union.” That same month, PSAC launched, in collaboration with Indigenous communities and in the spirit of reconciliation, their second campaign to demand safe, clean, water for all. The campaign, Still Thirsty for Justice, denounces how hundreds of communities across so-called Canada, most of which are Indigenous communities, have been robbed of access to safe, clean water due to corporate pollution, inadequate filtration and repair, and environmental factors. PSAC has also long recognized the climate crisis, and has been actively fighting for climate action and a just transition to a zero-carbon economy. TD’s current investments are undermining the very things AMUSE and PSAC have been working for, and it thus seems inappropriate for us to keep banking with them in these conditions.
On April 4th, 2023, AMUSE plans to close our account with TD bank and transfer our assets to an account with another institution that better aligns their funding practices with the promise of a safe future and respect for human rights, workers rights and Indigenous sovereignty.
We encourage all AMUSE members who are also TD customers to do the same. You can find resources on how to close your account on the Banking on a Better Future website. For ideas of what to say when closing your account, consult this action toolkit: TD AGM Action Toolkit